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

by Coltsguy

Down The Rabbit Hole and Back Again

The light started to fade from my vision and I looked around to see where I was. It didn't take long.

"I see you were successful on your first excursion, Seth," I heard Celestia say.

It was the plains of Appleloosa right where I had left from. The princesses were still right where I had left them before setting off to find Applejack. Other than the royal guards having moved around to a defensive perimeter, nothing seemed to have really changed.

"Quite successful indeed. We were expecting thou to take longer than a mere ten minutes," said Luna.

"What? Ten minutes? I know I was there for much longer than that."

I looked at my watch.

"According to my watch, I was there for at least eight hours."

"Are you doubting the Princess?" said a gruff, yet commanding voice.

I was confused as the voice came from behind the princesses. I walked a bit to the side to see who had said that. I was surprised to see Captain Shining Armor standing there. I was also surprised that Cadence wasn't there.

"I wasn't saying that Shiney."

"What did you call me?" he said with both an angry and confused tone.

"Don't worry about it Shining Armor. It's just a nickname. Heck, my nickname is Buckshot."

At that point, all four of them started to snicker. Oh right. There was some inside joke about that name that I didn't know about.

"Will someone tell me why that is so funny? My dad gave me that nickname after all."

"It is something that thou wouldst have to have knowledge of being here to understand," said Luna.

"Alright that's it," I started. "Until you all tell me what that's about, I'm calling you Shiney. I'm calling you Sunburn. I'm calling you The Streaker. And finally, I'm calling you Cereal Box," I said pointing at each of them in turn.

Of the four of them, only Celestia seemed to understand what I was talking about.

"That is enough, Seth. We need to focus on what is going on here," said Celestia.

"You're right. You're right. But seriously, if I've only been gone for ten minutes, then that means you showed up less than ten minutes ago. How did you know where to find us?"

"I've been looking for the Princesses since this morning. After finding the castle devoid of ponies, I had Cadence teleport herself to Prince Blueblood for safety and to inform him of the situation. Then, I had gone to Ponyville to see if Twilight knew where the Princesses were and found the whole town transformed into these strange looking creatures like you. After some investigating, I found out that Twilight and her friends were headed to Appleloosa. I then teleported to Appleloosa to see if I could catch up with them. After I arrived, the station manager then told me that they had traveled out here so I followed the trail and found the Princesses and the guards grouped together near these lights here. After I had the guards spread out to defend the area, I learned about the situation from Princess Celestia. I've been keeping an eye on the situation since then."

"I see, I hope I didn't cut your honeymoon with Princess Cadence short."

He scoffed at my remark.

"We were actually headed back to the castle early this morning."

"Hang on a second," I interrupted, "I just realized something. How did you two raise the sun and moon if Discord had you trapped?" I asked pointing at Celestia and Luna.

"He did it himself," Celestia answered. "He said he wanted to make sure you got a good night's rest for your duel. I never did congratulate you on defeating Discord did I?"

"As nice as hearing it would sound, I don't need it. I was incredibly lucky that Discord didn't really take things seriously. Then again, he never really does seem to take things seriously. At least until stabbed me that is."

"Indeed. I was truly surprised that he would use a Damacules sword upon a mortal."

I heard gasps from Luna and Shining Armor, but not from Applejack.

"Now what the hay is ah Damawhosit's sword?"

"I'd like to know that as well seeing as I got stabbed by one."

"Very well," said Celestia. "I trust you two with this knowledge. A Damacules sword is a sword forged by the famous dragon artisan Damacules the Ferocitous. There were five swords in total that he forged during his life. Each of them was forged using the power of the original Elements of Harmony."

"Wait a second," I interrupted, "the original Elements of Harmony?"

"That is correct. The original Elements of Harmony reverted back to their stone state shortly after Nightmare Moon was sealed away."

"But I thought you told me that- wait..."

I lowered my gaze at Celestia. I thought that you were getting ready to use the elements against Nightmare Moon as she was about to become free?

She chuckled a little.

"Do not be concerned. I will not speak of that. The jewels that were the original Elements of Harmony were stolen by Damacules shortly after my defeat of Nightmare Moon. The magic that was contained within them were used to forge five swords of unique and terrible power. Since the Elements were used by a being who they were not meant for, they quickly turned to stone."

"Weren't you there when Nightmare Moon was sealed? Wait. Don't answer that. It's a stupid question. A better one would be how did he manage to gather up the Elements and forge the swords in secret if you were around the Elements the whole time?"

"Even with the Elements, sealing away Nightmare Moon was exhausting. I had passed out for a short time afterwards. When I awoke, the Elements had already been taken. By the time I found them again, it was too late. I had thought that he had only made four, but it seems that I was mistaken."

"I guess that makes sense. So is that the only reason that these swords are famous?"

"There is one other thing that is special about them. Any wound inflicted by the swords is fatal, no matter how insignificant."

There was a gasp from Applejack.

"Well, that does explain why everyone was so surprised that I got up. For all intents and purposes I should have died."

"Ya'll sure are lucky that ya made that senzu bean there sugarcube."

"Dang skippy I am."

"Is that how you survived?" asked Celestia.

"It is. I'm just glad it works as advertised."

"What is this senzu bean thou speakest of?"

"It's a special bean that grows on Korin's tower. When eaten, it gets rid of your appetite and can heal any wound, even ones that are fatal. I saw one used to treat a man who had a giant hole ripped through his chest so big that you could stick your head through it."

After saying that, I saw them all, except Celestia, blanch.

"That there sounds horrible."

"It was a horrible thing that did it to him. Luckily, eating that senzu bean saved his life. When I ate that senzu bean, it got rid of the wound inflicted by the sword, thus since there was no more wound, it was unable to kill me. There aren't words to describe how awesome that was."

"I'd say lucky is more like it," said Shining Armor.

"That about sums it up nicely," added Applejack.

I rolled my eyes at that.

"Look, it doesn't really matter. I'm not dead. That rocks hard."

That made me think for a second.

"Hey, what happened to the group of me's on the stage? For that matter where is the stage?"

"Once you traveled into the rift, both them and the stage simply vanished," explained Celestia.

"I see. I need to maintain a presence in this world in order to keep any spells active I guess."

I then thought about what spells I used in the last place I was. I then remembered about the android.

"Man, I really hope I didn't mess up badly when I did that," I muttered under my breath.

"Indeed," said Celestia. "You should have been more thoughtful about your actions on that matter."

"I think I got that without you telling me what's on my mind. No offense."

I looked back to the rifts. I noticed that there were only six of them.

"Did the rift I came through close on it's own?"

"Thou art correct, Seth. It happened shortly after the two of you came back through. The two ends of the rift slowly came together and briefly flashed as them met, then disappeared."

"Well, I'm glad the rifts close themselves up. I'd hate to have to figure out how to close the stupid things. Anyway, I need to get moving. There are still five Elements of Harmony for me to rescue and at some point I'm going to need some sleep. I'd rather have it after I've saved everyone."

"You are quite right," said Celestia. "We must hurry. If what you said about the time is true, then they have already been inside those rifts for over twenty four hours by now. I am troubled by what might be happening to them."

"Dontcha worry bout nuthin, yer Majesty. Me'n Seth here will bring them back in a hurry."

"You can't come Applejack," I stated.

She whirled on me in an instant.

"Whaddaya mean I can't come? They're my friends too ya know! I need tah help em out!"

I got down on one knee to look her in the eyes.

"I know they're your friends. They're my friends too. If I could take you with me, or Luna, or Celestia, or Shining Armor, I would take you all in a heartbeat. The problem is that unless you are all touching the coin as we leave, you could very well get stuck there. There will be no pal left behind. Not on my watch."

I reached my right hand forward and placed it on her shoulder.

"Trust me, Applejack, I will get every...pony home safely."

"Ya Pinkie Promise?" she asked expectantly.

"I promise," I replied as seriously as my slowly watering up eyes could muster.

"Alright, I trust ya partner. Don't let me keep ya up any," she said and smiled.

I stood up and walked over to the next rift. I grabbed my coin and held it up in front of the rift. The pony stuck in this rift was Fluttershy. That was good. After the last place I went to, I would be worried about her the most.

I reached out and touched the rift. A bright flash lit up my vision for a few seconds and then slowly disappeared. I blinked away the spots in my vision and tried to focus on where I was.

It looked like I was in a park from what I could tell. There were quite a few trees and bushes, but I could see a city in the background rising above the treeline. It was odd how those buildings looked. They were kind of cartoony in appearance. Actually, the trees and bushes kind looked like that too now that I took a closer look at them.

I walked up to one of the trees and looked at the leaves on it. Every single leaf on it was perfectly uniform. There wasn't a single one on there that was out of shape or missing a piece. I looked around a bit more to see if there was anything else that was unusual.

Oh, there was the giant mountain in the middle of the park.

How the hell did I miss that? You would think that a mountain in the middle of a park would be the first thing you see. Yet, somehow I managed to just turn around and it was there. Ugh, I really don't think I'm going to like this place.

It was a pretty tall mountain. It was very sheer too. It didn't seem to taper off very much at all. I kept looking up the slope and when my gaze fell upon the summit, I felt the need to slap myself for not noticing that either.

There was a freaking observatory on the top of the mountain.

It felt like I was getting less and less detached from reality. Well, more so than the fact that I was in fiction before, but you get the idea, right? Every movement I made and every change of direction that my vision encompassed seemed to strain what I thought was going on. Abstract buildings, perfect shrubbery, a mountain in a park, an observatory on said mountain, all of these things just made less and less sense. These things were all pretty cartoony. That was saying something considering I just left what was essentially a cartoon show. At least everything seemed real.

Not so in this place. It was almost like when I looked back at the Everfree Forest when I first arrived in Equestria. Not so much the creepiness, but just the unnatural air that exuded from the place. This place just felt wrong on a fundamental level.

"Ah so that is what came from that flash of light," said a gruff voice.

I looked down at where the voice came from and saw another unusual sight.

At first, it looked like a furry little man. The features he had, however, quickly made it apparent that he was not. First off, the skin on his face was green. There was no white in his eyes. Instead, it was a pink color on them with black irises. He was also wearing a blue suit with white gloves, boots, and belt with a purple cape that seemed to stay in a specific shape somehow. Most notable, however, was the giant dome on his head that alternated in white and purple down each side.

I knew instantly where I was now.

By all that was sugar, spice, and everything nice, I was in the Powerpuff Girls.

Author's Note:

Wow, I am really on a roll churning this one out.

Quick note: I don't plan on bringing up those swords again. I just wanted to elaborate on why Discord would be using a sword in the first place since he doesn't like getting his claws dirty.

Edit: Based on Season 4 canon, there has been a change made to the origin of the Damacules swords.

Comments

[kragor]

2055036 AWWWW YEAH!

[kragor]

HO-HOLY SHIT MAN.

THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE.

[kotor511]

You really deserver more recognition for your fic, it is quite entertaining at least.

[the one guy on the left]

The city of townsville...just got ripped a new one!

[The1templar]

3797643 1+

[Avogadro]

I'm betting you have to team up with Mojojojo to pry the adorable cuddly pony away from the Powerpuff Girls.