> Searching for Six Ponies (And Discord if I Feel Like It)
>  by Coltsguy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I Kinda Hope This Doesn't Become a Pattern
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes I've wondered in the past what it would be like if I could go to all those stories I see on the television or in books. I thought it would be cool to see all of the people I admired and watch them in their proudest moments. Things like that only happened in stories, though. My dreams would never be real.

Well, tell that to the three guys with the cyberbrains that I'm staring at in an alleyway. Better yet, tell that to the being that is responsible for me being here. That would be Discord, the so called God of Chaos. Oh, and while you're doing that, could you punch him in the face for me? No? Well, I understand if you don't want to. His magic will mess you up.

I honestly don't even know how in the hell I'm saying this in my head without these three reacting to me in any way. I think we've been staring at each other for about three minutes now. A dramatic pause maybe? I guess I'd better give them an answer so this can move along.

"Um, I'm a naturalist. I don't have a cyberbrain."

Score one for situational knowledge!

"Oh yeah?" asked the one in the middle. "Well, the three of us hate naturals. You think your so much better than us? You think that just because we decided to enhance our bodies with cybernetics that you have the right to look down on us? That's probably why you're wearing those weird clothes."

Damn, the score was brought back on a penalty. Think, brain! Think your way out of this!

"Look, others may do that, but I'm not like that!"

"Shut up normie!" said the one on the left with a heavy accent. "You ain't talkin' your way outta this!"

"I really don't want you to hurt me so can I just leave?" I asked; not wanting any violence. After all, just because they look normal doesn't mean that they aren't full prosthetic. Even if I have enhanced durability and strength now, that doesn't mean that they couldn't put a serious hurt on me.

"I think he's a scared of us," said the one on the right with the thickest accent of the three. He followed that up with a smile. "I would be too if I was him."

Yeah, that sounded reassuring. I suppose I could use magic on them and get away. I could always turn invisible and run. I know there are devices that can do that here and they could make their own assumptions. How could I get out of this safely?

Suddenly, the three of them stopped in their tracks. Their expressions changed dramatically. They weren't angry anymore. Now they looked like they were afraid. It was like they had seen a ghost.

"BEWARE!!!"

I heard a shout from behind me and while I jumped a little in surprise the three of them took off down the alley the way that I assume they came from. I turned around to see what had chased them away. I think my jaw dropped at what I saw.

He was wearing a set of denim coveralls with a greyish shirt underneath. A set of black boots covered his feet and some generic work gloves in a light grey on his hands. On his head, there was a grey stocking cap. Those were the normal things about him.

The not-so-normal things about him started with his blue skin. His red pupils were a nice contrast on the white of his eyes. Oh, and he was semi-transparent and floating several feet above the ground as well. Yeah, this was something I knew as well.

"I am the BOX GHOST!"

The Box Ghost. From Danny Phantom. In Ghost in the Shell. Did I miss something here?

"You're the Box Ghost?"

"Indeed! Fear my corrugated cardboard vengeance!"

As he said that, a few boxes in the alley suddenly floated off of the ground and went to his side.

"Before I run away in terror, can I ask you where I am right now?"

He looked at me a little confused before answering.

"You are in the the city of New Port."

"Is that in Japan?"

"Of course it is! Where else would it be?"

"Well, I know of a Newport, Rhode Island. I could have been there."

"That is ridiculous! Why would I want to haunt someplace in Rhode Island?"

"I don't know. By the way, what year is it?"

"It is 2033 simpleton!"

"Of course it is," I said playing along. "I was just making conversation before I had to leave."

"You will flee! Flee in terror from the BOX GHOST!"

"Yeah, about that..."

I quickly brought forth my invisibility spell and backed up from the Box Ghost.

"Curses! Another human with the ability to turn themself invisible! That is an insult to ghosts everywhere!"

He launched the boxes he had at his sides forward where I was. I then ducked under them to make sure he didn't know where I was. He looked around angrily for any sign of me. Eventually, he gave up. Though, he decided on one more thing to say before I left.

"I will have my vengeance! Beware for I am the Box Ghost!"

Having said his final threat, he then flew into the air and disappeared.

Okay, now that I've let the situation diffuse itself, what the hell is going on? What in the world is the Box Ghost doing in Ghost in the Shell? Don't get me wrong, that does sound like it might work as a fanfic somehow, but it isn't something that I'm aware of. The presence of ghosts in this world could throw off the dynamics of what I know here. For all I know, Danny Fenton could be a cyborg ghost.

I paused for a second. A cyborg ghost? That sounded pretty cool actually.

No. I had no time for this. Applejack was out there. She had no idea where she was was and I wasn't much better off. At least I could blend in as a human. If anyone out there saw her, who knows what could happen?

I walked to the end of the alleyway and turned visible again. There was no one around that I could see. The street was dead quiet, but well lit. I looked up and down the street. Despite the fact that all I saw were some small office buildings, there were no lights on in any of them. The street was lined by a guardrail and the street lights, but nothing else. Well, sidewalks of course, but that should go without saying.

I reached into my shirt and pulled out the coin. The coin that started it all. It gave me my magic. It sent me to Equestria, sort of. It protected me from Discord's final act of treachery. And now, it was a beacon to help me find the girls and bring them back to Equestria from wherever they were sent. It had quite the history already in the short time I've had it.

I moved the coin around in several directions. When I noticed it glow brighter in the direction of the city lights, I let it drop and headed in that direction. I hoped it wouldn't take long to find Applejack. Just because this was a technologically advanced world, didn't mean that there wouldn't be interest in a talking pony. They could lock her up and study her. Or worse.

I kept walking along the road for a few hours. I got the occasional look from a passerby on the sidewalk. There were a few cars that went by as well. Nothing really interesting of note. Of course, one of the people I passed seemed to comment in English instead of Japanese. Something along the lines of why is he wearing that? Their comment on my strange clothes made me think about what I was wearing. I looked around a bit and snapped my fingers.

My clothes changed into some khaki pants and a dark brown t-shirt. I still missed my hat, though. I left it back at Twilight's place since I didn't want Discord to mess it up. 

Wait a second. Until now I was still wearing the same outfit that I had on when I got stabbed by Discord. Did nobody notice the fact that I had blood covering part of my shirt? I guess it was possible that no one in the alleyway saw it, but that might be why I was getting those looks on the sidewalk. Then again, if I was seen covered in blood, why didn't anybody try and help me? Perhaps I didn't look like I needed help? Honestly, it was just too confusing to think about rationally.

Speaking of irrational, why did every building look the same? I'm not saying that it had the same architecture or was colored the same. I was saying that every building I've looked at is window for window the exact same as the last. It was like people became lazy and just copied and pasted the buildings over and over again. The color was the same. The width was the same. The only thing breaking up the monotony was a panel next to the entrance on the buildings. I couldn't read Japanese, but I could tell that each one I passed was different from the others.

Except for one.

After just under three hours, according to my watch, the sky began to get brighter and more people and cars started to appear. That wasn't what I was focused on. What I was focused on was the one building that looked different than the others. The only one that was a brick building and had the only English on any of the buildings.

A neon sign hanging from the front that said 'Fenton'.

It was still about a few hours walk from the beginning of the city proper as far as I could tell. Even still, I was thinking about taking a detour to check it out. Half of it was to check out the place from t.v. even though it didn't have the weird saucer thing stuck to the top of it like from the show. The other half was to see if I could possibly get some help finding Applejack. If it was the same Fenton's from the series, a talking pony might not even be that big of a deal and they would help out just because of who they were. Of course, this could also be Danny Fenton in the future as well. There was just too many variables in this kind of thing.

I needed to acquire more information about this place. The Fenton home may just be the place to do it. It may seem like I should follow the coin and it will take me directly to Applejack. However, there may end up being more playing out in this situation than I think there is and I don't want to walk into a trap for me or someone else.

I took a quick look around and activated my invisibility spell. I then crossed the street and and walked up to the Fenton building. I then got close to one of the windows and peered inside. The curtains were drawn so I couldn't see inside. Well, that made sense. Privacy is not some foreign concept to everyone after all. Unfortunately, I didn't have any other way to see inside and I didn't want to teleport into the place considering how I didn't like doing it in the first place and I could very well plant myself inside a wall or worse.

Well, this was a problem. I didn't want to just sit around waiting for someone who I might not even be able to talk to. If I couldn't learn anything then staying here was a pointless waste of time.

I looked around once again and dropped my invisibility spell. I then took out my coin and checked it once again. The signal was still coming from the same direction as before.

A horrible thought then occurred to me. How far exactly was she from me? All the coin told me was a direction to go to. Just because the rift dropped me off here doesn't mean that it didn't drop her off a long distance from here. For all I knew she could be on the other side of the planet and the coin was telling me to go this was because it was the slightly shorter path around the globe. I don't even want to get into the fact that it could have dropped her off in the middle of the ocean far away from any landmass.

I needed to get moving. I needed to get there in a hurry. I needed some wheels. Too bad I left my car back on my Earth.

You know what? Screw that. I've got magic. I'll magic myself up a car.

After walking back to the left side of the street, I concentrated and snapped my fingers. In front of me a vehicle appeared.

Unfortunately, it came complete with a two ghosts for riders. Yeah, that's about my luck in a nutshell.
> I Ain't Fraid of No Ghost
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stood there looking at the beings I had summoned unintentionally. I had watched Danny Phantom when I was younger. I automatically knew who they were.

Johnny Thirteen and his sort-of girlfriend Kitten.

Johnny Thirteen was just some biker nut who obsessed over his motorcycle more than anything else. He could summon it from anywhere and ride it anywhere. He also had a shadow that caused bad luck wherever it went. It obeyed his commands as well and had a physical presence in order to carry out it's bad luck.

Kitten was a bit of a wild card. She was constantly jealous of Johnny's obsession with his motorcycle and it caused a rift between them at times. Her specialty was the ability to, and I kid you not, blow kisses at guys and make them disappear and reappear. I honestly think that's a dumb power, but I'm willing to bet that some ladies would think otherwise. Instant guy-away might be pretty appealing to some.

Hang on a second, why was I getting another chance to think all of this? I could barely understand the guys back in the alleyway doing this. Now, I've been staring at them for at least thirty seconds and they still haven't said a thing. Was I driving the dialog around here or something? I better say something quick.

"Umm, are the two of you lost?"

Smooth, idiot, real smooth.

"Naw, we know right where we are," said Johnny while pointing his thumb behind him. "That's the Fenton place there. Come on Kitten. Let's get out of here before Fenton sics his goons on us."

"Wait. What do you mean-"

I didn't get to finish asking him as he revved up his motorcycle and the two of them sped off in the direction of the city. His words were left hanging in the air. What was he talking about? Fenton had goons? Which Fenton was it? Wait, were they on their way now?

None of these questions were ones that I was particularly happy about, so I started walking again towards the city proper. Let me tell you one thing. Walking is boring. I went about ten minutes down the sidewalk before I honestly ran out of things to think about. About that time I really wished that I had my DS with me. At least I would have had something to occupy the time with.

Finally, I was able to reach the city a few hours later. I was surprised at just how straight the road had been there. There was barely a mild curve on the way. The architecture had changed significantly as well. About a half hour before I got there, the buildings had thinned out and some truly unique and, in my opinion, cool-looking buildings popped up in their place. Sure, it was a bunch of glass and steel in varying shapes, but it was the way they had been shaped that was truly awe inspiring. I wish I could have gone into detail, but I honestly don't remember that much from it.

The reason being that I got blindsided by some attack I never saw coming.

All I saw was some green glow and then I was hit in the back with something that hurt. I tumbled end over end for a bit before coming to a stop face up on the sidewalk.

"I don't know who or what you are, but it doesn't quite reek of a normal human. Give up peacefully and I won't hurt you anymore."

I tilted my head forward and looked for the person who said that. I was barely able to keep my jaw from dropping. There, in all his black and white glory, was the man himself, Danny Phantom. Of course, seeing him helped me figure out some of what was going on. He wasn't the kid Phantom anymore. Instead, he looked to be older than me; maybe around his early to mid-thirties. He was also more muscular than what was shown on the show. It was probably a product of his growing up. It also wasn't helpful that he wasn't appearing the usual blocky style from the show. Thankfully, his jumpsuit and his emblem were still the same so he was still somewhat recognizable.

"Since I have the option to give up peacefully, I would normally choose that. However, I can't do that right now. I have someone I need to find and not much time to do it in as far as I know. I'd like a rain check on that later though. Sound good?"

In hindsight, I'm pretty sure I should've just done that and went along with him. Although, I think him blasting me not only knocked me loopy, but into a less cooperative mood as well.

"That's not an option. You are coming with us. End of story."

I looked confused for a second until I realized that he meant that there were probably people around me in stealth mode since I didn't see anyone else around. Of course, they were probably in a building nearby and were waiting for him to signal them.

Wait. Signal them. Oh crap.

I threw up a shield just as something impacted on it. I didn't see it, but I felt it reverberate on the shield.

"So, you are some ghost overshadowing some human. I figured that was the case. You have some pretty good instincts as well to notice that shot coming. I repeat, give yourself up, remove yourself from that human, and you will be returned to the ghost zone peacefully. This is your last warning before we use greater force."

"You know, when I passed your house earlier I thought that you might be able to help me out considering who you are. Now, I'm starting to think that I was mistaken. I'm not a ghost. I'm just here looking for a pony and now you're getting in the way of that. I suppose I'll just have to do this on my own."

I dropped my barrier and went invisible at the same time. I then started to run towards the city.

"You think going invisible will help you escape? We can still track you like that."

To prove his point, he flew right in front of me; stopping my progress.

"We developed technology to see through that trick and loaded the software directly into our cyberbrains. You can't escape us."

"You keep saying us, but all I see is you. What, is Section 9 backing you up?" I joked.

He looked angry and shocked at what I said.

"So, you know more than I thought you did."

"Wait, I was just guessing. I was right? Does that mean that the Major is here?"

"Indeed I am," said a soft voice behind me.

I threw up my arms in surrender instinctively and slowly turned around. There, purple hair and all, was Motoko Kusanagi. Damn, was she crazy sexy. She was wearing a full combat gear complete with her firearm trained on me. It was a bit interesting to think that she was aiming that at me considering that they thought I was a ghost.

"Well, this is not good. I can't go invisible. I can't keep a shield up since I need to stay mobile. I doubt my energy is strong enough to take out anybody here. I have no idea how far away Applejack is so I can't simply outrun you until I find her. About the only thing I could try is my luck and I've usually never had that on my side. Not to mention the fact that I doubt I could out-think the Major and I highly doubt she was the one who took that shot at me. I bet that was, umm, I think his name is Saito, right? Anyway, that's at least three of you and I don't think I like my odds on that."

"Pretty smart and well informed," said the Major. "Now, leave this man's body and come with us."

I frowned.

"I am not a ghost. I'm a human. A natural one to be more specific so I don't have a cyberbrain for you to mess with."

"Don't try to lie to us," said Danny. "You used a shield and went invisible. Plus, you talked about your energy not being strong enough to do us in. That's all indicative of a ghost."

"True," I said, "but can a ghost do this?"

As I said that, I snapped my fingers and the Major's weapon turned into a broom. As she lowered it, I actually felt the heat from Danny's energy behind my head. I didn't turn around to see, but I was willing to bet that he had a ghost ray primed to fire at me the second I did anything.

"I have the unpredictability of chaos magic on my side. That's my ace in the hole. My other trick, though, is this little number."

A quick flash of magic and I managed to teleport about ten yards away closer to the city. The Major saw where I went and pointed Danny in my direction.

"I have the ability to teleport just about anywhere. Though, I don't like using it so I limit it to places I can see. I'm not looking for a fight, I'm not trying to hurt anybody. I just want to find Applejack and get us both home before something bad happens. She is a talking pony. I highly doubt she'll go unnoticed for long so time is not on my side. I think quite highly of you guys normally, but after this little encounter I think I need to do this on my own. Perhaps I'll see you again."

"Indeed, we will," said Danny.

I turned around and was about to teleport away, but was met with the visage of another person I knew; that being Batou. Close up like this, he was pretty intimidating. Of course, the weapon he had trained on me definitely upped the factor.

"You are not leaving," he almost growled at me.

I don't think I've ever moved as fast as I did when I reacted to that. I literally slapped the firearm out of his grip and sent it about the length of a football field away before it hit the side of a building. I could definitely see the surprise in his face. Not so much his eyes since he had some really odd cybernetics for eyes instead of regular eyes.

"Knock it off!" I yelled at him.

I teleported another ten feet behind him and turned back to look at them again.

"I am not a ghost! I am a chaos magic enhanced human from an alternate universe Kansas! I am sick of this crap and I am leaving to get Applejack and head back to Equestria and then try and find the other five of them when I'm done here! I do not need Section 9 or some weirded out version of Danny Phantom cock blocking my efforts! If you want to help me, that's fine. Otherwise, leave me alone!!!"

I then turned around and teleported over and over again into the city. I have no idea how many times I did it, but eventually I was in the city proper and not sure exactly where I was. Unlike the other times, I had ended up stopping in the middle of a crowd of people who saw me appear out of nowhere. At that point, I didn't care. There were quite a few whispers and the people gave me a wide berth. I simply grabbed the coin and checked out which direction Applejack was in.

As I grabbed it, however, I felt an odd protrusion on the side. I turned the coin to look at it and noticed that there was a small device on it no bigger than a grain of rice.

"I'm guessing that the Major put you on here. I don't really care I suppose. I'll leave it for now. It may come back to bite me in the ass, but it probably will be a good idea in the long run. At least I hope so."

Ignoring what I assumed to be a tracking device, I turned the coin back to the radar side and took a look around with it. After a quick scan, I eventually came up with a bearing and started off in that direction.

My watch isn't synched up, but I do know that it had been about five and a half hours since the sun had risen. I forget how long ago that Section 9 had intercepted me. And what was up with Batou? Sure, I slapped the firearm out of his hand, but what was up with that reaction he had? He's a trained professional. He was in the military for goodness' sake! That was not how you react in that situation. Even my dad who was in the military would have chewed his ass out for that.

Though, holy crap did you see how fast I moved? He had a cyberbrain and he couldn't react to that! Perhaps that might explain his reaction, but military training should kick in at that point. Anyway, how cool was that feat of speed I somehow managed to pull off? I'm honestly way too hung up on that, but I have never been fast. Even back when I actually did sports I was never the fast type. I had a great outfielder's arm, but no speed.

I guess I'm chalking this up to experiencing something new and fun for the first time ever. Have you ever had that moment? You know what I'm talking about. I mean when you try something new and it's so fun that you get hung up on it for a good amount of time afterwards. Well, that was what was happening there except that it had to do with my body instead of some outside stimulus. Your body just gets used to things after a while. It's conditioned in your brain. A sudden change like this could really sidetrack you.

That whole thing leads me to the fact that I seriously walked straight into a streetlight post. You know, the ones on the street corners that holds out the stoplights. I face-planted right into that sucker. Enhanced durability made it barely hurt, but it still wasn't fun. Funny to onlookers, yes, but not fun for me.

Shaking that off, I keep moving. I should have shook my head harder. Especially considering that I walked directly into traffic. I didn't even realize it until I heard the horn and the screeching tires. I looked to see a car about to hit me and I just jumped. It was enough not to get plastered by the car, but not fast enough as to miss me entirely. I still ended up getting my feet clipped by the top of the car. It was enough momentum that I spun in midair and actually jackknifed the bar on the streetlight at the waist; thankfully in the direction that my waist was supposed to bend.

That was more painful. Not stabbed in the gut by Discord painful, but more really bad cramp in the leg painful. I at least managed to grab the bar with my hand before I fell back onto the street. How many times had this magic saved my ass? It had to be half a dozen times at least by now. I was pretty sure my brain had detached itself from reality by this time. I wasn't even going through any kind of trauma about nearly being hit by a car. How could you possibly be sane if you can shake that off near instantly? The only thought I had at the time was how to swing back so I didn't land back into traffic. Never mind the fact that I'm sure I felt my feet hurt. I just didn't seem to care. It was like I had to perform to a different set of rules and I just rolled with it. Maybe it was because I always considered myself to be crazy. Who really knows?

Then again, who really cares? I know I didn't.

I finally picked up enough momentum and swung my body back to the sidewalk. Again, I was given a wide berth and a plethora of stares that would have made anyone self conscious. I picked up my coin and regained my bearings with it.

"You know, if this thing is transmitting sounds, I want to go on record as saying that I was not paying attention. Oh and Batou, what the hell man? I slapped that machine gun right out of your hands! I at least expected a counterattack. You know what? If this gets sorted out, I'd love a group hug. Because I like hugs."

I probably shouldn't have mentioned the last part, but like I said I'm not sure of my sanity anymore. Instead of delving on it, I continued on in the direction of the signal. I swear if I somehow figure out how to modify this thing I am adding a distance measurement to it.

Eventually, however, I came upon something that made me stop. It was a tall building about a hundred and twenty stories in all. I kid you not that thing was tall. What caught my attention was the name that was lettered down the side of the building.

'Vlad Masters & Associates'

That sobered me up a little when I saw it. Vlad Masters was the arch nemesis of Danny Phantom. The coincidences were too great to be just that. Just to be sure, I started to walk around the building. Sure enough, the coin kept pointing me in the direction of the building at every angle.

"Ever get the feeling that you're just some plot device?" I asked myself out loud.

Cautiously, I walked up to the entrance and composed myself. I was not happy about going in there. Vlad was a dangerous man. Ultimately, though, I was a man on a mission. Screw the rules. I've got chaos.

I finally walked in and sauntered up to the receptionist. It took a few moments, but she finally acknowledged me.

"Hello sir! Welcome to Vlad Masters & Associates Law Firm. How may I help you?"

I put on a grin.

"I'm here to see a man about a horse."
> Stop Focusing on the Fountain, Stupid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I beg your pardon, sir?"

I looked at her for a second.

"Are you a cyborg or an android?"

"I am an android sir."

"You know what? That always confused me. How is it that everyone seems to know almost instantly whether or not someone was an android or a cyborg just by looking. Until I saw that episode with the androids that destroyed themselves, at least I think it was that episode, I always thought that you guys were real people with real thoughts and feelings. Then, I get told that you have pseudo-thoughts and pseudo-feelings. Well, I say that isn't fair! I want you to be a real boy!"

I snapped my fingers at her and after a quick glow she turned into teenage version of herself.

"Not quite what I had in mind, but close enough."

To be honest, I probably should have helped her out a bit after her transformation, but I was too focused on finding Applejack to do so. Not exactly a nice thing that I did. After I changed her, I moved past the front counter and went into the interior of the building.

I don't think I mentioned it, but the reception area, for some reason, was a boring little area that was just so plain that describing it would have been a waste of time. Well, the desk was nice anyway. In contrast, when I opened the doors to the right of the receptionist's desk, I was in awe.

The place had a very almost open air feel to it. The ceiling started at about fifteen stories up and made the entire place very roomy. Other than some pillars to support the structure, the entire room was a great piece of work. The whole thing was centered around a fifty foot tall cascading fountain. It had a very natural look to it which I enjoyed. It wasn't a marble-like fountain. It was more of a waterfall that fell on all sides with rocks and ledges all around it. I kid you not, I was unnaturally drawn to how cool that fountain was. I wish I had a camera.

The rest of the wide open area was more of a professional tone. Several desks with people working at them were spread around the room. I was expecting some computers at these desks, but I realized how dumb that would be while working near a fountain. Of course, working near a fountain made no sense at all really.

Ignoring that, I continued to stand in the doorway and kept looking around and kept spotting strangeness. Firstly, there were no stairs or elevators anywhere. How could you access the upper floors? Secondly, I had just barged into a law firm and nobody had come to stop me yet. I'm pretty sure I had been surveying that room for at least a couple of minutes. I was an intruder. Where was the security? There was also the fact that despite seeing all of the people working there, not one of them had acknowledged that I was even there. Sure I couldn't see their eyes, but not even a head movement seemed to be given towards me. Then again, they could all be androids so that one might be explainable.

"Despite that cool fountain, I don't like the smell of this place. It reeks of a front."

I walked in and around the place for a bit. Even as I strode up to one of the desks where someone was working, I was still not acknowledged by the person working there. As I walked in front of one of the people working, I noticed something pretty cool. There was actually a display embedded in the desk that they were manipulating. Being that I love working on my computer back home, this really piqued my interest. It seemed like she was interacting with it using both her hands and her cyberbrain. I hate to say that I thought this, but I honestly thought about how you could look up porn with a cyberbrain and a terminal like this. Not my proudest moment to be certain.

"Of all the things in this place, you look at the most boring thing in here. Disappointing."

I had no idea where the voice came from. It seemed to come from every direction at once. Though, I did know who it belonged to.

Vlad. He was going to get personal on this one. I knew he could be anywhere, so instead of looking for where he was I simply answered him.

"It's called information gathering. Besides, other than the fountain, which I will admit is the best looking fountain I have ever seen, this place is pretty devoid of things to look at."

"It is quite impressive isn't it?" he stated in a much clearer, yet still all surrounding tone. "Despite all the people I've had come through here, not one person has commented on it."

"That is kind of sad. Maybe you should place it outside instead? It would be quite the view for people all around here."

"Ah, but that would defeat it's true purpose here."

"Let me guess. It's controlling the cyberbrains of everyone in this room to do your bidding."

"Clever boy. No one has ever figured it out so quickly. I must applaud you for that."

The sound of faux applause echoed around the room in place of his voice.

"Did you whip this up, or did you have Technus create this? And before you answer, I should let you know that I don't really care which of you did it. It's not the reason I'm here. Besides, I'm a natural. I have no cybernetics for you to hack. Overshadowing may be a problem, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"Intriguing. A naturalist coming into this place, but still fascinated by technology. I'm sure there's a story there. However, you are intruding on my place of business. I must ask that you leave."

"I'll leave after you give me my friend. She's the reason I'm here."

"Ahh, that makes sense now. A rescue mission for your dear beloved. How droll."

"I don't have romantic feelings for ponies dipstick."

There was a quick pause.

"Well, well, well, so you know the talking horse. She said her friends would come to get her. I guess she was right, though I was expecting more talking ponies and not some naturalist person. She is quite the interesting specimen."

Oh that made me angry.

"I swear to you Vlad, if you hurt her I will do things that will haunt my dreams."

"Ooooh, quite the threat my dear boy. Too bad you don't have any way to back it up."

I smirked.

"Back this up," I said and snapped my fingers.

As I did so, the water in the fountain turned red in color. Unless he was there, it looked exactly like blood.

"What did you do to my fountain?" he asked in a much angrier tone.

"I replaced the water with blood. Elf blood to be precise."

An Aqua Teen reference. I never make those. It just seemed fitting for some reason.

"A likely story brat. I won't hand her over to you with threats like that."

"Then how about some different threats."

I snapped my fingers and a large boulder appeared over the fountain; ready to fall at any moment.

"Let her go, or I drop this boulder on the fountain."

"Are. You. Nuts?" he angrily spat out.

"Give. Me. APPLEJACK!!!" I spat back.

"Very well!!!" he yelled angrier than ever. "I'll bring you your precious little Applejack."

"And no tricks!" I added. "I'll know if it's the real Applejack or not."

"And how do I know you'll keep up your end of the bargain?"

"Hey! I just fought off Danny Phantom and Section 9 in order to get here. I don't care what it is you're doing. I just want to take her and get her back home."

"You fought Danny Phantom and Section 9? You must be quite talented to have escaped them," he stated with a bit less anger in his voice.

"Teleporting has it's advantages. Now quit stalling and bring her here."

"Oh, you're no fun."

"That's what she said!"

I snapped my fingers and a drum set quickly appeared and did a quick sting rimshot before disappearing.

I didn't hear a rebuttal. I hoped that meant that he was on his way down with Applejack. In the meantime, I looked up at the boulder I created. It was a neat trick to cancel gravity around the boulder to keep it in the air above the fountain. I could cancel it at any time, and if someone touched the boulder itself, the spell would break on it's own and it would come crashing down. I was surprised at how I came up with that right on the spot.

After about eight minutes, according to my watch, I heard a whirring sound. I turned to the spot it was coming from and noticed a panel on the wall coming out and sliding to the left. Behind the door was a set of elevator doors. That was pretty clever. A secret elevator to move around unnoticed was a pretty useful tool.

There was a quick ping and the doors slid open. On the other side was Vlad Masters and a very unamused Applejack. From here she looked unharmed. That was good. Just thinking about what he might have done made me see a few spots.

It was then Applejack caught a glimpse of me and her eyes lit up. Just before she said something, the spots in my eyes vanished and were replaced by a watery sensation instead.

"Seth! Ya came ta help me!"

"That's what friends do, Applejack. Sorry it was just me. All the Elements were sucked up like you were and I couldn't come with the Princesses. You were the closest so I came for you first."

"Well I appreciate it. This feller has been most unfriendly tah me."

"Yeah. Supervillains are like that sometimes. Let's get you out of here."

"Not so fast, Seth," interrupted Vlad. "The boulder comes first."

"No, Applejack comes first. Of the two of us, I am the more trustworthy here, Vlad. Besides, you're not taking this very seriously at all if you came here looking like that."

"You are going to critique my attire? I am wearing a pressed suit that cost 140,000 yen. What are you wearing? Some dinky pants and a shirt that probably cost about 3,000 altogether?"

"They were free and that's not the point. I mean you came down here as a human. While I appreciate that, that also means that you don't really think I'm that much of a threat. Or, it means that you have a duplicate somewhere around here ready to ambush me or move the boulder. I'd advise against the latter. I've rigged the boulder quite well against tampering."

He seemed to get a little angry at what I said, but like a professional he kept his composure in the face of his enemy. Of course, the little pause where he seemed to think about things gave me the chance to look at his features more intently. Despite the pressed suit, which I'll admit was pretty stylish, he was complimenting it with some very nice dress shoes and a bluish-grey tie. It covered him well, but when I saw his face I began to wonder about a few things.

His hairstyle was, in fact, the only visual feature that helped me recognize him. From what I could tell, he had probably gone full prosthetic at some point. His hair was completely black instead of having a white streak going down the middle. His face had an easily youthful appearance. His eyes, though, were quite creepy. It was like looking in a doll's eyes. When I had looked into the eyes of the Major earlier, they were still glassy, but I had at least seen some warmth still hidden deep down in them. With Vlad here, that sensation was nowhere to be found.

"It seems, my dear boy, that you know a great deal more than you let on. The talk about Technus just a few minutes ago, the knowledge of a duplicate of me, the acknowledgement of Danny Phantom and Section 9. None of those things are public knowledge and yet you know about all of them. I don't believe you are as trustworthy as you say you are."

"I merely stated that I was the more trustworthy of the two of us. If I included Applejack here, then I bet I would run a distant second. She is the most honest being I know of."

Although she kept silent, I saw her blush slightly and smile at the compliment. A bit odd, but nice to see at any rate.

"Enough idle chit chat! You will remove the boulder now or your precious little pony will suffer the consequences!"

He supplemented the threat by changing into his ghost form. Watching that happen in real life was pretty cool. A circular beam of black light spread out from his waistline rather quickly. Black light is pretty odd. Then, it separated into two and traveled up and down in different directions as it changed his appearance into a negative of colors. I was sort of expecting a jumpsuit like from the t.v., but I was wrong. He still had some slightly over-sized black gloves and boots that appeared on him extremities, though, and from what I could tell he did start to appear slightly transparent. To finish the look, the circular beam of light passed over the top of his head and revealed a blue face and glowing red eyes, plus the hair color I had seen from the show; a weird white streak down the middle of his hair.

"What in tarnation is that?"

"That, my friend, is Vlad Plasmius. His ghostly alter-ego. He's way more dangerous in that form."

"Right you are. Now, remove the boulder," he said. He then created a ball of ghostly energy in his hand and held it near her. "Or else your friend will become part of my next barbeque."

I looked at the situation. Doing what he said was out of the question. My hanging threat was all that was keeping him in line. If it disappeared, he wouldn't hesitate to try and take us both. His threat, however, was a pressing one. I didn't have any real speed so there was nothing I could do to cover the distance and save her in time. I only had one possibility that I could think of that would help right now.

"Alright, you win. Just don't hurt her."

"Smart boy."

I held up my hand and prepared to snap my fingers.

Please, let this work, I thought.

I snapped my fingers and Applejack disappeared.

"What!?!"

I snapped them again and Applejack appeared a few feet in front of me. I grabbed my coin and held it out in front of me. The entire side of the coin was glowing. It was her alright.

Meanwhile, Vlad proceeded to fire a ghost ray at us in anger. I threw up a dome shield which it impacted upon. I didn't feel any give to it so as far as I could tell, we were safe.

"So, you have ghost powers as well? Another ghost/human hybrid it seems? I guess it's no longer just the three of us anymore."

Oh crap. Three? That sent off some warning bells. There were just Danny and Vlad in the series. There must be some third person in this place. Knowing may be helpful, but I'd rather just get back with Applejack and not have to worry about it.

"I am not a ghost, doofus. I'm a mage. It's different."

His eyes narrowed upon me as I said that.

"A mage? What kind of fool do you take me for?"

"The kind that obviously doesn't believe what he sees before him. The talking pony you had to believe, but the fact that I can use magic is giving you trouble? There are things in the world that you simply cannot comprehend I see. That is your failing."

"Plus, yer a real nasty feller," added Applejack.

He looked at us angrily for a few moments and then, suddenly, he let out a sigh and composed himself.

"Perhaps you are right. Simply dismissing what you are capable of is a bit rash of me. Perhaps when this is over, I'll study you a great deal more carefully."

I did not like his tone. Even through the blue tint of my magic shield, he still gave me the impression that he could get to me. I didn't want to test that theory.

"Come on Applejack. Let's get out of here."

As I started walking towards her, I heard laughter coming from Vlad.

"Do you really think that I'll allow the two of you to leave?"

As he said that, I saw Applejack's eyes grow wide as they seemed to look past me. Confused as I was, I turned around to see what she saw.

It was another Vlad. He was inside my shield.

"You came thorough the floor didn't you?"

"Hindsight won't save you, boy!"

He held up his hand and blasted me square in the chest. I'm glad my shield dropped before I was flung about twenty feet away. Of course, waiting those twenty feet away was one of the worker's desks. Thankfully, it had some give to it where I didn't stop after I was thrown into it. I'm also glad I didn't run into the person working behind it. Why Vlad had kept them all working there instead of having them leave was beyond me.

After I ran through the desk, I still skidded another ten feet or so before stopping. None of that felt good at all. Though, I think the ghost ray hurt worse than the desk. I rubbed my chest and stood up. I looked over to see the first Vlad now standing by Applejack and the second Vlad. I held up my hand to blast him with a beam of magic, when I was grabbed at the wrist. I looked at who grabbed me and was very unhappy about it.

It was one of the workers. They had gotten up and grabbed my arm before I could attack Vlad. I looked around and noticed that all of the other workers had now risen from their desks. That was why he hadn't made them leave. There were now a couple hundred people standing around and it seemed like they were all about to become my enemy.

"I'd say you're playing dirty now, but I expected this kind of thing from you. Just in hindsight, mind you. Otherwise, I would have dropped that boulder already."

"If's and but's my dear boy. You really believed that I-oof!!!"

I watched in surprise as Applejack promptly bucked the first Vlad in the gut. It was surprising only considering that I thought she would pass right through him since he was a ghost right now. Perhaps it was an effect of earth pony magic. I'll just leave it at that. There was no way I could figure that out on my own.

The second Vlad quickly brought up some odd energy cage around her to stop her from doing anything else. It looked like I was on my own.

"Freeze!!!"

Or maybe not. I looked over to where the voice came from and saw something that made me smile.

It was Danny Phantom and Section 9. They had indeed followed me here.

"You! This does not concern you Daniel!"

"It does if you are keeping people against their will!"

"I am doing no such thing!"

"Let's see if that's true," I said and snapped my fingers. As soon as I did, the boulder dropped from it's floating spot and plummeted onto the fountain. It immediately crushed the top of the fountain and sparks and debris flew from the area in all directions. 

"NO!" he shouted.

A few seconds after the boulder had settled, the people all around us fell to the ground unconscious.

"The control spire! It's ruined!"

"Give up Vlad!" yelled the Major. "You are outnumbered and outgunned."

He looked around the room at Danny, the five members of Section 9 that had stormed in, myself, and finally Applejack. I already saw his plan.

"Don't you do it Vlad!" I yelled.

"Don't do what? Don't use every means at my disposal to make sure that I escape? You are a fool!"

He then looked over to Danny and the Major.

"I will be walking out of here unharmed or the horse suffers!"

He contracted the cage slightly to press his point. As that happened, she let out a yelp of pain.

It was all I needed to get angry.

"No, Vlad. That is not what is going to happen," I said.

The first Vlad brought his eyes to me while the second one kept an eye on the others.

"Oh really? What can you possibly do to me while I hold her in this cage? You may have been able to teleport her away from me earlier, but I learn quickly from my mistakes. She is completely trapped inside this energy cage. The very second anyone tries to do anything to me the cage will contract; crushing her violently. You can do nothing against me."

I smirked at him. This only made him angry.

"What do you find so amusing?"

"You just don't get it, do you? Screw the rules. I've got chaos magic."

I snapped my fingers and, instead of teleporting her through the cage's barrier like I had planned, she started to grow. She grew and pressed up against the cage around her. As that happened, I was glad that she didn't seem to be in any pain. When she touched that before it had hurt. Not this time. She kept growing and eventually the cage broke apart as she continued to grow. Ten feet, twenty, then thirty. Finally, she stopped at about forty feet tall.

"Oh this is just awesome," I stated almost giddily.

"What in Sam hill did you tah me?"

"I got you free. Go ahead and buck that jerk!"

She looked down at Vlad and reared up her hind leg.

"Oh butter biscuits!" he exclaimed.

Her hoof flew towards the two Vlad's and connected with tremendous force. The two sped straight through the wall and off to who knows where.

"Hah! That was awesome!" I yelled.

"You idiots!" yelled the Major. "How are we supposed to arrest him now?"

I snapped my fingers and Applejack returned to normal right by my side.

"Oh come on now. We busted up his operation and now he's exposed to the world for what he is. Not the ghost part, perhaps, but I'm pretty sure you can nail him for kidnapping and brain jacking. You heard what I said from this transmitter, right?"

I lifted up my coin and pointed at the device on it.

"At least I hope it was transmitting what I said. It'll seem silly if I was talking for no reason."

"He is right, Major," Danny said. "We did receive a good deal of intel from that transmitter."

"There's also the fact that neither of us are Japanese citizens. I'm an American and, well, she's from Equestria. I suppose I did kind of resist arrest, but I don't think I did anything really wrong."

"The varmint took me by force, so I'm sure as shootin' grateful fer what he did."

I think the talking pony made them stop for a second. That, or they were contemplating what to do with us.

"I think we ought to cut them some slack, Major," said Danny.

"Ughh, fine. You're free to go."

"Woohoo!!!" I yelled. "Victory high five and some hugs! Who's with me?"

I saw just about everyone facepalm after I said that.

"Well, it seems I've worn out my welcome. Let's get you home, Applejack."

"Thank ya kindly there, Seth."

I knelt down on one knee and held out the coin for Applejack.

"Go ahead and place your hoof on the coin and we are out of here."

She slowly raised her hoof up and placed it onto the coin. The coin started to glow brightly and soon enough the glow encompassed my vision entirely.
> 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.
> It's The Little Things
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was starting to think that this was the basic form of the multiverse. Everything you could think of or everything you've ever seen is real in some form with it's own universe that is separated from ours. It would easily explain what was happening right now.

I was standing there tuning out a three foot tall talking chimpanzee by the name of Mojo Jojo. Sure it was a bit dangerous to just tune him out. He was, after all, a supervillian. I just couldn't stand the way he spoke. The first five sentences were as follows:

"Ah so that is what came through that flash of light. You are what came through the light that was flashing. That flashing light brought you to me, Mojo Jojo. I, Mojo Jojo was the first one to find you after the flashing light. Now, I, Mojo Jojo, after having found you after that flashing light-"

I probably should have kept listening, but holy crap that was annoying! Yeah, there was a reason that he talked like that, but it was a long time ago. You would think he would have toned it down. Then again, I assumed it was a long time ago. I could be in Townsville not too long after the beginning of things. Just like in the last world, things aren't necessarily what I believe them to be.

I then did something I probably shouldn't have. I reached down and put my hand over his mouth.

"Holy crap man, stop talking already! You need to learn some...thing about not talking like that. Do you have any idea how utterly annoying that sounds? I literally started tuning you out during that fifth sentence! How the hell do you function in a proper society like that?"

Underneath my hand, I felt him grin. I pulled my hand off of his mouth to let him speak.

"I am not a man. I am a simian. And I do not function in proper society. Society is not a place for me to function properly in. And soon, it will not be a place that you can function in!"

His hand whirled around and when it came back in front of him he was holding onto a two foot long green blaster of some sort. I jumped to left as he fired his weapon. I looked back to where I had been and saw scorch marks behind the place I stood. As he retrained the weapon on me, I brought up my hand to intercept him. I threw up a shield just as he fired upon me. He repeated the process three times before stopping to see what was happening.

"So, you can create energy shields to protect yourself. It will not help you. Your shield will prove no match for me. I, Mojo Jojo, will bring down that shield of yours and defeat you!"

"What did I just say about that stupid repetition of yours?"

Note to self: stop antagonizing the supervillians.

Mojo responded by firing into my shield repeatedly. So far it was holding up to his assault, but I had no idea if it would give out or not to his weapon. Instead of testing that theory out, I teleported behind him. He looked around to see where I went, but before he noticed me, I brought up my invisibility spell to conceal myself.

And it would have worked, too, if not for my betrayer of a growling stomach! Though, in it's defense I hadn't eaten since breakfast and I was at the point where it was currently past dinnertime for my body. Add in the exertion I had done and I was pretty sure the only reason I wasn't on the ground collapsed from hunger was Discord's magic enhancing my body. At least I didn't have to use the bathroom again. The different colors kind of scared me.

Mojo spun around and fired at the sound. Luckily, his aim was off and he fired to my right. He looked around for a second and grinned again.

"Ah, so you can become invisible. Being invisible will not help you. I shall return with a device to see you while you are invisible. Wait right here."

I watched, dumbfounded, as Mojo Jojo literally ran past me and over to the mountain that was his volcano fortress. I couldn't quite believe that he told me to wait here. He really was insane. I booked it out of there as soon as he was out of sight.

I ran for quite a ways. I cleared the park after a few minutes and continued to run through the city for a good distance before I decided to stop. Of course, the only reason I stopped then is because I passed a restaurant and my stomach growled in anger at me.

Moving into an alleyway, I dropped my invisibility spell and tried to regain my bearings. I was currently in the city of Townsville; home of the Powerpuff Girls. Blossom, commander and the leader. Bubbles, she is the joy and the laughter. Buttercup, she's the toughest fighter.

Enough with theme song. The Powerpuff Girls are a group of sisters that were accidentally created in a lab by a man named Professor Utonium. He chose to create the perfect little girls by putting sugar, spice, and everything nice and mixing them together to have the children he never could have. However, in a weird twist of fate, his overly temperamental lab assistant, who happened to be Mojo Jojo (not kidding), knocked into the professor and made him crash into a container of chemical X and added it to the concoction he was working on. Adding chemical X to the brew changed the equation and thus the Powerpuff Girls were born.

They ended up as perfectly nice girls, but with superpowers. Flight, super speed, laser vision, super strength, and a variety of other powers. They also gained even more powers when using combination attacks. They would impress anyone with their abilities. In fact, after a rocky start with the town they became the official superheroes of the town and had a direct line to the mayor whenever he needed assistance to save the town or open his jar of pickles.

If anyone would be willing to help, it's those girls. Bubbles especially would since she was a big animal lover. The problem was that I had no idea how to get to their house. Heck, other than knowing what the buildings looked like, I had no idea how to navigate anywhere.

Ugh, I need to stop thinking this way. I had a beacon. Follow the beacon, find the pony, bring back the pony, repeat. But first, food.

If I didn't eat, then I couldn't do anything. And a Pepsi. I really wanted a Pepsi. I wanted a bathtub-sized glass of Pepsi. But, food first. Oh, I really need a cheeseburger. Yeah, a cheeseburger with mustard and hot sauce.

As I started to drool, I snapped my fingers and a table appeared in the alleyway. Like I could go to a restaurant and order something. I have no money. I snapped my fingers again and a cheeseburger and a glass of Pepsi materialized on the table. I grabbed the cheeseburger off the table and took a bite. It was delicious. It may not have had the mustard or hot sauce, but it was still a welcome taste after going vegetarian the last week or so.

I reached down and grabbed my Pepsi. I then swallowed my bite and took a swig of the amber deliciousness. I promptly sputtered it out. It wasn't Pepsi.

"Oh screw you universe! You and your damn Coca-Cola!"

I set it down and took another bite of my cheeseburger. Just because I didn't have any Pepsi didn't mean I couldn't eat my burger.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

I guess that didn't mean that something else could stop me from eating my burger. I turned around while chewing to see who interrupted me. All I saw was green.

More specifically, I saw the Ganggreen Gang. Ace, Snake, Grubber, Lil' Arturo, and Big Billy. They were a mean spirited group of boys who were pretty much just a bunch of bullies that picked on anybody smaller than them. Collectively, I mean since Lil' Arturo was tiny. Weaker, I guess, would be a better term.

I also guess they decided that I was on that list. Judging from my appearance I wouldn't blame them for thinking that. Normally, they would be right, too. Just not today.

"It lookssssss like a weirdo that wantssss to have a sssssnack," alliterated Snake.

"That's what I thought it looked like. Don't you know that this is our turf?" asked Ace.

"Not really, no. I can leave and eat somewhere else."

"Oh, I know you'll be leaving," Ace said as he cut off the other side of the alley. "But, uh, first things first. You need to pay the tax for usin' our alley like yous was."

"You know, your accent isn't very consistent. Besides, I don't have any money. You can have the rest of my burger and the drink if you want. You can have the table, too. It's a nice table."

Ace grabbed the burger out of my hand and took a bite out of it.

"Mmmm, that is a good burger. Too bad it's not good enough to pay your tax. Get em boys."

The other four rushed at me and I was totally expecting them. They had no powers so I just decided to use my enhanced abilities to counter them instead of my magic.

Big Billy dove at me first, probably trying to hold me down for the rest of them. I simply jumped up and stepped off of his face. I almost missed Lil' Arturo jumping at me because I was thinking about that step. It was so cool! I ducked a punch from Grubber, then sidestepped a dive from Snake. I was surprised how easy it was to avoid these guys. The lack of coordination probably helped.

"What are you guys doin? Stop messin' around and get em!"

They all grouped up in front of me again. This time, however, it looked like they had gotten serious. For starters, everyone except Big Billy rushed at me. I was worried about Ace getting involved, but I couldn't afford to take my eyes off of the group in front of me. Arturo went low, Grubber went for my mid-section, and Snake went for my head. A good tactic. Wait, since when did the Ganggreen Gang use tactics? They have a collective I.Q. of about a hundred. Tactics are beyond their thinking level.

This time, I sidestepped and planted a kick into Grubber's face. This sent him flying back to Billy. It also gave the other two the chance to land and come around for another jump at me. I may have seen it out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn't fast enough to avoid the two from latching onto me. Arturo grabbed my left leg while Snake seemed to almost coil around my mid-section; grabbing both my arms.

As the other two started coming for me, I kicked Arturo with my other leg. This sent him flying into the two coming at me; halting their advance momentarily. Then, with a twisting motion, I managed to get one of my arms free and punch Snake in the face. His grip lost, I grabbed his arm and shoulder-tossed him into the small group. He knocked down Grubber and Arturo, and all three of them collided with Billy. However, it wasn't enough to knock back Billy at all.

As I waited for them to attack again, I felt a smack on the back of my head. It was strong enough that it dropped me to one knee.

"Geez, do I have to do everything?" I heard Ace ask.

I turned around and saw him with a crooked aluminum bat. Holy crap how am I still conscious? Oh wait, the enhanced durability. Again you saved my life. That probably would have gave me a concussion at least if I was back home. Still, he must've had some good momentum on that swing to drop me to a knee if I was figuring out how the new durability thing worked. I wasn't quite sure. I know Dash knocked me unconscious when she tackled me at mach 0.5. Applejack's patented bucking technique was something I barely even felt. The whole thing must have some comedic element to it somewhere, I just know it.

"That really hurt, ya know?"

"I'm surprised you ain't unconscious. I bet I can fix that."

"Not so fast Ganggreen Gang!" I heard some voices cry.

Was that who I thought it was? I looked up to make sure. I then realized I was mostly right.

It was the Powerpuff Girls. Except they definitely weren't girls anymore. They looked like they were in high school.

"Don't yous girls have something better to do?" asked Ace.

"Beating you guys up is what we do!" yelled Buttercup.

Honestly, I can tell you right now that I was a bit awestruck. Half of it was the fact that it was the Powerpuff Girls; defenders of the city of Townsville. They were heroes. The other half of it was, unfortunately, was the fact that I was kind of staring at them because of how hot they were. It was really weird.

They still had their cartoonish appearance. I'm talking anime-sized eyes and somehow they had an outline. They also were pretty well stacked. They were also still wearing their old uniforms only scaled up for their age. Somehow they wore a long, one-piece dress that went from around their necks to about two-thirds of the way down their thighs that was color-coded to their eyes; minus a black band at their waist.  Not only that, they still wore white stockings on their legs that went up past the bottom of their dress, but now instead of wearing regular shoes they wore black boots. Well, except for Buttercup who was wearing black sneakers.

Long story short: they were captivating to look at.

"Haven't you five learned not to pick on the weak?" asked Blossom.

I let that slide because, well, they would normally be right.

"Yeah! Don't you guys have anything better to do than mug some poor ugly man?"

"Hey! That was uncalled for!" I exclaimed in a bit of a lame manner. Just because it was true doesn't mean that she had to state it out loud.

"Buttercup, that was rude," said Blossom.

"Besides, I ain't weak," I said, picking myself off of the ground, "and the talking monkey was tougher than these guys."

"Oh yeah?" asked Ace. "I'll show you tough."

Ace followed up his statement by swinging his bat at me again. This time, I actually caught it in my hand. As he struggled to free it, I couldn't help but think of two things. First, I just caught that with my bare hand. How cool is that? Secondly, if I could catch it like this, why did it affect me like it did before?

Feeling like this was long enough for him to struggle, I grabbed him by his shirt and tossed him into his cohorts. Again, they all collided with each other, but stopped when they hit Big Billy. That guy was a rock. Fortunately, he was a rock and not a mountain. I can pick up a rock.

I let my magic flow and levitated them as a group about ten feet into the air. I then snapped my fingers and they disappeared.

"What did you do to them?" asked Bubbles.

"Well, if it worked like it was supposed to, they should be in jail. Chaos magic can be kind of finicky, though."

"Chaos magic?" asked Blossom.

"Yeah, chaos magic. It isn't exactly the most easy thing in the world to control."

"We know," said Blossom. "We've had run-in's with creatures like that before."

"Well, I'm a good guy in case you're worried about that. I'm just here looking for a friend of mine. She got lost here and I need to bring her home."

"Really? What does she look like?" asked Bubbles.

"Well," I said and scratched the back of my neck lightly, "she's a talking pony."

All three of their eyes lit up.

"Do you mean Fluttershy?" asked Bubbles.

I was a bit surprised.

"Yeah! Do you know where she is? I need to find her to bring her back to the rest of her friends."

"She's back at our house," said Blossom. "We'll take you to her."

After saying that, Blossom swooped down behind me and grabbed me underneath my arms. She then quickly lifted me up and in between her sisters.

"Alright everyone. Let's head home!"

"Right!" the others said in unison.

As we all took off to their house, I felt like this was a welcome change. I would be out of here soon and on to the next girl rather quickly. Things were definitely looking up.
> You Know, I Didn't Actually Say What's the Worst That Could Happen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You know how there are good days and bad days? Well, sometimes there are really awesome days.

Today would be in the category of just shoot yourself because good things will never happen again.

I'm probably overreacting, but at least listen to what happened.

First of all, flying isn't as fun when you aren't used to it. I'm not talking about flying in an airplane. I'm talking about flying at high speed with the only thing keeping you from skipping over the ground is a person holding on to you. I was only able to take my mind off of it by talking with the girls.

And talk we did. I decided to verify things and make sure this wasn't some knock-off version of Powerpuff Girls. Though, there is that cool Snafu Comics version of Powerpuff Girls that I wouldn't mind this being. It turns out that it was the regular Powerpuff Girls, except that it was many years in the future. The fact that made me relax the most was that they were all seniors in high school. Good, because I didn't want to be real creepy about it. Bad, because I'm still ten years older than them and that is pushing the boundary of creepiness. Well, it wasn't like I harbored any thoughts of that anyway. It's just that when you have someone carrying you like this, there was only one place her chest would be. Take a wild guess.

Anyway, I helped them reduce some of the suspicions that they had of me. Apparently, somewhere in the gap of time they came to really distrust anyone with chaos magic. There was some unnamed monster they had to deal with that could use chaos magic. Not only that, but it nearly defeated them effortlessly. They only won by outsmarting it and turning it's own magic against it; somehow causing it to implode. They didn't want to go into detail; only giving a description that, thankfully, didn't match up with Discord.

I decided to be honest with them to an extent as well. I told them that a being named Discord gave me my magic. I also told them that he gave me the coin around my neck to help keep it stable. I pulled it out of my shirt to show them and they didn't really think that it was too impressive.

That was, until I told them it acted as a locator to the missing ponies.

Also, that it wasn't pointing in the direction we were heading.

All of us realizing what this meant, they picked up the pace. Too bad the speed in which they were moving then made me sick. It wasn't bad enough that I emptied what little I did eat, but not exactly a fun trip for the rest of the way.

As we all feared, there was a section missing in their house. It was centered on the middle of the top floor right where the middle window used to be. As the four of us floated into the hole, we all took stock of what happened.

We took a look around while floating inside the girl’s room. The place looked remarkably similar to the way it was back during the show. There was still the multicolored bed, though it was larger than I remembered it to be. There were various knick-knacks scattered around the floor and a few other items on the walls. Even the phone that was connected to the mayor’s office was still sitting on a small pedestal in a corner. However, there were a few things that were different. The hole in the wall being the first things was obvious. The next were the scorch marks on the floor. The third and most critical thing was the red writing on the wall. It read ‘I have your new friend’ and there was a picture underneath nailed to the wall. It showed an unconscious Fluttershy and standing over her was… Him.

A basic description of Him is this: he is evil. He is so evil that the people on the show couldn’t even refer to Him by name. That’s right. He is Voldemort levels of evil. I also secretly suspect him of being a homosexual, but that’s not really here nor there. I just say that because of the horrible way he dresses, I guess.

I only say this now because at the time I wasn’t thinking about that. All I saw was a picture of an unconscious Fluttershy. In hindsight, I bet she just fainted. Too bad that isn’t what I was thinking of as the cause. To me, Fluttershy is the pony I most connect to and seeing that made me angry. Very angry.

Apparently, I was so angry that I missed the girls’ phone going off. I didn’t even know until Blossom got my attention by getting in my face.

“Hey, Seth! It’s Him. It’s the guy who kidnapped your friend Fluttershy.”

I looked down at the phone in her hand. In this situation, there was only one thing my brain could think of: what would Liam Neeson do?

I brought the phone up to my ear and started talking.

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for ransom, I can tell you that I don’t have any money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my friend go, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you.”

I have no idea how the Powerpuff Girls reacted after that. I was too busy listening to the phone; waiting for his answer.

He started with a chuckle.

“Ohhh myyyy,” he started with a reverberating, high pitched voice, “it has been such a looooong time since I’ve heard such a passion for my demiiiiise. Don’t you worry. I can tell you where to find me. I’m at the mayor’s office. Good luck getting here!”

The line went dead and I gave the receiver to Blossom.

“Did you really mean what you said?” asked Bubbles.

“Sort of. I’ve never killed anyone before and I don’t know if I’ll start now. Right now, I’m heading to the mayor’s office and getting Fluttershy out of harm’s way.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Blossom. “Let’s get there as fast as we can.”

“I’m not going to fly there,” I stated.

“What?” Buttercup asked.

“Like I said, I’m getting there right now.”

I moved Blossom out from in front of me and gathered magic into my fists. Then, I managed to do something I’ve always thought of doing. I reached back and then punched the air.

And it cracked.

A spider-web of cracks emerged where my fist stopped and spread out to about an eight foot diameter. I reached back and punched again. This time, the cracks shattered forward. In its place, there was a view of the mayor’s office. Inside, I saw Him sitting in the mayor’s chair. Needless to say, he was very surprised. I had just smashed a portal into being from the girls’ house to the mayor’s office out of pure anger, chaos magic, and ingenuity.

I would’ve had more time to marvel at this if I wasn’t tunnel-visioned onto Him.

“That’s impossible!” he cried.

“That’s Tuesday!” I countered as I marched towards him.

He jumped out of the chair and leaped over the mayor’s desk. He managed to land in the center of the room.

“I swear if you made her cry I will make sure you suffer,” I said with a nice mirrored voice. It sounded pretty menacing, yet I don’t remember even doing anything to make my voice sound like that.

“Haaa, haaa, haaa, you are a real treat,” he said switching to a low-toned voice at the word real. “You have a great deal more rage in you than the girls do. No, I didn’t do anything to your little horsey friend. I made such a display entering their home that she went and fainted on her own.”

Upon hearing this, my rage was quelled quite a bit. I didn’t relax, however. This was Him after all. The guy could get creative like Discord, only with evil spells. Seriously. He once turned the love that the entire city of Townsville had for the Powerpuff Girls into hate, and tried to force the citizens into destroying them. There was no way I was going to give Him a chance to try that crap on me.

“Last chance. Give me Fluttershy and I will leave with her and you will never see either of us again,” I said with the mirror effect still somehow active.

“Hmmmm, very well. I’ll return your precious Fluttershy to you,” Him said with his voice back to its high pitched tone.

He raised his clawed hand and a gout of flames erupted from the floor. When the flames dissipated, Fluttershy was lying down on the floor. I somehow managed to keep my cool that time upon seeing her on the floor. I reached down and grabbed my coin. I pointed it towards her. It wasn’t glowing.

“The real Fluttershy or else that was your last mistake,” I halfway growled.

He gave off a hiss and a pillar of flames erupted this time all the way up to the ceiling. After a few seconds, the pillar disappeared and Fluttershy was standing where they once were. I pointed my coin towards her and this time the coin was glowing.

“That’s better,” I said while my voice went back to normal.

“Seth,” shouted Fluttershy. Well, I say shouted, but that’s in Fluttershy terms. She sounded about as loud as her normal talking voice, but it looked like she was trying to shout so I just went with it.

“Come on over here Fluttershy.”

She nodded and started trotting towards me. I kept my eye on Him the whole way while I looked for any sign of trickery. I dropped to one knee to keep both Him and Fluttershy in my sight.

“Did he hurt you?”

“No. I’m fine,” she said barely above a whisper.

“That’s good,” I replied. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Leaving so soon?” asked a gruff voice.

I looked to my left at the front of the office and saw a smiling Mojo Jojo.

“You again? I really don’t want to have to spank the monkey.”

I heard some chuckles from the girls and a gasp from Fluttershy.

“You shouldn’t be so mean to the nice chimpanzee. You’ll hurt his feelings.”

“That chimpanzee is anything but nice,” I stated flatly.

“Yeah!” added Blossom. “Mojo Jojo is a criminal and has tried to take over the world more times than I can count. And I can count pretty high.”

“That does seem pretty bad, but I’m sure he didn’t really mean it. Did you Mr. Jojo?”

“Uhh, yeah. I was just a poor misunderstood chimpanzee lashing out at the people who shunned me. I didn’t really mean to do it.”

“Oh come on!” yelled Buttercup.

“No,” I said. “We are not having this. Fluttershy, look at me.”

She hesitated a bit, but eventually she looked me in the eyes.

“We haven’t been friends for long, but I want you to trust me. Mojo Jojo is a bad chimp. He has been doing bad things for a long time. He has been given so many chances to be good. Even when he does take them, he chooses to be bad. I know you are sympathetic to animals, but he isn’t an animal. Not anymore. Now, he is just evil. The very moment I arrived here, he just blasted me for no reason.”

“I blasted you because you interrupted me by placing your hand over my mouth. Your hand on my mouth prevented me from talking.”

I turned from Fluttershy to respond.

“It’s not interrupting if you say the same sentence in a different way over and over again. Do you realize people tune you out when you do that? You still shouldn’t have blasted me for that. That was a bit of an overreaction.”

“It’s a personal space issue.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll concede you that.”

I turned back to Fluttershy.

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve seen him do terrible things. Please trust me. Besides, we need to go back home. I still need to find the rest of your friends and the longer I stay here, the longer that will take. I’ve already been awake for over twenty-four hours straight as of now and I’ve only found you and Applejack. I still have four more ponies to find. Let’s go Fluttershy.”

“You are not going anywhere,” said Mojo. “You are going to stay right here and help us defeat the Powerpuff Girls once and for all.”

I looked at him with eyes filled with disbelief.

“You must be crazier than I thought if you think I would help you do anything bad to them.”

“We don’t care what you think about it,” said Him. “We just need that energy of yours.”

I saw some of what they were doing come into focus.

“You want my chaos magic. You know the girls have had trouble against it in the past and now you want to use it to defeat them now.”

“You are correct,” stated Mojo. “We knew that there was a powerful source of chaos energy somewhere in Townsville. I detected some trace amounts of it in the little pony, but I knew that she could not be the source. Then, earlier today I detected the same energy in a flash of light near my hideout. You were the only person around in the park at the time and were, in fact, standing right where the light originated from. I surmised that it was you who were the cause of the light and it was you who had the chaos energy within them and thanks to this device-“

He stopped for a moment to pull out a small device. It looked kind of like an I-Pad.

“-I knew for sure that you were a source of chaos energy. That is when I came up with a plan to use that energy to defeat the Powerpuff Girls. I knew there was only one being that could manipulate chaos energy safely enough to use it against them.”

“That would be me,” said Him in his high voice.

“I deduced that the pony would serve as bait to lure you in since she had been a target for us before you had even arrived. It would have been difficult to capture her since she was staying with the Powerpuff Girls. Then, with the good fortune of the girls leaving for some reason, Him was quick to act and take her from their home. Leaving a trail for you to find her, we led you to City Hall. The mayor and his assistant are on vacation so it was perfect timing for us to use. Unfortunately, you did not come from the Powerpuff Girls’ home to here by flying. Therefore, my perfectly prepared trap was foiled."

“Not to mention,” I added, “that the surprise seems to have fixed your repetition problem that you seemed to have. I knew you could overcome that handicap.”

Mojo seemed to seethe a little from the remark.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Him. “You are right where we needed you to be. And now we will-“

“Hold that thought for a second,” I interrupted.

I turned to the Powerpuff Girls.

“Do you three think that you can handle them without me, or should I help you out?”

“We can take Mojo and Him out, no problem!” said Buttercup.

“Yeah! We do this all the time!” added Bubbles.

“They shouldn’t be a problem as long as they can’t use your chaos magic,” finished Blossom.

“Alright then.”

I turned back to the two villains.

“Well, I don’t know what dastardly plans that the two of you have, but I don’t think I should stick around and let you use me to destroy these three lovely ladies.”

I reached out without looking and grabbed Fluttershy’s leg.

“With that said, it’s been real, it’s been fun, but it ain’t been real fun. See ya!”

I grabbed the coin around my neck and placed Fluttershy’s hoof on it. I heard someone shout ‘No!’ as we were then slowly engulfed by white light. I closed my eyes as it lasted a few seconds and then it went back to normal. I opened my eyes to see if I had returned to Equestria. I saw a pair of eyes surrounded by the frame of a pony face directly in my own.

I jumped back a little and fell on my back after forgetting that I was still kneeling. I heard some chuckles and looked around. I was indeed back in Equestria. I was instantly happy that I had gotten out of there without having to fight off Mojo Jojo and Him. I had no idea of the depths of his abilities and I wasn’t eager to find out. See the Voldemort reference to understand what I mean.

“We are glad to see you have returned safely once again, Seth,” I heard Celestia say.

“So am I. When you are facing down Him, you have to be glad to get away without any problems.”

“Him? Him who?” asked Applejack.

“An incarnation of evil. Be glad you don’t know,” I answered.

“He was really scary,” supplemented Fluttershy.

“That sounds like something I’ve faced before,” I heard a voice I couldn’t identify say.

I scanned around a bit and my eyes fell on a pony I hadn’t seen around here before. He was a tan pony with a brown mane. I looked at his cutie mark and-

I stared for a second. It was an hourglass cutie mark. I couldn’t help but ask the obvious.

“Who exactly are you?”

“Oh, hello there! I’m the Doctor!”
> Working Out Some Wrinkles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“No. Just no. I am not listening to this. This is not how this is going down.”

“What is he talking about?” asked the Doctor.

“He does not quite recognize you as the way you are,” Celestia explained. “To him, you are also supposed to be a human.”

“Ah, yes, he’s probably seen an alternate dimensional version of me. That would make sense.”

“So,” I began with an audible annoyance in my voice. “Which version of the Doctor are you? There is a great deal to choose from. Are you a native of Gallopfrey or Gallifrey? Which regeneration cycle are you on? Is this your native dimension or are you also from another dimension? Did you used to be human? Lastly, would you mind if I saw your TARDIS? I’ve always wanted to see one up close,” I finished with much less annoyance and much more fanboyish glee.

“My, he is quite knowledgeable. To answer your questions, I’m from the planet Gallifrey. I’m on my tenth regeneration cycle. I’m not native to this dimension. I used to be human. And I suppose you can see my TARDIS, but no touching!”

“Sweet, the David Tennant version. That’s my favorite Doctor. The eleventh doctor might be pretty cool, but you always prefer the version you see first in my opinion.”

“What!?! Eleventh? There is an eleventh Doctor?”

“Yeah, there is. I don’t know if telling you about him would mess up timelines or not since it’s a different dimension or not. That’s not really important now, though.”

“Yes, yes. That isn’t why we’re here. Or should I say that isn’t why you are here. It might be why I am here. Who really knows? Maybe you know.”

“I might know, but I don’t know if I really know what you want to know. You know?”

The Doctor chuckled a little.

“I also know I’d like to get up now.”

“Oh! Yes. Right.”

He backed up out of my face and that allowed me to get to my feet.

“We were getting worried about you Seth,” said Celestia. “It has been over three days since you went into the second rift.”

“Three days you say?”

“Yes. I assume that it was much longer for you?”

“The opposite was true this time. It seems that none of the dimensions I’ve been to are temporally aligned. The first one I went to had time move more quickly than here. The second one had time more slowly than here. None of them seem to align properly.”

“So how long were you there this time?”

I looked at my watch.

“A few hours, I think. I’m surprised at how little I’m looking at my watch lately. I used to do it a great deal more often.”

“Hmm, yes. I see,” said the Doctor.

“Oh I do not like the sound of that,” I said. “That sounds like a ‘don’t worry, you’ve got something, but I’ll fix it if you don’t panic’ kind of thing. Please don’t tell me I’ve contracted some space illness that fries my perception of time!”

“What? Noooo. You don’t have anything like that. I’ve barely even seen you and you definitely don’t have any of those symptoms anyway.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” I said. “I better get moving to the next rift then. I need to get them back as soon as I can.”

“But Seth,” Fluttershy started in an oddly strong voice, “you said you have been up for over a day now. You should get some rest.”

“Every second I’m here, it takes that much more time for me to bring them back. That temporal offset means that potentially for every hour I’m here, one month could be passing there. I’ve seen a time dilation room where one day on the outside meant an entire year passed on the inside. Could you imagine how they might feel if I took an entire year to save them? Could you imagine how spending a year away from everything you know would make you feel?”

I was going to continue asking her questions, but the look on her face made me stop. She could clearly understand what I was saying already without having me continue on. However, that look suddenly changed and I was unprepared for what was next.

“What about you, Seth? I know that they could be patient and wait for somepony to come to their rescue, but they can only be rescued by you. What would happen if you burned yourself out? If you did that, then at the very least it would take a lot longer for them to be rescued. I’m sure that they will understand why it took so long. You need to rest.”

Normally, I would have taken her advice. Unfortunately, I dug into my trench instead of listening to her.

“I can’t wait. I have to get them out of there. What if they’re stuck somewhere even less pleasant than the places that you two have been? For all I know, they could be stuck in Silent Hill or be on board the Ishimura or in Raccoon City.”

“That doesn’t seem too bad,” said Fluttershy.

“There are no actual raccoons in Raccoon City. All there are in Raccoon City are flesh-eating zombies.”

Upon saying that, all the color drained from Fluttershy’s face. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the zombie part. Too late for that, I guess.

"Sorry, but it illustrates my point. I'm being introduced to the multiverse face first and I don't know if they went somewhere like that or somewhere nice like, say, Pokemon or the like. Heh, that would be kind of funny. Fluttershy; master Pokemon trainer."

I heard a chuckle and turned to see it come from Celestia. I'm glad someone appreciated that. I turned back around, right into the Stare. As the familiar uncomfortable feeling came over me, I couldn't help but think as to why she had done a 180 straight from 'horror of zombies' to 'do this or else'.

"I believe Fluttershy is the correct party here," said Celestia. "Remember, if you focus on one thing and only one thing, a dozen different options can pass you by. A good rest and something to eat can only help you out in the future."

With Fluttershy in full stare mode, the only thing I could do was nod slightly to affirm my defeat. With that done, Fluttershy returned to normal and I felt the effects gradually disappear.

"Fine," I mumbled, "I'll get some rest. I did get interrupted while I was eating something in the last place anyway. All I managed was two bites before the Ganggreen Gang descended upon me."

I looked around past the ponies present and tried to see any place to take a rest. There were a few tents set up and I decided to try them out.

"Hey princesses, you haven't been ignoring your duties to stick around here have you?"

"We have left the daily routines of Canterlot to Prince Blueblood," said Celestia.

I gave her a look that pretty much left my impression of what I thought of that.

"I am aware of what he is like and I understand why you and many others think this way. However, he is a capable bureaucrat and has done this many times when I must be away from the castle on business. He may not leave a good impression with his personality. However, I trust him in performing my political duties in my absence. My sister and I can raise and lower the sun and moon from anywhere so that leaves us time to monitor your progress here."

"Alright, but no one tell Rarity this or she might have a conniption fit."

A few nods later and I started heading towards the tents. A quick thought came to mind as I turned back around.

"Oh hey, Doctor, do you think you can try and find a way to get more than just me into these rifts? I'd really like to have some help on these little trips after seeing where I've been the last two times."

"I'll see what I can do, but I don't think I can make it work without knowing exactly how you are able to do it."

"What do you mean by that? I've just been touching the arc of energy and it sends me there."

"Really? That's fascinating!"

"Why is that fascinating? Is it deadly or something?"

"Yes, yes it is! The energy coming from these rifts would kill any organic creature that came into contact with it unless they had some sort of suited protection. You, of course, don't have that at all. That is why it is fascinating!"

"It might just have to do with the fact of who made it. Discord and I kind of combined to create these rifts. They probably just don't affect the caster."

"Oh, if that's the reason that wouldn't be any fun at all now would it?"

"Well, you're the smart one here and I'm not. Sometimes I wish I was smarter, but I don't have the drive, the attention span, nor several other things to..."

"Things to what?"

I barely heard him over the sounds of the gears turning in my head. I realized something important during the start of my rant. Back home, I didn't learn very well as I got into high school. I think it was probably triggered by my parents divorce, but I would never say that to anybody. I honestly think it was just an excuse for me to get lazy. Since then, I went from a GPA of 3.5 to a GPA at the end of my schooling in college of 2.0. I just did not have the drive to learn anymore.

Things are different now. Thanks to Discord giving me a slap to the brain, I had the limited ability to remember things at will. If I combined that with interest in magic and the time to learn all these things, I could potentially figure out magic in a better way.

Let's face it, I only know a bit of magic. I had a few spells which basically meant I had the equivalent of Rarity in the spells department. Sure I had more magic than her, but no variety. If I wanted to be of any use, I needed to get more out of what I had. The problem I had was that I didn't have the time to do so.

"But the Doctor does," I finished out loud.

"What? I do what?"

"Doctor, I need a little help right now. Do you think I can see your TARDIS a little early?"

"And why did you want to see my TARDIS early for? Shouldn't you be getting some rest?"

"I want you to send me back in time a week," I stated bluntly.

"What? Why would I do that?"

"Because I was thinking in linear terms. I don't have the time to do things right now, like learn new spells or learn how to wield my magic more efficiently. If I had a week to do so-"

"Then you might have a better handle on it," the Doctor interrupted. "I see where you're going with this."

"I know you don't like doing this, especially considering the fact that I might screw up timelines. However, I know full well the problems that I could have crossing my own timeline and would not do that. Also, I don't plan on going anywhere near any ponies that I've met during the time I was here before. Keep out of sight and don't affect the timeline. Don't try to stop Discord early, don't warn anyone about what's happening. I understand these things. I just need some time to rest up and learn some magic with minimal consequences. Will you help me, please Doctor?"

I looked at him as he mumbled to himself. I knew that he was considering it, but I wasn't sure if he would do it. After all, I only had basic understanding when it came to time theories and it's ilk. Still, I hoped that my speech would be enough to convince him.

"As a rule, I would say no, but this seems very important and you seem to know what you are doing. Well, that and I want to study this little coin a bit more."

I looked on as he somehow held up the coin that was around my neck. When the hell did get that from me? Better yet, how did he get that off of me without me noticing? There's no clasp on that. It has to come off from over my head. How would I not have seen that in my field of vision?

I quickly levitated the coin out of his grasp and back into my hand.

"Normally, I would let you study all you want. Normally. However, Discord gave me that coin with the warning not to let it out of my sight. This coin has saved me twice at least. I'm not exactly keeping count. I'd rather it not be out of my possession if at all possible."

"Oh come now, I don't think that having it away from you for awhile will be that bad."

"You're welcome to examine it while I'm around. The last time that was away from me being examined, Ponyville became Humanville."

"Uh, beggin yer pardon there sugarcube, but that there was yer own fault," interjected Applejack.

"Applejack, I didn't want him knowing that. It doesn't matter. I still don't want the coin away from my person or out of my sight."

"Oh, alright. You've twisted my leg long enough."

Twisted his leg?

"Let's head over to the TARDIS."

"Celestia, Luna, you're coming too."

"What?" asked Luna.

"Well, there isn't anyone else unless I somehow get Shining Armor to come along with me. You two are the most magically proficient beings around. Who better to teach me than you two?"

"We are needed to raise and lower the sun and moon," protested Luna.

"And you already will have for the past week. Duh," I finished with a little bad humor.

"Why should we train thou in the art of magic?"

"To help save the Elements of Harmony. Other than random acts of chaos, I can teleport, levitate, shield, use magic beams, and turn invisible. I know my magic recharges through acts of chaos, but I have no idea if it will give out on me at any point. I would rather be able to stop anyone from harming the girls without having to fight some epic battle. Plus, I ended up in Japan on the first try. I think I at least need to learn a translation spell. I don't think the TARDIS can help me across dimensions that way. If I can't understand anyone, how can I hope to have them help me or even help them if I need to?"

That last part seems to have given everyone some food for thought. I should have just led with that. The more I know, the more I can help. It's too bad I can't seem to articulate that point well enough out loud.

"But you can articulate it in your head," said Celestia. "Knowing that you will use the magic we teach you in order to help others is the greatest concern I have. I believe that you can do this. I will accompany you. What will you do, Luna?"

"We, I mean I, shall accompany you as well."

"Thank you both very much," I said with a grateful tone.

"It will not be as simple as you think it will, Seth," said Celestia. "In order to do what you ask of us in the time you propose will be difficult. Twilight Sparkle is a prodigy and she already knows the symbols required to read spells. Learning the symbols for spells requires the basic understanding that all unicorns learn over the course of several years. Years that we do not have. That does not even include the problem that you do not know the basic cursive Equestrian that most books are written in. We can teach you how to translate vocal languages, however we cannot teach translations of written languages. We may end up having to resort to drastic measures to make this work."

I did not like the sound of drastic measures. I don't think the term drastic measures forebodes anything good in the history of ever. Still, it was for the sake of the girls. Easy isn't something I expected for this in the first place. Sure there was that moment in the last place I was in, but that came crashing down rather quickly. I doubt that I was a match for Him and Mojo even with the Powerpuff Girls with me. I did not want to take the chance of them using my chaos magic against the Powerpuff Girls. I doubt I could live with knowing that I had helped hurt them. No, I needed to do this.

I put up a brave front and continued on.

"Well, why are we still standing here? We need to get moving. All of us. Let's go."

I turned back around and started walking again.

"The TARDIS is that way," said the Doctor while pointing off to my right.

"Right. I was headed that way. I was just going to take the long way. Avanti!"

I continued off to the sounds of laughter coming from several ponies. I had magic training to do. Sure, it sounds like it would be fun.

I was prepared for things to be everything other than fun.
> I Wasn't the Worst Student Ever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think there was one sentence that summed up my entire six days of training.

"Never have I seen one so thick-headed when it came to learning magic as I have seen with you."

For the record, Luna said that. Exactly like that, and not in her royal way of saying things.

What was going through my brain the whole time was how I was able to learn magic relatively easily when it was Twilight teaching me, yet when Celestia and Luna were trying to teach me I was basically jamming a rod in the spokes of a bicycle. It took me a while to understand it. They hadn't actually taught me any spells at all. Every spell I had was self-taught.

Levitation was when Pinkie Pie surprised me with her party cannon. The magic beam was a natural attunement to unleashing energy. Invisibility was when the crowd made me so uncomfortable that I literally vanished from sight. Teleportation was me wishing to be somewhere else during the whole Ponyville people incident. The shield spell, well, I refuse to talk about that. Bad, bad memories come from that. Finally, that semi-portal spell I just attributed to chaos magic and anger.

All of those spells had been created by necessity and opportunity. Everything else has been a product of chaos magic. In fact, the only thing I've learned that involved magic was my illusion spell. Again, out of opportunity, I created an illusion of Celestia beforehand, but had attributed that to chaos magic back when I had originally used it in Ponyville. It turned out that I had done that with a normal spell instead.

I had previously thought back when I was levitating the books in Twilight's library that my magic was all about power, concentration, and a little creativity. Twilight had told me that I needed to envision, concentrate, and then create the spell. Though concentration was necessary for normal spells, chaos magic didn't work that way. I ended up only being sort of right. The creativity part was the key. I could only learn a new spell by getting creative under stress.

The issue I then thought of was the time I used transformation magic with Spike. Why had I been able to use that at that time? In the end, I went with it being the byproduct of a mix of concentrating too hard and using chaos magic. It was like pushing a square peg through a round hole. The difference here being that the hole was surrounded by wood and the peg was made of metal and at the same time you hammered it in with brute force. It didn't really sound like a satisfying answer, though. It was just the only thing that I could think of.

Basically, the whole week was mostly just me finding out that I sucked at learning things. The first day was fun, though. After the princesses reassured the guards, Applejack, and Fluttershy not to follow, we all went to the Doctor's TARDIS. I had the natural reaction to seeing it; fanboyish glee. I went inside and out of it a few times just because of how awesome that was. Sure, I knew just how it worked, but seeing is more fun than being told.

The Doctor then went to talking to the princesses for a bit. I'm not sure what they were talking about since they had switched languages. I wasn't even aware that they could speak in other languages with the TARDIS there. I had thought that the TARDIS automatically translated in every language with the exception of ancient Gallifreian and a few other equally ancient languages. As far as I knew, the princesses couldn't speak that. The logical conclusion for me was that the TARDIS wasn't translating for me just yet.

After running around pressing buttons, turning knobs, pulling levers, and a quick knock with a hammer we were off with the familiar sound of the TARDIS and it's parking brake. Not that I'm any better. When I was learning how to drive, I once drove a mile and a half with the parking brake on and no one noticed until I said something and yanked it off. I got teased for two months about it and once when I was a senior. Apparently, I'm now an example for instructors telling students to check the parking brake.

When we all felt the TARDIS settle, I waited for him to let us out. He then gave a gesture from behind the console with his hoof and I went to the door. As I opened it, I looked out to the hills of...

Canterlot? I was outside Canterlot near the front gates with the castle just barely in view. Sure the whole place looked like a castle, but I only counted the part where the princesses lived as the actual castle.

I facepalmed. I should have known that something like this would happen. What I wasn't prepared for was to be seen. There was an audible gasp and I looked down. It was a little unicorn filly. She had a light green coat and had almost the same color mane with a white streak in it. She hadn't even gotten her cutie mark yet.

Wait a second. Light green, white streak in her mane, some brownish eyes, has now spotted a human. There were too many things lining up for this to be a coincidence.

I squatted down and looked her in the eyes. I then put on a big smile.

"Hey there little one. What's your name?"

She was a bit hesitant, but finally answered.

"Lyra."

I let a quick snort before keeping myself from busting out laughing.

"Hi there Lyra. Aren't you a cute little filly?"

She started smiling herself and looked me up and down.

"What are you, mister?"

"Why, I'm a human. Don't tell anyone though. I'm a secret. I'd tell you more, but I shouldn't be here right now. You run along to your parents okay?"

She nodded and started running away from me. I then got up and stepped back inside and closed the door.

"This isn't Appleloosa. It's Canterlot. Also, it's several years in the past."

"What? That doesn't seem right," said the Doctor.

"Well, I just bumped into a filly whose name was Lyra and she looked just like the human obsessed pony that I ran into a few days ago. I'm pretty sure that it was my fault that she was so obsessed from just saying something to her younger self. It also fulfills the reason as to why we are here I bet. Let's try getting to the right place this time."

"Oh come on. Why don't we have a little adventure why we're here?" asked the Doctor.

"Normally, I'd say yes," I answered, "but since we're in Canterlot I would rather not have the Princesses run into their younger selves and form a paradox. I'm pretty sure you remember how that went with Rose right?"

I regretted saying her name as he looked at me. That definitely brought up something in him.

"I'm sorry I brought her up. It was uncalled for. I should have known better," I said.

"You do know quite a bit about me, don't you?"

"I'm afraid I do. I know I shouldn't know these things, but I do. I don't know everything, though. I never know what you're thinking if that helps. I only know about things from about the time you met Rose forward. I only know a little bit about before then. Perhaps we should continue on."

He mumbled a few things to himself and looked a bit sad, but continued on changing things around on his console.

"Oi! Do you know how to drive the TARDIS?" he asked me.

"Not really. The controls look way too chaotic for me."

I had a quick thought.

"On second thought, do you mind if I try to do it?"

All three of them stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

"What?" they chorused together.

My hands glowed as magic gathered in them.

"It's just something I'd like to try."

I held my hands up by my head and closed my eyes. I then started snapping my fingers slowly. First my left hand. Then my right hand. I waited about a second between alternating my snapping. After a dozen snaps on each finger, I stopped and held out both hands straight in front of me and snapped them together. I then opened my eyes.

Their eyes weren't on me anymore. They were all transfixed on the console. I didn't see anything moving, but I think I may have done something when I wasn't looking. I then heard the sounds of the TARDIS in motion.

"Did I do it?" I asked.

They all looked at me again. Their faces dripping with surprise. Even Celestia couldn't contain the look of surprise on her face. If I had a camera, I would've taken a picture and used that as my new screen saver. It was sheer gold.

"I take it I did something," I said with barely contained humor.

I heard the TARDIS stop and looked behind me at the door, then back at them.

"Well, let's see if I've doomed us all or not."

"What?" said the Doctor.

I rolled my eyes and snapped my fingers. A bucket full of water appeared above all of their heads and dumped on them. It worked to snapped them out of their stupor.

"I have never seen anyone drive the TARDIS like that," said Princess Luna.

"Neither have I," said the Doctor.

"I just thought that since the controls looked chaotic to me that perhaps if I used chaos magic then I could fly the TARDIS. You didn't mind did you you lovely lass?" I said as I patted one of the rails.

"But that doesn't make any sense," said the Doctor.

"It's chaos," I deadpanned.

I snapped my fingers and a whoopie cushion appeared in my hand.

"Learn to live with it," I said and pushed on it.

The noise seemed to mollify Princess Celestia well enough. I saw her bring her hoof to her mouth and though I couldn't hear it, I swear she chuckled a little.

I, on the other hand, looked them over once more, then turned around and opened the door. Outside, was not Canterlot anymore. I looked out and around and it looked like the plains of Appleloosa. Not many trees were around and there were mostly dusty fields with a few hills as far as I could see. The sun was really beating down on me as well. Though, without any identifying characters, I couldn't really be sure.

Wait. There. There was my proof. I watched as a herd of buffalo crested one of the hills. That helped me out. It wasn't proof that I was there, but at least if I talked to them then I could be sure without compromising the timeline.

"Everyone, I'm going to go talk to those buffalo. I want to make sure where we are."

"But what if thou art wrong? Those could be the buffalo of old. They had no allegiance to anypony but themselves."

"If I don't go, I won't know anyway. Celestia can help, though. Right Celestia?"

"If you think that will work, then I will come with you."

"Wow, that sure was a ringing endorsement. How about I go and I'll teleport back if something goes wrong?"

"Better," said Celestia tentatively.

Well, I did just that and they ended up being rather nice after the initial shock of meeting a human wore off. They told me that I was in the right place. Also, as far as I could tell, I was in the right time as well. We were basically about two miles from the battleground one week in the past. Chaos wins this round.

Unfortunately, it was one of only two rounds I won for the entire week. I let the Doctor look at my coin whenever we were in the TARDIS, but only when we were all in the TARDIS. Otherwise, I was busy trying to learn spells.

A translation spell was the first thing we tried. It was the thing that I knew I needed the most. If you can't talk to anyone, then how could we understand each other? The Doctor had to turn off the language translator program in the TARDIS to see if it worked. It didn't. The next thing was a sleeping spell. I think I felt more awake than when I started and the others thought that as well. We kept on trying with a great many other things. Mind reading, the cloud walking spell, a change place spell that was a bit odd, and the list went on. We ended up trying over forty different spells with the only thing that worked being an illusion spell that I made myself on the fourth day.

The illusion I created basically made them go all over the TARDIS by changing the words on the direction plates. The control room is really only the first thing you see when you go inside the TARDIS. It's actually several floors and has many different things on each floor. The signs are what help you to keep from getting lost in there. I ended up changing them around in appearance to lead them to the pool. That's right. There is a pool in the TARDIS. I guess that joke from the season five premier wasn't a joke at all.

Eventually, they made it back to my temporary room with very unamused looks. Though, they were a bit happier when I told them that I changed the signs with magic. Of course, they thought it was chaos magic and when I went and fixed them, they were pleasantly surprised. They stopped trying to teach me new spells that day and instead had me practice with better and better illusions.

I didn't really want to say much about it. I mean, that concert I threw with the ten identical copies of me wasn't an illusion and was pretty cool already. Then again, I wasn't sure I could recreate that. The neat thing with the illusion spell, though, was now I had my very own mp3 player whenever I wanted. I could think of a song and then use the spell to create auditory illusions. Unfortunately, my taste in music was not appreciated by the Doctor and I had to give that up.

During that day of training, we did get to see the sight of my magic beam sending Discord flying. I didn't realize just how much air I got on that. The Doctor had been the only one of us who didn't know what that was. After we told him, he went into a nice little speech about something involving us being seen by Discord and messing up the timeline. I brought up the point that nothing had happened to us, so he must not have seen us. It took all three of us to calm him down.

Other than that, the only thing I had managed to do was slightly refine my other spells. I managed to shrink my shield spell to conform to my body and increase it to about six feet in diameter when using a dome shield. I managed to extend the invisibility spell to things not on my person, but only up to about the size of refrigerator and only while I was in contact with it. Still, a winning improvement. The last thing I improved was that I could now fire a magic beam from both hands at the same time and I had managed to make them into orbs of energy if I wanted to. The power had barely improved, but the versatility was nice to have.

I didn't manage to improve any on the teleportation or levitation spells at all. Though, the princesses were surprised that I could teleport without a bright flash. I hadn't even noticed it until they had brought it up.

On the whole, I only gained one spell and just refined several others. I did, however, get a nice gift from the TARDIS herself on the day we went back. That's right. The TARDIS gave me a gift. A personal translator pin. It was even shaped like the TARDIS herself. That was some cool swag. After I put it on, I walked up to one of the pillars and gave it a hug. I didn't care if it was an inanimate object. Screw you conformists!

After that, we all started back. I said my goodbyes to the TARDIS since I wasn't heartless and the four of us walked off in the direction of the battleground. After an hour, we all made it back to the place and back to the rifts and the awaiting ponies we had left behind.

"Princess!!!" yelled Applejack; the first to notice us.

We all calmly strode on to the area with Applejack, Fluttershy, Shining Armor, and a few other guards coming towards us. I nudged the Doctor.

"What are we? Chopped liver?"

"Oh give them their moment. They'll realize that we're here soon enough. We're not the main attraction here."

"True enough. While we have time to talk, do you think that you could try to align the rifts to this temporal plane? I hope you understand what I meant since that sounded terrible."

"I believe that you're trying to ask me to align the temporal signatures of each rift to correlate with the one here to avoid the large differences that occur in each."

"I am in awe of your mighty brain good sir."

As the princesses and the others had a nice reunion with each other, the Doctor and I waited patiently. The first pony to finally acknowledge us was Shining Armor. He didn't exactly have a nice look on his face.

"I trust your time was well spent?" he asked in a tone that oozed mistrust.

"First things first, the princesses were fine and were never in any danger. I never put them in danger. No danger ever came their way. Despite what you ask, I know that is your top priority before pleasantries. Other than that, I found out that I am terrible at learning things."

I could tell he wasn't happy about that last bit of news. It was pretty much written all over his face.

"So what you are telling me was that it was a waste of time to go on this trip."

"Of course not. I improved upon my spells and learned that I could use illusion magic already. The Doctor here also got some data on Discord's coin. This trip was definitely not a waste of time. Every bit of improvement and every bit of information helps us out in the long run and makes it easier for all of us to keep people safe."

"Ponies," he corrected me.

"Exactly. All of us become better protected. I know you want that. It will also help us get your sister and her friends back. I know damn well that we all want that and anything that can help improve the odds of that happening is in no way a waste of time."

Shining seemed to mull on that for a bit.

"How ya doin' there partner?"

I turned to Applejack as she addressed me.

"I'm alright. I'm ready to go help get everyone back now. I have no idea how long it will take, but the less time it takes, the better off for everyone. How long were we gone by the way?"

"Bout a half an hour ah'd say."

"Good. Barely any time passed by. It's time to get back to work."

I walked past them and mover over to the remaining rifts. As I got close to one, I pulled out my coin from under my shirt and held it out to see who was in that particular rift. In this case, it was Pinkie Pie.

"It looks like Pinkie Pie is next," I stated matter-of-factually.

"Be careful, Seth," said Princess Celestia. "Though your magic is more potent now, the danger that these worlds present has not potentially lessened."

"Not every world is a bad one Celestia. I'll see you all soon with a Pinkie Pie at my side."

I gave everyone and over the shoulder wave. Then, I reached forward and-

"Wait!"

I turned back around to see the Doctor fumbling around.

"Sorry. I just wanted to catch you entering one of those with the sonic."

I watched as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver out of somewhere. I'm pretty sure that I squealed a little when I saw it. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver was just as synonymous with him as his TARDIS was. I somehow was drawn to him as I saw that.

"You like this?" he asked playfully.

"Two things are thought of when I think the Doctor. One is the TARDIS, and the other is the sonic screwdriver. Did you know that they sell replicas of the sonic screwdriver you have?"

"Really? They sell replicas of this?"

"I think that the two of you are getting off track," said Celestia.

"Ah, yes. Quite right. Go on then. I want to take a look with the sonic when you touch that rift. Might discover something helpful when I do."

I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to see it in action, but I knew that they were right. I turned back around and reached for the rift again. I was about to touch it when I heard the sonic screwdriver. I hesitated a few seconds and then touched the rift.

It was the same sensation as always. Blinding light in my eyes and the subsequent trying to remove the spots from my eyes. Though, this time around I heard the Doctor's sonic screwdriver suddenly cut out. It was a nice frame of reference for me if nothing else.

When my vision returned, I noticed a familiar surrounding.

An alleyway. I got a bit nervous. I hadn't had good luck when I was in alleyways the last few times. I decided to leave the alleyway quickly before something bad happened. When I reached the end, I realized it wasn't really an alleyway per se. Sure, I was in between two buildings. However, they were just storage buildings near some docks of some sort.

I tucked my coin back in my shirt and took a careful look around. I kept finding myself in fictional places and chances were that pattern wasn't going to stop now. Like they said on G.I. Joe: knowing is half the battle.

I was at the docks. Yeah, that was obvious. There wasn't really anything useful to help me out there. There were a few unmarked metal storage buildings, a few piers that went off into the water a bit, there was a crane in the middle of one of those piers that helped move things around, and some dark water since I couldn't really see much in the middle of the night. I was surprised that I could see anything at all with the clouds covering the sky.

Wait a second. Why did it look like there were stars on the clouds? What kind of sense did that make? Perhaps there was something in the clouds that made it look like that?

No. Trying to figure that out was not my problem. Sure, I guess it might end up being a problem if it was hazardous to my health. Ugh. I didn't want to have to think about that. I'll just trust that Discord's magical reinforcement fought off anything that would cause me to get sick.

"Who goes there?"

I heard a voice nearby and looked around for the source. I couldn't see anybody and instead walked back to the alleyway. It was a better idea than staying where I was anyway. I first needed to know where I was and then second I needed to find Pinkie Pie. Well, not necessarily the first one if I could find Pinkie Pie before then.

"There! There's the... Wait. Is that a human?"

Oh, I did not like the sound of that. I looked around, but couldn't see where the voices were coming from. Without other options, I looked up. I was not pleased with what I saw.

It was a pair of pegasi. I couldn't make out their color from where I was, but they were undoubtedly pegasus ponies.

"What the hell?" I asked.

"Quickly! We must capture him and take him to Empress Nightmare Moon!" the one on the left said.

OH HELL NO!!!

I brought forth some magic in my hands as they both divebombed me. I threw the energy balls at them and they both hit straight on since they didn't have time to evade at their distance. It stopped their forward momentum and the both of them fell another ten feet to the ground. They looked like they were still barely conscious so I decided to activate my invisibility spell and ran by them to what looked like some city buildings.

What the hell man? Nightmare Moon? Nightmare freaking Moon!?! What the hell!?!

I didn't like that at all. This place made no sense. Reasonably advanced civilization, pegasus ponies, Nightmare Moon, well at least that did explain the sky. Wherever I was, Nightmare Moon was in control. That was evident. It must be some place where the Elements of Harmony didn't win against her somehow. Not good at all. I needed to get Pinkie Pie out of here, and fast.

I was so busy running that I almost missed something. The kind of something that just stops you in your tracks. There, over near a collapsed building, was a sight that made my blood run cold.

A giant robot. Not just any giant robot, but one I remembered well. A knightmare frame.

Ponies mixed with Code Geass. Something else kicked in the back of my brain. It was a sense of familiarity. Like I almost expected it. After a few minutes of staring at the frame, the gears in my head clicked into the right sequence. I knew exactly what was happening. Only it shouldn't be happening.

I was in a damn fanfiction universe.
> Sure, Now Things Make "Pinkie Sense"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the realization that I was in a fanfiction universe dawned on me, I think I may have had a tough time adjusting.

Okay, I'm pretty sure I was yelling obscenities at anything I could think of. After that, I walked up to a building and just slumped down against it. I wasn't thinking about finding Pinkie Pie at that moment. I was thinking that basically people could create universes just by imagining it. An entire universe solely based on thought.

It made me think for quite a bit. It was a great concept on the duality of a person. People could be weak and their lives are fragile things. However, people were capable of great things if their very thoughts could give birth to an entire universe. Perception is reality. What we believe can truly be.

"Alright, I think I'll be okay now," I said. "I just needed to think things out. Seeing a reality that is born from the mind of a person just isn't something that's easy to take in."

I then thought of something and facepalmed.

"Those other universes might have been fanfiction universes as well. I could have altered timelines just by being there. I could have done damage without even knowing it. Especially with Vlad Masters. That seemed like a very important plot point that I could have really messed up."

I qualmed about this for another few minutes. In the end, I decided that what was done couldn't be changed. I'd have to live with what I did whether it turned out good or bad. Though, in my case it was hope for the former and bet anything but your soul on the latter.

I shook my head a bit. Now wasn't the time to feel bad. Now was the time to do what I came here to do. Now, however, I had to be more careful about what I did. My invisibility spell was ideal. I had no idea how long I could maintain it, though. My illusion spell could also prove immensely useful in this situation.

I decided to keep my invisibility spell active for the time being. I did not want to screw up things here. Then again, this is Nightmare Moon we're talking about. I knew about this story, but this seemed off. If I remembered correctly, the last chapter I read about a month ago was right after Zero had won and then four months had passed since then. Things weren't going well for Lelouch trying to get things the way he wanted, but still Nightmare Moon wasn't in charge then.

Terrific. This was farther into the fic than I knew about. I'm only semi-knowledgeable about what's going on here. The backstory elements and some situational knowledge would help out, but I was going into this situation not knowing things that I needed to know. I'm just glad that I did know some things about what was going on.

I looked back at the knightmare frame. It was inoperable, that I knew. However, it looked like it would be fine if I could get the power working on it again. None of the knigtmare frames were working since the incident where Nightmare Moon used the sakuradite from within them to transform every person on the planet into a pony. What I wasn't sure about was if they were simply drained of power or if the sakuradite itself disappeared when it was used. From what I could figure out, Nightmare Moon figured out that sakuradite was compatible with magic and used it to boost her own magic to nigh godlike levels. On normal terms, I may have a chance against her. Now, however, I'm willing to bet that she is using sakuradite to bolster her magic constantly. Despite the unpredictability of chaos magic, I highly doubt that I had a chance to go up against her.

If she was using the sakuradite to bolster her magic, then reigniting any sakuradite was not a good idea. Really, what would be the point anyway? It was just me being caught up in something cool. I had to tread lightly.

Although, perhaps getting the Black Knights to help search would be a good idea. No. Not necessarily. I had my coin to guide me. Now that I was in a fanfiction, I had to be more careful with my actions.

That said, I recognized the people in Code Geass easily enough. However, I only remembered what Kallen looked like in pony form off of the top of my head. Well, that and the cutie marks of Lelouch and C.C. I'd have to dig into my memories with the aid of Discord's magic to remember what the others looked like. I don't really need to talk to them anyway. I just have to be careful with what I'm doing.

I reached into my shirt and pulled out my coin. Then, I internally facepalmed. I can't see the coin with my invisibility spell active. It's strange how I can see the face of my watch when I hit the illuminate button, though. I'm going to need to figure this out if I don't want to get picked up by the same group that those other two flyboys belonged to.

I stood back up and thought about my options. I couldn't be invisible if I wanted to see the coin. I had to be visible to see the coin, but that put me at risk to be seen by the ponies. I'd have to either duck into alleys or other places to check the coin, or somehow keep myself invisible to other ponies using my illusion spell.

I briefly considered turning myself into a pony to blend in, but I had no idea if I could then turn myself back. I didn't want to take that chance. With that option squashed, I decided to try out my illusion spell.

The first thing I did was create a pony version of me. It took a few tries, but I got it to work. I ended up with a blue stallion unicorn with a white mane. I made it look a little portly, but not too bad. For the cutie mark, I decided on a white horseshoe that was encased in a golden glow. I needed to be a unicorn so that if I used magic it wouldn't be suspicious.

The next problem I had would be to superimpose the illusion of the stallion onto myself and not have anyone see me there. I wasn't quite sure if I could do that. My illusions themselves were pretty good. I just wasn't sure that I could keep myself hidden with one. I could tell that it would take a great deal of work to keep up the appearance. I also knew that my magic wasn't infinite. It was recharged through acts of chaos. I never thought to check if I had to create those acts or if being around one would suffice.

It didn't matter. I needed to make this work. I would have to get creative. I ended up aligning the image onto a small area around me that had me as an epicenter. I then had to keep myself within this screened area and mirror things off of it in a see through style. I highly doubted it would work, but I didn't have any other options if I wanted to keep on the move.

With that out of the way, I brought up the illusion spell and dropped my invisibility spell. There weren't any ponies around to make sure this was working. Then again, I had been doing this outside and was actually glad that there wasn't any ponies that saw that happen. With a quick look at my coin for reference, I started moving along.

This had really just become a pattern now. Walk aimlessly forward while following the shiny coin. The only good news that I could figure was that the coin at least put me on the same landmass as the pony I was looking for. It also seemed to put me near the source of whatever story was going on. I was placed near a ghost in the first one. I was next to Mojo's volcano in the second one. This one, however, seemed to place me nowhere in particular. Perhaps I was placed within a stone's throw of the pegasi and the knightmare frame for reference? I guess that seemed logical. Wait, why were things logical when chaos was involved?

"Why do I try to explain these things? I can't tell if things are supposed to make sense or not!"

"What things make sense?" I heard someone ask.

I looked down to see a mare looking straight at me. She was an earth pony and had a green coat with a yellow and brown mane. Her cutie mark was a pair of flowers, however, the stems were actually knives for some reason. That was a bit creepy.

"Well, my friend kind of just disappeared and I'm not sure where she went. Hang on a second."

I made the illusion me's horn glow and an image of Pinkie Pie appeared a few feet to my left.

"This is what she looks like. Have you seen her around?"

I suppose I may have overdone it. When she saw the image of Pinkie Pie that I had made, her jaw dropped. I don't think any of them had seen magic like that before. I needed to move along.

"So, you haven't seen her?"

My voice seemed to bring her back to her senses.

"No. No I haven't seen her. That was really impressive. How'd you do that?"

"I'm just good with things like that. I need to find her now. Excuse me."

I continued on my way. I kept my eye on her while moving just to make sure she didn't follow me. I was getting into an area with more ponies in it now. They seemed to be working on rebuilding things. Normally that wouldn't have bothered me, except that they were building in some different form of architecture. The buildings seemed medieval in appearance, but with white stone that looked like marble instead of mere grey stone. Why would they build it like that instead of the way they did before?

Of course. Nightmare Moon. Why do I keep forgetting the obvious? She's an evil bitch. If she's in power now, then everything here makes sense. Her sense of esthetics was pretty abysmal anyway. It would be an easy leap of logic to assume that she would have them make buildings that would be considered a poor choice to live in by today's standards. Well, except the marble part. Then again, I'm not really a fan of marble anyway.

This would have to wait. In fact, I can't get involved in this at all. The biggest problem would be that any spells that were still active when I left would disappear the moment I left. If I transformed ponies back into people, it would wear off the second I left. It would be kind of funny to turn Nightmare Moon into a human for a bit. That would certainly get her riled up. No, I can't think like that. My mere presence here is an abnormality. I absolutely cannot let anyone see a human here or I could do irreparable harm.

Though, after about an hour I could feel the tension in the air. It didn't quite feel like something was going to happen. It felt like a palpable sense of sadness. I'd never felt anything quite like it. You could just feel how they all were unhappy about what was happening to them.

Then, I saw something different.

There was a small group of ponies that were just waiting outside of a completed new-type building. The group drew me in, but what I saw on some of them is what really made me scratch my head.

It was their eyes. They were slit in the same manner as a cat. As I got closer, I noticed one of the pegasus ponies lift what looked like a unicorn into the air. Why the heck would they do that? It didn't make much sense to me. He was already-

CRACK!!!

I didn't even have time to react as the unicorn from before faceplanted into the asphalt of the street. There was no way he survived. I couldn't even feel anything right then. Just watching that happen derailed any thoughts I had.

I continued watching as another pony dumped the contents of a bag onto the street. I couldn't tell what it was from here since I was still about forty yards away. I continued to look on as a unicorn in armor lit the pile on fire. The whole thing caught ablaze rather quickly. As the pile burned, one of the things in the pile was caught by the wind and flew in my direction. Eventually, it got caught on my leg. I slowly reached down to pick it up and took a look at it.

It was just a picture. A picture of a family enjoying a day at the beach.

Was this it? Did they do this for just that reason? Did they just kill a man for wanting to keep some photos?

As I stood up, one thing was predominate in my mind. Anger. Sheer anger at this travesty. I slowly walked over to the burning pile and while most of the ponies had left, two unicorns, the pegasus, and the earth pony were still there. The pegasus would be first.

I reached out with my telekinesis and grabbed the pegasus. I then shot him thirty feet into the air and then threw him back down to the ground. Then, I picked up again and rammed him into the house and then finished by throwing him across the street.

"You there! Halt!" one of the unicorns yelled at me.

I didn't care as the two of them ran towards me. I simply gathered magic into both of my hands and fired at them. They barely saw it coming. It hit them straight on and they both went flying back past the house and several dozen yards beyond.

I then looked at the earth pony and levitated him towards me. I came slightly to my senses and crouched to my illusions eye level. Then, I finished bringing him up to my illusion's face.

"How dare you all do that to him," I said with my voice full of disdain.

"They did that to him. I'm glad you did that in return," the pony said to me.

I was surprised to hear that. I decided to get some answers before I did anything to him.

"Why would you be glad to see them get hurt? Aren't you with them?"

"Not by choice. I'm just a liaison from the Black Knights."

"You were with the Black Knights?" I asked curiously.

"I used to be the Deputy Commander of the Black Knights. My name is Kaname Ohgi."

I dropped him in surprise upon hearing that name. Ohgi, the lovable oaf who was part of Zero's troops and one of the original Black Knights. Upon closer inspection, he did seem to have the same hair as Ohgi.

I used my illusion spell to bring up an image of Pinkie Pie.

"I'm looking for this pony. Have you seen her?"

He looked on awestruck at my illusion of Pinkie Pie.

"Well?"

"I think I've seen her before. Some of Nightmare Moon's ponies took her away to a prison. They haven't informed Nightmare Moon of it yet."

I was about to press further, when I looked up at hearing the sounds of more of them on their way. I looked back down to Ohgi.

"So, Nightmare Moon is in charge then. I'll have to tread more lightly. Tell them that the Colt's Guy denounces her rule. It will keep them from getting suspicious of you, as will this."

I reached back and punched him in the face in view of another soldier that just cam into view. Ohgi then tumbled end over end for a dozen feet and came to a stop.

"You there! Halt in the name of the Empress!"

I decided to hightail it out of there at that. I looked up and teleported up to the roof of one of the buildings. I looked back down and saw that they had lost my trail. For some reason, however, I couldn't stop myself from one last parting shot.

"DOWN WITH THE TYRANNY!!! END THE NIGHTMARE!!!"

I noticed that all the ponies on the street heard my declaration and with one last look around, I then teleported a block away and simultaneously dropped my illusion spell and activated my invisibility spell. It was just in time as a few ponies rounded the corner into view.

Now that I had done that, I started thinking about just what I had done. I had immediately thrown away what I had said I was going to do. I had acted on instinct. I had exposed my illusion in an unfavorable manner. If they made the connection to that other mare from earlier, then Pinkie Pie could very well be in danger. The only good thing was that I had used my internet moniker instead of my real name. I loved how well it fit with ponies.

Oh well, I could flip the colors of my illusion and I could get away with that. I doubt that anyone saw my cutie mark in the midst of that. Ohgi was trustworthy enough that he wouldn't tell on me. At least I hope so. He did say that he was a liaison of the Black Knights. He may have turned on Zero.

Oh forget it. It was fifty-fifty either way. Not to mention both of those ways were not helping me get to Pinkie Pie. The situation had become very bad. If Nightmare Moon finds out who she is then she'll be killed on the spot. Ohgi mentioned a prison that she was being kept in. It was probably the one that Toudoh was being held in before. It doesn't really matter. I need to get her out quickly.

Or else there would be no Pinkie Pie to save.
> Prison Break a.k.a. Mad Dash to Freedom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took me a couple of hours to reach the penitentiary. I had considered letting things go and just driving a convertible down the road with my arm hanging out of the side; all the while making it look like there was a pony driving a car. I had a good laugh about that, but decided that would just lead to way too much attention on me. I needed to be unseen until my assault. Acting out like that would be very counterproductive to my efforts.

Of course, when I arrived I realized how glad I was that I had not done that. The place was huge! I remember the assault that Zero had made to rescue Toudoh on this place and I also remember that instead of doing that, they opted for a covert rescue in this timeline since knightmare frames were not working anymore. I just don't think that I realized the scale that this place was on.

The walls seemed over a couple hundred feet high and don't even get me started on how wide it was. And that was just the outer perimeter. The place was double walled and while the second wall was slightly higher than the first, the second wall was where all the knightmare frames were stored. I was just glad that I didn't have to worry about those this time. The place only had one entryway on the perimeter and six access points on the second wall. There weren't any guard towers on the perimeter wall either, but there was one on each corner of the inner wall.

I quickly teleported on top of the entryway on the first wall. Then, I teleported to the top of the entryway just behind that one. While there, I was able to get a view of the inner block.

In a few words, it seemed kinda ridiculous. There were six individual prison blocks each in an asterisk pattern. Each of these blocks had there own guard tower in the center of them where the eight points on the asterisk extended from. The blocks extending from the tower looked to hold the prisoners in each case and ended in an extended wing that just seemed like they were added on later.

Of course, I could also now see one addition that hadn't been in the original design. In the dead center of these blocks was a strange circular area that seemed to be surrounded by a wooden fence. The inside of the area was covered with what I surmised was hay. I couldn't be sure from this distance though. I was too far away to see anything else in specific about the area other than that. However, I wondered as to why it took up such a large area.

I shook off that thought. It wasn't the reason why I was here. I was here to rescue Pinkie Pie and that's what I would do.

I had two options. The first was to use invisibility and move from one place to the other in order to find her. It seemed ideal since I wasn't aware of the layout, but if I ran into areas that were guarded using magic I would end up having to reveal myself to get through them. The other option was to create a diversion and lure out the guards while I checked the prison. The diversion would give me the leeway I needed in case of magic defenses that I would have to break through.

I then thought about something. I've been using my magic over and over again. What would happen if it suddenly gave out while I was in the middle of my covert operation? I would be pretty much defenseless and I would be exposed as a human. A diversion, however, would be good at causing chaos which, in turn, would help recharge my magic.

First things first, though. I decided to teleport to each guard tower to see which block Pinkie was being held in. Getting a general location would help more than wandering aimlessly through all six of them. After a few teleportations, I figured out that she was in the middle block on the right side of the main gate. I then teleported back to the entryway on the second wall and began my diversion.

"First, I'll start off with the most fun aspect of my new illusion spell. Cool music."

I picked a point above the penitentiary and started playing Thunderstruck.It was quite the fun number if I do say so myself. I made it as loud as I possibly could to let all the ponies hear it. Then, every time they used the word 'thunder', I blasted one of the six guard towers, then the circle area, then two of the corner guard towers, then the other two, and finally on the last one I blasted the furthest entryway in the back.

As soon as the diversion was in full swing, I saw many different ponies react all over the grounds. I was happy that the sounds coming from the skies made them leave their guard towers before I blasted them. I'm not a heartless killing machine after all. I took the opportunity to teleport over to the block Pinkie was being held in. I then bonked myself in the head for forgetting to check which of the eight rows she was in. On the third teleport, the coin showed me the right one and I promptly blasted a hole in the roof and went in.

As I got my bearings, I decided to do a little throwing off of my trail and activated my illusion spell again. A whole group of pony doppelgangers appeared beside me and split up to confuse anyone about what was happening. While that was happening, I got a better look at where I was.

Though, I use that term in the loosest way possible. After all, it was just a corridor with a few torch lights along one side of the wall. The other side had the actual cells to hold prisoners in. They weren't exactly big. Luckily, I didn't see any of them in use. On the other hand, I worried a little about the lack of use.

I didn't have the time to think about it, though. The diversion was past halfway over. I looked at which way the coin was pointed and ran off in that direction. I only got about fifty feet before the coin reversed direction. I looked around quickly and then realized she was below me. I blasted a hole in the floor and jumped through it again. I looked around to see if she was on that floor.

No dice. Oddly enough, one of the doppelgangers ran past me as well. There must not be anyone on the top floor at all for that to happen. A good sign that either my diversion was working perfectly or there just isn't any use for the upper floors. I blasted the floor again and dropped through.

I looked around again for Pinkie Pie. This time, I found her in one of the cells. Well, it was more or less her.

I noticed a very unamused Pinkamena staring straight at me through the weird square bars of the cell. Not a good sign. I decided to try some humor to get her back.

"Hey there Pinkie! Guess who?"

"Hello Seth," she said in a low tone.

"What? How'd ya know it was me?"

"The music. It's like the kind you played when you fought Discord."

Not good. She's in pretty deep right now. I need to get her out of there and out of this place. Not to mention the song was almost over and with it my diversion.

"Come on Pinkie. We'll talk about this when we get you back home."

"What's the point?"

"Say what?"

"Why should I? It's been nearly a month since I got here. You guys obviously don't care about me that much if it took you this long to come get me."

Damn it. I knew this temporal alignment crap would bite me in the ass. She thinks we took our time to get her. I responded by snapping my fingers and turning her cell door into jello. After the mass of jello fell to the ground, I stepped inside and did the first thing I could think of to help.

I wrapped her up in a hug.

"Pinkamena Diane Pie you should know better than this. Your friends care deeply about you. The problem here is that they can't come to get you. Only I can. Plus, I've been trying to get you guys for three days not a month. Time passes differently here. I'm sorry you had to deal with a world where Nightmare Moon is in charge. She'll get what's coming to her in time. For now, let's get you out of here and back to your friends."

I felt her mane poof out in my arms and I let out a breath that I didn't even know that I had been holding.

"Okie dokie lokie!" I heard her say in her usual cheerful voice.

I set her back down and quickly teleported the both of us outside of our cell.

"And where do you think that the two of you are going?"

I whipped my head around and saw exactly who I thought it would be.

Nightmare Moon.

She stood down the hall about twenty feet away with two guard ponies flanking her on either side. I looked behind us for a second and noticed that there were another dozen or so guards blocking off that direction. Things weren't looking that well.

"So you are the ignorant foal who thinks that he can stand up to me!"

"Yeah, that sounds like me alright. My name is- oh my god is that Discord!?!" I said pointing my illusion's hoof behind her.

"What!?!" she yelled and whirled around.

"Sucker!!!" the two of us yelled.

I then teleported us out of there and back to the entryway on the outer wall.

"Nice one Seth! Did you see the look on her face?"

"You bet I did! She was all 'What' and we were both like 'sucker' and I bet she is really angry confused right now!"

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"It certainly sounds like she is! Now, let's get out of here!"

"One last thing before I go."

I then projected my illusion into a ten story version of myself.

"DOWN WITH TYRANNY!!! END THE NIGHTMARE!!!"

I then let my illusion shrink back down to normal size.

"Alright, let's go now. Touch the coin and we can head on home."

"Wow! That was really cool! Can you get it to do other things?"

"Later, when we get back alright?"

"Oh come on."

"Tell that to her," I said and pointed to the prison block.

Pinkie looked over to where I was pointing and saw a dark mist swirling on the roof. The mist started to grow larger and larger. I could feel the air getting colder as well.

"You win, let's go," said Pinkie.

I held my coin out just beyond the illusion so that she could see it. She then placed her hoof on it and we were out of there with a flash.
> Mostly Boring Talk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Uh Pinkie, who's this fella ya brought with ya?" I heard Applejack ask.

I was finishing rubbing my eyes before seeing what was going on.

"Oh silly, it's Seth of course!"

"That sure don't look like Seth tah me."

"It is me," I answered.

As I finally regained my sight, I looked around to see everyone still there. They seemed surprised to see us. I understood why only because I still had the conversation with Pinkie Pie fresh in my mind. The temporal alignment in that world was way off from here.

"It's probably only been a few minutes or so here right?"

"It has actually been just over twenty minutes since your departure. Was finding her that simple?" asked Celestia.

"Not really. The temporal alignment there was way off. She had been there for almost a month."

"That's awful," said Fluttershy.

"Yeah," I said. "What was worse was that Nightmare Moon was there."

"WHAT!?!" yelled everyone but Pinkie Pie.

"You have my memories Celestia. Do you remember Rebel Against the Night?"

While she was thinking, I was assaulted by questions.

"Nightmare Moon is alive?" "Are you okay?" "What in tarnation was she doin' there?" "Do you have any cupcakes?"

I was going to answer those questions and conjure a cupcake for Pinkie Pie when the loudest question came.

"ARE YOU TELLING US THAT THE FOULEST OF THE FOUL, THE GREATEST MOMENT OF SHAME IN OUR LIFE IS STILL WANDERING THE WORLD OUT THERE?!!!"

Holy crap! Was she yelling in Royal Canterlot Voice? That felt almost like a tornado in my face! Damn, my ears are ringing now. I think she was still yelling too. I just couldn't hear it. I guess enhanced durability doesn't cover eardrums.

I held up my hands and gave her a time out signal. Unfortunately, I forgot that I still had my illusion active and the point didn't get across. Instead, I got a little creative to stop her rant.

In a flashy display, I made a pillar of fire surround the illusion for a few seconds. Then, I dropped the illusion altogether. When I was visible again, I brought my hands up to my ears and covered them up.

"Your voice has made me go deaf!!!" I yelled. Or at least I knew I yelled it. I still couldn't hear anything.

"For the record, it isn't the same Nightmare Moon as yours!" I continued yelling; determined to get the message through while she had stopped yelling. "There are alternate realities remember?! This is a different Nightmare Moon from a different Princess Luna! It isn't the one that used to be within you!"

The ringing was slowly dying down in my ears and I waited for a response to anything. Instead, no one said a thing. I looked around and the only thing I could see was each of them contemplating something on their own. Except, it seemed, for Pinkie Pie who I was willing to bet wanted an answer to her question. My response came in the snap of my fingers and a plate of cupcakes appeared in front of her.

As she dug into the cupcakes, I heard Princess Celestia begin to speak.

"Ah, I remember now. That work of fiction called Rebel Against the Night. It truly is not a place where I would wish to visit."

"Yeah, I was in it."

To her credit, Celestia caught on even faster than I did. To further her newfound credit, she simply smiled.

"Truly, the multiverse is an interesting place, is it not?"

I had no reply to that. The only thing I could think of was that she already had to deal with this kind of thing when she found out about My Little Pony beforehand. I think she may have had the right idea not to overreact like I had done. Ancient wisdom in abundance there folks.

"It's times like this that I wonder if I'm just in a malfunctioning version of the Matrix."

While everyone was wondering what I had just said, Celestia just smirked.

"Does that mean you took the blue pill?"

I facepalmed. Then, when I took my hand away to see her with a pair of sunglasses on.

"You are the one, Seth."

"Shouldn't you be bald?" I countered.

The glasses then disappeared to show Celestia rolling her eyes.

"Thou darest to ignore me?!" said Luna in normal Royal Canterlot Voice. Still, it was pretty loud.

"It is alright dearest sister," Celestia answered first. "We do not have to worry about that Nightmare Moon. It is not the same one that once plagued your soul."

"It sure looked like the same Nightmare Moon," said Pinkie Pie.

I had honestly expected the Doctor to jump in on this at some point, but he was remaining surprisingly silent. He did seem to be messing with his sonic screwdriver, though.

"Think of it this way," I started saying, "for every action you commit, there is an event that happens because of it. However, what if there is more than one action you can take in a situation? You can choose only one action out of them and take it. Despite that, what if you had decided on one of the other actions? An entirely new set of events end up happening instead of the ones that you know. That is one of the basics of multiple timelines. Each of these timelines can become it's own universe. In this instance, when the Elements of Harmony were used on Nightmare Moon by Twilight and her friends, instead of making Nightmare Moon disappear completely leaving only Luna behind, Nightmare Moon was stripped from Luna and yet managed to survive somehow while falling into a different dimension."

I was going to continue on about what she did there, but I had the feeling that it would do nothing good for Luna to hear about a part of her doing things like that.

"The long and the short of that is that this is in absolutely no way, shape, or form your fault Luna," I finished.

From the way she looked, I wasn't sure that she believed me any more than she had before. I got a little frustrated with that and pulled her up close to me with some levitation.

"This. Is. Not. Your. Fault." I practically spit out at her.

I reached out and placed my hand on the side of her head.

"You are good, and that side of you is gone. Don't think otherwise."

She put on a smile at that, but I doubt she was convinced. Still, if I pressed the issue I'm willing to bet that the others will say something bad even if they don't think it is. I just decided to ruffle her mane and back off.

Pinkie then appeared in front of the Princess with one of the uneaten cupcakes.

"Don't worry Princess! Here, have a cupcake!"

Before she could respond, Pinkie Pie actually stuffed the cupcake into Luna's mouth. Luna simply chewed it up and swallowed. Somehow, someway, her features brightened up and she looked like she felt better. I just decided to file that under things that had gotten better because of Pinkie Pie and left it alone.

"Getting back on track," I started, "I'd like to say that I'm really glad that I'm halfway done, but I need to get another three ponies before I'm done."

"And Discord as well," added Celestia.

I looked at her dumbfounded. I wasn't the only one.

"Now why in the wide world of Equestria would we want tah bring back Discord?" asked Applejack.

"Discord may be a dangerous individual, but do you truly think that he should roam free in some other universe without some sort of supervision?"

Argh. Celestia had a point. Great. That also meant that I wasn't halfway done now. I needed some good news.

"Please, Doctor, tell me that you at least have figured out how to synchronize the temporal alignment of the these rifts."

"What? Oh right! Yes, well, I think I can do just that," he answered.

"I'm glad to hear that, because I do not want to have the same problem as Pinkie Pie had. I would rather not go into there and find out that one of them has been waiting for years to have someone come and rescue them."

"I just need a few things from the TARDIS and a bit of magic and I should have something done up for you in no time at all!" he finished and started galloping towards the area where I remember the TARDIS being.

As I waited for him to return, there was an uncomfortable silence that fell over the group. I really didn't have anything to say and I'm not the kind of person to strike up a conversation in a group. I wondered if this was what they were doing while they were waiting for me to bring everyone home. This could get really boring after a while.

I ended up just planting my ass on the dirt-covered plains. I had nothing better to do that I could think of anyway.

"You could have made a chair to sit on Seth," said Celestia; breaking the silence.

"Maybe, but then if I was sitting in a chair when he got back then I probably wouldn't be motivated to get up again because of how comfy I would make the chair."

"I think we could have properly motivated you to vacate the chair," said Celestia.

I mulled that over and looked up into the sky. There was a cloud here and there, but overall it was mostly sunny. I sighed at that.

"Somethin' wrong?" asked Applejack.

"Not really a fan of sunny days is all," I answered.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Well, whenever I'm in the sun for an extended period of time, I usually get sunburned."

"Sunburned? What's that?" she asked.

"Basically, the longer I'm out in the sun, the worse it gets on my skin. It's a problem we have with the sun back on Earth. If I'm out long enough under the sun my skin turns pink, then red, then if I haven't left by then, I start to get blisters. It's pretty painful. It's basically the same as holding your leg in a fire. The difference being that you know the fire is burning you. With a sunburn, most people don't even realize it until your skin turns pink."

"That sounds terrible," said Fluttershy.

"It is. It's one of the reasons that I like doing things at night. Nighttime is more my speed. Unlike here in Equestria, only most people sleep during the night. There are, however, lots of people who work or do activities at night. In the country at my grandparents old house I used to take a look at the stars. It was beautiful. Just looking at constellations or checking out the way that the Milky Way splayed out in the night sky was truly amazing."

"There's milk out in the sky?" asked a confused Applejack.

"No. It's not like that. The Milky Way is the galaxy that we live in. In cosmic terms, we live on the Earth which rotates around the sun along with eight other planets no matter what scientists say about Pluto."

"Wait, the Earth revolves around the sun?" asked Shining Armor.

I was totally surprised to hear him speak up. He had been saying even less than Fluttershy until then.

"Yes, that's right. Where I'm from, the sun is the center of the solar system. There are nine planets that revolve around it. Earth is the third closest planet to the sun."

"You said something about Pluto?" asked Pinkie Pie who was uncharacteristically calm and collected.

"Yeah. Scientists have basically said that Pluto isn't a planet anymore. I'd like to have them say that to Sailor Pluto's face! We'll see then how long they can make that claim! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Uh, you alright there partner?" asked Applejack.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, the area that makes up the sun and the distance at which the planets rotate make up the solar system, also known sometimes as the Sol System."

"I hate to sound unenthusiastic about this," said Applejack, "but is there a point to this?"

"I'm getting to it," I responded. "The Sol System is about as big as you are compared to an ant. The ant being the Earth and you being the Sol System. Going even further than that, the Sol System is part of the Milky Way galaxy. To compare that, imagine that ant again."

"Alright," said Applejack.

"This time the ant is the Sol System, and the Milky Way galaxy is not you, but this entire planet."

Her jaw dropped upon hearing that. I knew just what she was going through when I imagined that the first time. It really makes you feel tiny. It's a good thing that I know that big things come from small beginnings. It helps me when I think about that.

"That there sounds real hard to believe there partner."

"It's fine. Some people still think that we faked the moon landing."

"Moon landing? You've been to the moon?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Indeed. I haven't personally, but we're able to send people to the moon and back safely. We don't do it anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't."

They were all shocked. I didn't blame them. Heck, Luna was banished to the moon. For someone to go there made it seem at least to me less like a banishment and more like a time-out. Well, from their perspective anyway. I knew better.

After saying that, it became quiet once again. I wasn't sure how to follow that up, Well, I did think of something like how it was too bad that Twilight was there to hear that. She would have been very interested to hear those facts. She had asked me many questions that first day I had been in her house. However, space had not been one of the topics that came up. It just didn't seem appropriate to say that with Shining Armor there, though.

"Oh this is just boring," I said breaking the silence. "Is this what you all are doing while I'm rescuing these girls?"

"We have been playing a few games, but thou art correct for the most part," said Luna.

"Well, I would suggest rock, paper, scissors, but no one here has hands except me."

That made me realize something.

"Hey, where is Spike? I would have thought that he would be here waiting for everyone with you."

"We asked that he remained in Ponyville. He is maintaining the library in Twilight's absence," said Celestia.

"What for? I don't think I've seen any single pony other that the Cutie Mark Crusaders use that library ever."

"The fact that they used it is the very basis for keeping it open. Others may want to use it while she is absent."

I placed my hand over my forehead in frustration. Technically, she was correct. I still think Spike should be here with us, but that's just selfish I suppose.

Out of sheer boredom, I snapped my fingers and a bucket of popcorn appeared in front of everyone.

"I guess we might as well have something to snack on while we wait."

I looked at my watch. It read 7:39 a.m. At this point, I had no real idea what time that it was and my watch was just there to show me the passage of time. I knew it took us about an hour to get from the TARDIS to the rifts.

Oh this was going to be a fun wait.
> Same Old Song and Dance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there is one thing you should know about what is going on, it's that I have no idea what the hell is up with Pinkie Pie.

Obviously, we all know about the Pinkie Pie that we see on television. She's hyper, she's random, she's... Pinkie Pie. However, when you're with her for an extended period of time, you start to wonder about something. In my case, I noticed that she isn't like that at all times. I don't know if it's because she was stuck in a world with Nightmare Moon or not, but she seemed pretty subdued for a while after we had returned.

It lasted maybe twenty minutes until I said something that set her off. If you ever meet her, don't talk about your pinky finger. Holy crap, when I mentioned that each finger had it's own name, it was actually Fluttershy who asked what they were out of interest. As I finished with the pinky finger, Pinkie Pie exploded into a frenzy. If I could figure out how that topic came up, I would have tried to avoid it.

She was ecstatic that there was a finger on the human hand named after her. As she gushed about it, she darted in and out of the little circle we had made and went from pony to person to pony about it. How in the hell was she so fast, for that matter? She kept going from one of us to the other faster than I could keep track.

Yet, despite all of that, the worst was yet to come. When she asked if you did anything with your pinky finger, I thoughtlessly said a phrase that I would always regret.

"Well, some people use it to pinky swear."

She went ballistic. If there was anything that cemented the thought that pinky fingers were named after her, it was the fact that people used their pinky finger to promise things to one another. I hadn't even thought about that comparison until she brought it up. In fact, I was a bit surprised that she knew that swear in this context meant promise. Of course, all it took was a bit of thought to realize that they almost never swear in the sense of bad language around here.

We didn't have to worry about sitting in silence at all with Pinkie Pie there. I couldn't understand most of what she said because of how fast she was speaking. While she was talking, I definitely felt the glares of some of the other ponies for instigating this, however unwittingly it was.

After an hour and a half of that, we were all relieved when we saw the Doctor returning with a veritable hodgepodge of items. In hindsight, it should have bothered me how he got back so quickly with four carts full of parts and him being the only one pulling it. Still, Pinkie Pie also took that cue to stop talking about whatever it was she was talking about at that point. All I remembered hearing was something about tasting the rainbow and as such was the most entertaining thing that I could remember.

"Hello everypony!" shouted the Doctor. "Are you all ready to help set this device up?"

There was a series of nods from all those present.

"Wonderful! Let's get this show on the road then!"

From there, all of us started to help the Doctor set up his machine. Other than the Doctor, everyone remained silent while helping with the setup process. Even Pinkie Pie remained silent for most of the procedure. She just kept her usual smile plastered on her face for the entire time.

This is when something pretty weird happened.

While I was assembling some paneling of some sort, Princess Luna came over and struck up a conversation.

"So, Seth, is what thou said really true?"

"You're going to have to get more specific than that. I'm not the mind reader here."

"True. Is what thou said about the night true? How there are many who wouldst enjoy the night?"

"Oh that. Yeah, there are lots of people who do that. You know, you ought to check out a rave. It's a party that lasts through the entire night and ends as soon as the sun comes up. In fact, many of the best parties on Earth are held at night."

"Really?" interrupted a surprise Pinkie Pie. "What are parties like on Earth?"

The two of us jumped backwards from surprise. Well, Luna jumped into the air a few feet whereas I threw myself backwards, tripped over an electrical cable, and did a backwards somersault on the ground finishing on my back. I was about half a foot shy of landing on some exposed circuit boards that probably would have stabbed me. I wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Ohmygosh!!! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Pinkie. You don't have to worry. Just go back to working on this alright?"

"Okay," she said in a sad tone.

"Don't be sad, Pinkie. It was an honest mistake," I said as I ruffled her mane a bit. "It's not any fun when you're sad. So put on a happy face."

And that's when it happened.

Somehow the music started all on it's own. Before I could even figure out where it came from, the unthinkable happened: I started to sing.

"Gray skies are gonna clear up,
Put on a happy face;
Brush off the clouds and cheer up,
Put on a happy face.
Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy,
It's not your style;
You'll look so good that you'll be glad
Ya decided to smile!
Pick out a pleasant outlook,
Stick out that noble chin;
Wipe off that "full of doubt" look,
Slap on a happy grin!
And spread sunshine all over the place,
Just put on a happy face!"

By then, I had inevitably gathered a crowd of onlookers. Somehow, even ponies from Appleloosa were gathered out there. We were an hour's walk from there. How did they even get there? Then again, I would be looking at the oddity that was me as well. I was freaking bouncing and dancing with Pinkie Pie to the tune of 'Put on a Happy Face' as sung by Jason Alexander. Well, except he wasn't singing it; I was. When the first break came in the song Celestia asked me what I was doing.

"I don't know!!!" was all I could say before the song continued.

"Put on a happy face!"

I had a quick few seconds to wonder why this was happening before I went off again.

"Put on a happy face!
And if you're feeling cross and bitterish
Don't sit and whine;
Think of banana splits and licorice
And you'll feel fine;
I knew a girl so glooming
She'd never laugh or sing;
She wouldn't listen to me
Now she's a mean old thing;
So spread sunshine all over the place
Just put on a happy face!"

I felt like dying of embarrassment right then and there. Unfortunately, it didn't end there. The music continued and with it, my horrible, horrible dancing. At that point, it was pretty much just me and Pinkie alternating dancing moves until just before the end of the song. At that, we both made an ending pose with us on our knees and our arms held out wide. Despite my new found endurance, we were both breathing heavily from the performance.

The stares. Oh God, the stares. I quickly turned invisible to help avoid the stares. It wasn't enough. I then ducked behind a larger piece of equipment so that I didn't have to see them. After a few minutes to calm down, I looked to see if they were still there.

Fortunately, all the ponies who gathered there had left. I took a look around and noticed that I didn't even see where they had went. It was like they had just appeared to watch that spectacle and had disappeared shortly after it was over. That just made me feel self-conscious.

It wasn't worth it. I snapped my fingers and a dome of earth appeared over where I was. That's where I just sat for a while. No eyes were upon me. That's what I wanted. After a few minutes, I poked a hole into the dome of earth when I realized there was no air hole. I probably could have gone a while with the air I had, but it was better not to have that problem even arise.

"Come on out Seth. It was not that bad," I heard Celestia say.

"Seth isn't taking any calls right now," I answered.

"You need to come out eventually," she countered.

"Eventually, I will," I countered back.

"I know that you do not like it when so many eyes are upon you. I have your memories after all."

"That sounds really creepy, Celestia."

"We agree with him. That does sound rather disturbing," I heard Luna say.

"True, it is slightly strange, but it also gives me clarity when it comes to his actions."

"Ugh, just leave me alone for a while, Celery Stick."

At that, I heard Luna burst into laughter. I didn't think it was that funny, but maybe I just hit the right button. I could almost imagine Celestia rolling her eyes at that.

"Come on now," interrupted who I assumed was the Doctor. "We have a temporal synchronization device to set up. It's not going to do it on it's own, you know."

I literally sat up through the dome of earth with an idea. I was just glad it was soft dirt. That really could have hurt.

"Why can't it?" I asked.

The three of them looked at me like I was nuts. It probably didn't help that I was covered in dirt.

"What do you mean why can't it?" asked the Doctor. "These aren't living creatures. This is some...wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff here."

"And I can totally go Sorcerer's Apprentice on it," I countered.

I snapped my fingers and all of the components were encompassed in a golden glow for a few seconds. Then, after another few seconds the parts started to move on their own. It was fun watching the eyes of all the ponies as the device assembled itself just like they said it couldn't. After about ten minutes, the device was complete.

And it was pretty big.

It stood about seven feet tall, each side was about two feet wide, and they were separated into three different tower-like structures arranged in a fashion similar to a stereo system. That said, only the one in the middle looked like it had anything to do with stereo equipment with the circular device on the front facing the rifts. Each tower had a series of switches, dials, and lights on them with symbols I couldn't understand. These only covered the sides not facing the rifts. The other three sides were covered in a blueish black material that felt like plastic. Other than the one in the middle, none of the rest of the towers had anything on the other three sides.

"It...seems that I stand corrected," said the Doctor.

"Probably want to make sure it works properly before I soak up all the praise," I said with a huge smirk on my face.

I actually got a hoof to the back of my head after saying that.

"Nopony likes a show-off," said Celestia.

I had a good laugh at that for a while.

"That's rich coming from the pony who raises and lowers the sun," I finally said after composing myself.

After a few tense minutes of the Doctor pouring over the machine, it looked like things were ready.

"Now then," the Doctor started, "this machine will synchronize the temporal alignment of the universe within the rift to the one we are presently in. I could tell everypony present how this achieves that result, but involves sciences that haven't even been invented yet where you are, even on Earth for our human friend here. In fact, I'm really just giving you all the bare facts in order for you to understand what I'm saying right now."

"And we all appreciate that fact Doctor," said Celestia.

"Yes, right," he said and disappeared behind the central tower. "Now, I just have to turn this bad boy on. Then, adjust the frequencies, a little of this, a little of that, and voila!"

There was a brief flash on the tops of the towers and was followed by a low hum.

"Sweetness," I stated. "So does this mean I can go in there and the time will be synched up?"

"For lack of better term, yes. From here, it should give you a window that runs along in the same manner as the place you are headed. It also means, from what I've heard from the princesses, that they will have been in there the same amount of time as we have experienced on this time plane. That means right now that whoever is in that rift will have only been in there for about three and a half days."

"I much prefer three days to the unfortunate circumstances that Pinkie Pie was subjected to," said Princess Celestia.

We all nodded at that statement.

"Alright, well, let's get this-"

"Show on the road right?" I interrupted. "You said that less than half an hour ago."

"I did?"

"Yeah ya did," Applejack agreed.

"Am I getting that predictable?"

"Maybe a little," said Celestia.

"Oh that won't do. That won't do at all," said the Doctor almost somberly.

"Well, maybe you'll come up with something while I'm gone. I think I need to get moving to help out the next pony."

I walked over to the four remaining rifts. Then, I paused for a moment.

"Which one of these is synched up with us?" I asked.

"That one," the Doctor said as he pointed.

I traced where he pointed and stood in front of it.

"Just to be clear, this one right here?"

"Yes, that one."

I pulled my coin out of my shirt and held it out towards the rift. According to the coin, Rarity was the one inside that particular rift.

"Alright, everybody wish me luck."

As everybody wished me luck, I had an idea. I turned around and looked at Pinkie Pie.

"Hey Pinkie."

"Yeah?"

"With everybody coming back to us, why don't you throw a welcome home party for the six of you?"

Her eyes grew as wide as saucers. An interesting sight to see when everyone's eyes are already pretty big.

"Oh my gosh! I love it! That's a really, really, really, really, great idea! I'll go get started right now!"

Pinkie ran off in a blur. Holy crap, Rainbow Dash would be hard pressed to keep up with that speed.

"We know you can do it partner. Heck, ya already done it several times with us three. Why I'll bet it'll be even easier now that ya know what yer doin'."

I kept up my smile, but I frowned internally. I think that I thought along those lines right before I got to the Powerpuff Girls' house. Then, as a result, I had to rescue Fluttershy from Him and Mojo Jojo. It may sound good to hear, but it probably won't be that easy.

"I'll see you all soon."

I turned back around and touched the rift. The familiar blinding sensation took over instantly. I took a moment to reorient myself and drive away the blindness. When I opened my eyes again, I knew right where I was.

An alleyway.

Really? Is there such a thing as variety around here somewhere? I'd love to see it. The only difference was that the walls around this alleyway were made of stone and mortar. I guess that would be considered variety for me.

I started to walk out of the alleyway, but froze halfway there. The sight was very surprising.

There were ponies everywhere.

At first I couldn't understand what was going on. I decided to bring up my invisibility spell and stay in the alleyway for a bit while I figured out why I was still in Equestria.

I walked up to the edge of the alley and looked to see anybody or anything familiar. Fortunately, I did spot a familiar landmark. It was the waterfall. It looked gorgeous. It also told me that I was in Canterlot.

While this was interesting, I needed to know what was going on. Was I transported to another world again? Was I transported to Canterlot by accident? Is there anywhere here that served non-vegetarian options? Why am I incorporating stupid questions into this line of thought? Should I do-

My line of questions came to a screeching halt. I then saw something that answered the first two questions.

There was a man. A man walking with Twilight.

"Well, crap."
> 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."
> Time to Play the Game
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I may have mentioned it before, but I still miss my DS system. It gives me something to do with my time while I wait for things to happen. Train rides and plane flights are a good example. When you don't have anyone to talk to, something to do makes all the difference in the world.

I swear, if I didn't have my new illusion spell to play my Five Finger Death Punch cd from memory and that guy's gift to think about I may have just teleported everyone off of the train. Better yet, I probably would have sent the train in reverse and had them arrive at Canterlot again. That would've been funny to see those reactions. Instead, I was just sitting on the deck that extended from the caboose. Yay me.

After coming up with the gift, playing a few Saliva songs, and right in the middle of Back in Black by AC/DC, the train slowed down to arrive at Ponyville. Thank goodness. I took note of the station. It was just about sundown and there weren't many ponies at all to worry about running into when the train arrived.

I picked up the gift I had made for the guy and jumped off the caboose onto the platform. I then walked a bit out of the way to avoid any ponies there. Hopefully no one saw the item I was carrying levitate on it's own. I looked on as the man finally came out of the train levitating the sofa behind him.

He then met up with Twilight, oh and Spike too apparently. He looked plenty distracted so I took that moment to give him his cool little gift. Some nigh indestructible metal infused with chaos energy. Though, it did come out a weird reddish color. Not sure why, but I knew it was still the same metal I had in mind.

I used my magic to unzip the large part of the backpack. Then, I secured my note on the block with a rubber band and teleported it to the bag. Then, I managed to slide it in without anyone noticing and re-zipped the bag closed. I was glad that he seemed distracted too, since I doubt that my little magic trick would have gone unnoticed if he wasn't. Still, I needed to get moving to see if the Rarity here was the one I needed to save or not.

I parted ways with the trio and headed in the direction of the town. I still couldn't check out my coin yet since I was invisible. Still, I was sure that I could get to Carousel Boutique in a short amount of time without it.

About two hours later I was certain that I would never truly know my way around Ponyville. I think Ryouga Hibiki is the only person with a worse sense of direction than me. With a heavy sigh, I jumped up onto one of the roofs and looked around for the tenth time. However, this time I finally got lucky and spotted the destination that I desired. I jumped down and started jogging towards the boutique while keeping an eye out for any ponies that had decided to stay out late.

Ironically, the only one I passed on the way there was that guy again. He didn't have Twilight or Spike with him, though. Perhaps he was staying with Fluttershy or Applejack. Wait, the sofa. Of course, he's getting that for a place of his own.

I stayed out of his way and continued on to the boutique. As I arrived, I looked around to see if anything was amiss. I then went up to one of the windows and looked inside. It was pitch black. I didn't even see any lights coming from upstairs.

I decided to take the risk and undo my invisibility. As I did, I grabbed my coin and took a look at it. I circled the boutique carefully as I made sure that she was inside. It seemed that she was. Chances were good that this Rarity was the one that belonged to this universe. I decided to take those odds and gamble with them.

I charged up my magic and teleported back to Canterlot. I arrived at the train station and grabbed my coin to check if the other Rarity had moved at all.

"Halt!"

Crap! I whirled on the noise and noticed a couple of guards galloping towards me. I decided to use my illusion magic and transform into the visage of the guy I had seen earlier. This was achieved much more easily than when I had to look like a pony. After all, I'm already a human.

"Identify yourself!" yelled one of the guards as they approached me.

"Really? I'm the only human on the planet and you want to know who I am?" I snarked at them.

They seemed to be at a loss of words for a few moments. They then composed themselves and continued on.

"What business do you have in Canterlot at this hour?" the other guard asked.

"I left something at one of the stalls in the marketplace. I'm just going to retrieve it."

"You should check with the Canterlot Guard Ponies Building. They will have any lost items from the day there."

"I know," I said before he had a chance to continue. "Twilight Sparkle told me about it before I came back. I'm on my way there now. If you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."

I started to walk off, but the guards stopped me again.

"How did you get here anyway? The train isn't due back here for another ten minutes."

"I teleported here," I said without even looking back.

It was the truth. Besides, I bet he could teleport here. He was a mage after all.

I continued on as quickly as I could without arousing any suspicion. I didn't want to end up playing twenty questions with the Canterlot guards. I'm not even sure I'm giving off the same impression as the guy I'm imitating.

After I was sure the guards weren't following me anymore, I let the illusion spell drop and snuck a look at the coin again. It appeared that the other Rarity hadn't moved at all. That was good. After all, a moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one.

I headed onward following the coin. I kept a watchful eye as I was doing so, since that wasn't the only patrol in Canterlot. I almost ran into two other patrols in the span of ten minutes. Then, I realized that I was passing several of the same buildings and stalls as earlier. I had thought it was a coincidence until I reached a very familiar tent.

"Perhaps I'll be getting something later here indeed. At least now I know why he had that smile. He knew I'd be back here. What I'd like to know is what he did with Rarity. That place was tiny. How could he have a pony in there? Did he hide it in his magic box?"

I thought about that for a second.

"Well, he did search in that chest for a while more than I thought he should have. Perhaps it's bigger on the inside. Wouldn't that just be nuts? Everybody has their own little bag of holding of some variety. That guy had his backpack. This pony has a chest. The Doctor has his TARDIS. Maybe I should get something snazzy like that. Well, I have pockets in these pants and I can just create things with a snap. A bag of holding just seems a little redundant."

I shook my head around a bit.

"Focus. Rarity needs saving. Do that, stupid."

I walked around to the front of the tent and, for some reason, there was the pony's top hat sitting on a table. I stared at it for a few moments. It just seemed so... odd sitting there like that. I then simply shrugged and decided to pick it up to give it back to it's owner when I saw him.

Only to have it encased in a green glow and fly off as I nearly grabbed it. The hat then hovered over to the entrance of the tent where a certain blue stallion was waiting for it. The hat then came to rest on his head and then he simply smiled.

"Why hello there," he said in a low tone. "Have you come to acquire something this time?"

I stood there for a few seconds before answering.

"You know, somewhere in the back of my mind I saw that hat thing coming," I said in a whimsical tone.

Interestingly enough, he didn't respond to what I had said. It was as though he really didn't care what I had just said and was waiting for me to say something specific. I simply let out a sigh and crossed my arms.

"Why yes," I said with a flat tone, "I have come seeking something in which you might have in your possession."

"Splendid! Come in and I'll escort you to what you desire."

I watched as he turned around and disappeared back into the tent. I really did not like the way he said that. That, combined with what he was up to earlier put me on the defensive as I proceeded to follow him into his little...

Wait, what the hell? This wasn't the same place as before.

As soon as I stepped inside, I was stunned at the layout of the place. It wasn't the inside of the tent I had been inside of earlier. This place seemed more like one of those exaggerated dining rooms that you see rich people eating at. The floor was made of marble and the walls were pure, unabashed white. There were several windows along the walls with bright light coming out of them. Why was there light coming from them? Wasn't it nighttime? Stop thinking like an idiot. If that part bugs you then you need to hand in your nerd card now. In addition, there were a bunch of banners hanging from the tops of the walls with designs I didn't recognize. Finally, there was a long, deep black table standing in the middle of the, well, room for lack of a better term to this warp of reality. I took a look back to see where I came in from and oddly enough in one part of the wall was the tent flaps that I had come through. They were standing in the solid wall somehow.

"Well now, why don't you have a seat so that we may talk?"

I nodded and took the seat nearest the exit. The pony took the other seat at the other end of the table.

"I'll get straight to the point since I'm a little light on small talk if that is agreeable to you," I said starting things off while leaning into the table.

"By all means," the stallion replied. "I can surmise the reason you have come."

"Indubitably," I said with my horrible fake British accent. "Anyway, yes, I believe I have come to return Miss Rarity to her home safely. I would appreciate a swift return of her posthaste."

"Of course, of course. Lady Rarity has been in my care for a few days now. She has expressed her desire to return home. However, due to some minor circumstances I cannot return her home under my own power. I assume you can assist in this matter?"

"I can indeed," I said as I leaned back to get more comfortable in the chair. "I have a coin that will enable both Rarity and myself to return to where she belongs."

"Splendid! Now all that remains is the matter of how to compensate me for the guest I have graciously taken in."

I closed my eyes and tilted my head towards the ceiling. I knew that this was going too smoothly. He was asking for compensation for housing Rarity while she was here. I hope she didn't rack up a large tab.

"You don't seem the type who needs money," I said while still in the same position.

"You are correct. Money means almost nothing to me."

"Which is good since I don't have any. I'm willing to bet that you already have something in mind don't you?"

"Why yes I do. In fact, it's something quite simple. I want to play a game with you."

"A game huh? I'm guessing the rules are simple and the consequences are dire?"

"Indeed they are. If you win, you return with Rarity and our business will be concluded in earnest. If you lose, you become my servant for eternity."

"Terrific. What is the game?"

"Open your eyes and see."

I did as he asked and was treated to the game he had in store. The room was now filled with Rarity look-a-likes.

"Only one of the Rarity's in this room is the real Rarity. You must determine which one is real. You can only guess once and you may only ask one question. Choose wisely."

I looked around the room at all the Rarity's. I stood up out of my chair and began to look at each of them closely. They were all identical, of course. It would be too simple if I could tell them apart just by looking at them. I took my coin and held it out to see if it would tell me. Instead, it showed a great many points of light on the coin.

It was too bad that there weren't any that looked different. Just a few of them in different colors or sizes would help. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I could have sworn I saw one that looked like Pinkie Pie. I turned to look, but saw nothing that resembled her. That thought, however, gave me the question I needed.

"Alright, I have my question ready."

"Very well then," he said.

His horn then glowed green for a few seconds and the Rarity group started to move. They noticed me quickly and began with some questions of their own. I couldn't hear any of them, though. They all came at once and made things quite loud. I kept trying to shush them, but to no avail. I eventually settled for a quick bright flash that encompassed the room. That silenced enough of them for me to be heard.

"Settle down everyone! That stallion over there," I said while pointing at the pony in question, "tells me that I have one question to ask you all. The one who gets it right is coming with me. Understand?"

Half of them nodded while the other half bombarded me with questions as to why they had to be subjected to such unreasonable demands. Seriously, I wasn't sure how asking a question was unreasonable, but I didn't really care that much at the time. All it did was remind me of the episode where Rarity was kidnapped by diamond dogs and complained so badly that they let her go. Imagine that being done by fifty of her at the same time. Make the pain stop.

I did just that with a simple snap of my fingers. With that snap, every mouth on every Rarity disappeared. After the shock, all of them started glaring daggers at me.

"I'm sorry I had to do that. Truly I am. However, if I don't get this question asked, then none of you are getting home. Think of your sister, Sweetie Belle, for a second. Simply answering a question is worth getting back to her isn't it?"

The looks on all of their faces softened at hearing that. Confident that they weren't going to lynch me anymore, I snapped my fingers and returned their mouths to their faces.

"Now then, my question to all of you is easy, I hope. I attended only one party thrown by Pinkie Pie and at that surprise party who exactly was surprised?"

I heard a bunch of them answer at once. There were a bunch of different answers. However, I couldn't tell who said what. I looked over to the stallion.

"I can't tell who is answering what. Can I tell you which isn't Rarity and they simply disappear?"

"That sounds acceptable."

"You can't hear the answer they give right?"

"No, I cannot."

"Alright, all of you line up and give me your answer. I can't tell you if you're right if I can't hear you."

One by one each of the different Rarity's came up and told me their answer. I, in turn, gave them a silent instruction to follow when I signaled for it. After everyone had given their answer, I motioned to the stallion that I was ready.

"Very well then. Which Rarity is the real Rarity?"

I walked over to the entrance so that I could see all the ponies in the room.

"Alright, is everyone ready?"

I didn't hear any objections.

"Three, two, one, now!" I yelled.

The ponies in the room all held up a hoof over their head. With one exception. That exception jumped up as high as she could into the air. I then grabbed her with my magic and levitated her into my arms.

"The Rarity I am holding is the real Rarity," I said with a big grin.

The other Rarity's began to look distraught. The stallion, however, simply chuckled. It was a really odd chuckle that seemed to echo within me. As quickly as it came, though, it ended just as abruptly.

"You are correct. Congratulations. You may take her and depart with my sincere appreciation of your victory."

Upon saying that, the other Rarity's vanished. Then, the stallion himself disappeared behind his top hat. Then, in a final display, the room shimmered and turned into the same little place inside the tent that I had seen before.

"Who was that pony?" I asked.

"I'm not quite sure myself," answered Rarity. "The only thing he gave me was a name."

"What was his name?"

"I believe he said that his name was Sandcroft. Although, he did say that was merely something to call him while I was in his company."

I stood there for a few more moments. I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. I could tell that he was just being playful. He could have done far worse than what he did. In fact, what he did wasn't even really bad. Sure, there was that threat, but I thought he probably made that in jest. In any case, there was a great deal more to that stallion than what I could see.

"Are you going to let me down now?"

I looked into her eyes and realized that I was still carrying her like a large dog. I promptly set her down gently and got down on a knee.

"Well, I'm ready to get back to the others," I said. "How about you?"

"I agree. Though this stay has been nice, I do miss my own home. Let us depart."

I nodded, grabbed the coin, and held it out in my hand. Without being told, Rarity placed her hoof on the coin and the two of us were engulfed in light.
> Some Musings With a Side of Enlightenment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Rarity! You're back!"

I felt myself get tackled out of the way as something ran past me; presumably into Rarity. I surmised pretty easily that it was Pinkie Pie. Luckily, I didn't fall to the ground this time. I merely flailed wildly while managing to stay on one knee.

"It's good to, well, see isn't the best term to use right now, but I'm glad you're here right now," I heard who I thought was Rarity speaking.

"Four down, two to go," I said happily.

"Three to go Seth. Remember, you still need to go retrieve Discord as well."

I wasn't sure who said that. However, I had a pretty good guess.

"Celestia, we need to talk about that when I've finished rescuing Rainbow Dash and Twilight."

I blinked away the last of the blindness and saw Pinkie Pie still hugging Rarity. I stood up to survey the scene. Everyone was still here except for Shining Armor and the Doctor. It didn't really bother me that Shining Armor had left. He really didn't seem too important in this situation. However, the Doctor should be around to check on the progress of this venture he had engaged in.

Oh wait, there they are. The both of them were at a table... was that a buffet table? Did Pinkie Pie set that up?

"Did you set up a buffet table while I was gone?"

"I sure did!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "I was going to have it for the party, but then Princess Celestia said that some of the guards around here were probably pretty hungry since they were keeping an eye on her so I decided to set up a buffet table for everypony to have something to eat because they were really hungry, but they also should have some variety since I don't think they want to eat the same thing over and over and-"

Surprisingly, Rarity covered Pinkie Pie's mouth to stop her from talking.

"I think he understands, Pinkie dear."

"Yes, I do understand. In fact, I'm pretty hungry myself. Have you got any vanilla ice cream over there?"

"I sure do! I'll be right back!" she said and ran off.

"Don't forget the chocolate syrup!" I yelled after her.

I looked to the side just in time to catch a glare from Princess Celestia.

"What? With Discord's magic it's not even affecting me," I said in my own defense.

"You cannot use that kind of excuse on me. This is the very reason you have your current stature. A healthier diet would prove to be wondrous for your physical well-being."

"Pleeeease do not go into lecturing mode. It doesn't work on me. It just makes everything so... annoying."

"Tell us about it," I heard Luna say exasperatedly.

Celestia shot Luna a look and then turned back towards me.

"We both know that you get away with that because you have nopony to look after you all the time. You need to-"

"Aaaauuuugh! No way! It's time to see how Spike is doing!"

I concentrated hard and teleported away. I arrived just outside of the Ponyville library.

"Man, I am getting really good at teleporting."

I stood back up and looked around. It looked like all the ponies had gone back to normal. I was hoping that that was the case. My spells at the Appleloosa plains had faded away when I left and I had hoped that the same had happened here. This made me feel better.

I went to the door, opened it up, squatted down, and looked inside. I saw Spike who was keeping himself busy by dusting the books on the shelves. Since I didn't feel like shimmying inside, I stood back up and simply teleported inside.

"Hey there Spike!" I called out.

He gave a quick yelp of surprise and turned to see me.

"Hey there Seth! If your here, then does that mean Twilight's back?" he said with shimmering eyes full of hope.

"I still have to rescue her and Rainbow Dash. I'm just taking a quick break to get something to eat. You up for something, little man?"

"I'm not sure we eat the same kind of food," he said tentatively.

"I can magic us up some food. I'm told by Twilight that you had your eye on this special ruby once. I bet I can make one for you."

"You can make me a fire ruby?" he asked with his mouth watering up.

"Theoretically yes."

"Theo-wha?"

"It means I can do it, but there's a chance that it won't work. I'm getting a great deal better at chaos control, but there is no certainty that I can. You know, let me try doing it in a different way. Close your eyes and imagine the one from before."

"I'm not so sure about this," Spike said with a hint of hesitation.

I promptly rolled my eyes and snapped my fingers. A table and two chairs appeared in the middle of the floor. I snapped my fingers again and on one side there was a bowl full of gems. On the other side, there was a cheeseburger and fries.

"There you go. At least you'll have some gems for sure."

I kept my eye on him as I walked over to the table to eat my burger. I noticed the glimmer he had in his eyes at the bowl of gems. As I pulled out my chair to sit down, he quickly zipped over to the table himself. Whereas I sat down quietly, he jumped up into the other chair and made googly eyes at the bowl presented before him.

"You'll need to eat those before I leave or else they'll disappear," I said in a sing song voice.

That seemed to quell his hesitation. He started to shovel the gems into his mouth. He still chewed in between the shoveling, but the point still remains. I had barely taken a third bite of my burger before he had already finished his bowl of gems off. He then looked at me expectantly. I promptly rolled my eyes and conjured up another bowl-full with a snap of my fingers.

As he ate is second bowl in a much more dignified manner, I ate in silence while thinking about the places that I had gone to so far. The first was a fusion between Danny Phantom and Ghost in the Shell. It was an interesting take on things. The human elements that persisted in Ghost in the Shell were made more tangible thanks to the more physical presence of ghosts from Danny Phantom. An interesting blend of ideas that seemed like it could be interesting; for lack of a better term.

Next, there was that future version of the Powerpuff Girls. Whoever wrote that definitely has a thing for those girls. Sure, if you think about only those girls from back in the original cartoon, then it seems a bit off. Those girls that I met were only girls in the sense of gender. They were much more battle hardened than I bet they let on. However, they still seemed to maintain a sense of innocence that I wasn't quite expecting. To be honest, if I had more time with them, I might have asked one of them out.

The third was the real kick in the balls. That one was the fanfiction piece called Rebel Against the Night. It was then that I realized that these were places that had been created solely thorough the act of human creativity. It legitimized, at least in my view, the fact that thought equals reality. It didn't really matter if their thoughts created it or if they merely saw it in their minds or some other option that I couldn't really understand. Yeah, it didn't matter much. Though it may have taken me a while to do so, I had just accepted that fact.

The fourth and final one I had been to was that odd little universe. I assumed that it was a fanfiction universe and a self insert one at that since he was the only human there. It wasn't necessarily true, but the modern clothing, the badass machete, and the magic he was wielding was some of the indicators that usually adorned self inserts. I may not have had to deal with the same kind of problems, but things didn't go off without some complications either.

All of them were fanfictions as far as I could tell. The thought was quite intriguing to me as I continued eating. If that trend continued, then the next two places I would visit would also be fanfiction universes. If their thoughts went into creating those universes, then why couldn't I try to enter the one that I had made? Heh, that would be interesting. I hadn't gone that far into my story yet. I had only written as far as the assassination attempt on the main character. Sure, I had a goal, but what if I saw my own work before I had gotten anywhere in it? I'm not even sure what the hell might happen at that point.

I could try to go into someone else's fanfic. By that, I meant a fanfic that I knew about, but that hadn't been made by me. Well, I think that would be obvious if anyone heard me say it out loud. Well, maybe not the fanfic part since I doubt any of the ponies even know what I'm talking about with that.

Where was I? Oh right, focus. What do I really know of focus? I'm usually not very good at it. Who even knows if I can do something like that in the vast quantities of possible fanfictions out there? I absolutely lucked into Rebel Against the Night. If I didn't I wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Oh who was I kidding? I can't choose where the ponies had gone. They had already been sent there. I can't reroll their destinations like a dungeon master. I could only go where they already were.

I had a few bites left of my burger, when I heard the front door to the library burst open.

"Twilight! Where is the-"

I turned to see who it was and instantly froze as they stopped speaking.

Lyra had gotten back into town.

"You! You're the human!?! You said your name was Buckshot!!!"

At that, Spike burst out laughing.

"Did the others come up with that silly name?" wheezed out Spike in between breaths.

"I was going to ask something about that as well, but I was too busy trying to find the human that was in front of me the whole time!!!" yelled Lyra in a mighty voice.

"Hey! My father gave me that nickname as a boy! Can someone tell me why that is so damned funny!?!" I practically spat out at them.

"Don't you know?" asked Spike while calming down a bit. "Buckshot is a nickname for a stallion's private parts!" he said as his laughing fit started again.

I, however, had a much different reaction to hearing that.

"You're telling me that my dad's nickname for me is a damn ball joke? That's it! I'm having a chat with the girls right now!"

"Oh no you don't!" yelled Lyra.

At that outburst, she used her magic to levitate me off of the ground a few feet and rushed over to me. Luckily, I wasn't suspended in place, so I was able to erect a shield that cancelled out her levitation before she got close enough. Needless to say, I fell on my side rather roughly. I still managed, however, to keep my concentration enough to not let the shield falter.

"Stop right there human! I demand to have a chat with you right now!"

"The last time you and I had a chat," I said while air quoting, "you basically stated that you wanted to stay a human and to show you everything about being a human while having lust filled eyes. That was a line that I did not want to see if I would cross. When this problem I have with the princesses is all over, and you promise to behave, I'll consider having a chat with you. However, right now I want to go vent at the others for not telling me the nickname my father gave me is a damn ball joke!!!"

I used the surprise I had given Lyra to drop my shield and teleport outside of the library. As I heard the shouts coming from inside the library, I concentrated and teleported back to the fields of Appleloosa. I was off by a little. I ended up teleporting to the other side of the rifts from before. I then noticed the ponies talking amongst themselves not too far from me.

It seemed like as good a time as any to bring up my angry protests.

"Why in the hell didn't any of you tell me, huh?"

The ponies all whirled around at my outburst. I continued on before they had a chance to answer.

"None of you could have taken ten seconds to explain to me what was going on about my nickname?"

I saw understanding bloom on most of their faces. I then walked over to one of the rifts. I didn't want to be around them when I was angry.

"When I get back, I'd like an apology for that. I'll have one ready for the yelling by then."

I then reached out and touched the rift. The flash of light washed over me like it always did. However, the normal sounds of what usually came were not what I heard this time. Instead, I heard a loud klaxon alarm and a computer voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"

It was a gruff male voice. It was also coming out in a stiff, monotonous tone. I still couldn't see, so I began to rub my eyes furiously to get it back quicker. I doubt that it helped, but anything to keep my mind off of the constant alarm going off was helpful in it's own right.

A few more seconds of furious rubbing and my eyesight returned. I looked around to get a bearing on where I was. Unfortunately, all I saw was a drab, dark, slightly curved hallway with some lighting tinged in red. Nothing was there to help me figure out where I was. I quickly activated my invisibility spell to keep myself concealed from whomever was coming for me.

I also decided that waiting around for them was a bad idea as well. I then started to jog down the corridor to find a way out of there. As I did so, I came upon a door without a handle. There was a pad next to the door, so I reached out and tapped on it. After a few tries, the door slid open.

It seemed to just be a an empty room. There didn't seem to be anything inside it at all. I decided to leave it alone and continued down the corridor.

I didn't make it far before I came upon several people coming down the corridor. I glued myself to the wall to let them by. As I watched the four of them run by, I couldn't help but notice their outfits.

They were each wearing an odd suit of some kind. None of them matched at all. One of them was wearing a cowboy outfit. Another looked like she was a magician's assistant. The third was just a guy dressed all in black and it looked a little like he had a cat face. The last guy was wearing a purple trenchcoat and matching suit and... didn't seem to have a face?

As they all ran past me, I felt the weirdness sink in. I don't know who they were, but they just screamed super humans. As they disappeared around the curvature of the hallway, I couldn't help but think about what I had seen. I was in a place that was inhabited by super humans. I wasn't sure whether they were heroes or villains though. I hadn't really recognized any of the people who I had passed so until I could figure out which side they were on, my best bet was to stick to the shadows and get out.

I kept moving along down the corridor and finally came upon an open doors. Said doors led to a staircase. I didn't know if I should go up or down, however. I could be in an underground lair or in a skyscraper. Without any windows, I couldn't make a guess as to which one was true.

The sounds of more people coming from the bottom of the stairs help me decide. I started going up the stairs as silently, yet quickly as possible. I didn't want to run into anyone and I didn't want them to notice me either. However, the sounds of someone coming up the stairs behind me glued me to a corner on one of the breaks in the stairs. As I watched, I finally saw someone that helped me determine which side it was.

It was Green Arrow.

It was hard to mistake him for anyone else. The Robin Hood look complete with the green bow was all the proof that I needed. The mask and the blond goatee helped, though. He was being flanked by two other guys that I couldn't quite identify, but that really didn't matter to me at the time. It did give me the information I needed to know who I was dealing with.

It was the Justice League. I was in the DC comics universe.
> Sneaking Around
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought about the unique predicament I was in as I watched the group run past me. I was technically an intruder in what I assumed was the Watchtower. Or perhaps it was the Hall of Justice? Either way, I was an intruder in a den of superheroes. This was very confusing.

At least I wasn't in a den of supervillains. They would just kill me as soon as they found me. Superheroes would take the time to figure out who I was and whether or not I was a threat.

Oh crap! Some of these heroes probably have psychic powers! What if they read my mind? I could inadvertently give them an existential crisis and they could go nuts! Of course, something like this may have happened before and I could be over-thinking things. That's my problem in a nutshell. Everything I know is a half-assed conglomeration of facts.

What I needed right then was to figure out what fiction this was. I may have been in a DC universe, but I didn't know which one exactly. Crossovers with DC are commonplace and knowing where I was could take a great deal of investigation. Investigating would take time. Time was a very valuable commodity I had little of.

If I could have, I would have simply teleported around to figure things out. The problem with that is I haven't been able to use two spells at once other than when I used chaos magic. Basically, if I wanted to teleport around, I would have to remove my invisibility spell to do it. That wasn't to say that self-sustaining spells could be used and then I could use another spell. I couldn't channel energy into the two spells at the same time. In essence, it just came down to mobility versus stealth.

Wait. Not necessarily. I can teleport to places I've seen or places that I can see. I may not be able to see the main bridge of the Watchtower, but if this is the one that I actually do know then I can remember the bridge and teleport there without worrying about it. If by the slim margin that I'm right, I can say something and disappear while making it seem that I teleported away.

Still, why am I acting this paranoid anyway? These are superheroes not gang bangers or something along those lines. Seriously, why shouldn't I just reveal myself and surrender?

Argh! I was just thinking in circles! For the time being, I decided to just continue on my way until I saw something familiar and not just someone. Unless I saw someone that I knew I could surrender to peacefully.

I kept up the pace going up the stairs. I ran up another twenty flights before I came across a path that didn't seem like the others coming out of the stairs. It still looked like there was another ten or so levels, but I decided that a difference in appearance was as good a break as any to try out. After walking for a bit longer, I stumbled upon a different room.

Actually, it was a hangar. Well, the Javelin hangar to be precise.

After taking a quick look around for occupants, I walked up to one of the ships and took a close look all around it. It was pretty damn cool. The swept-forward wing design, smooth alloy that was cool to the touch, the dual engines that were perfectly integrated into the hull, everything about it was awesome.

"This is the coolest plane, slash, spaceship I've ever seen."

"It is quite an impressive piece of technology, I'll agree," said a flat voice right behind me.

I was about to whirl around to see who said that, but I composed myself in a manner that even I was unaware that I could act in. Instead, I continued the conversation as if nothing was bothering me.

"You know, if you can see me, then you are either a psychic or can see through magic. If you're a psychic though, I would appreciate that you didn't go through my mind please."

"I haven't done so as of yet. Are you here in a peaceful manner then?"

"I am. I'm just looking for a friend of mine. In the past, however, whenever I pop in I'm usually within a certain distance from who I'm looking for. This time is a bit different. Instead, I believe I'm inside the Watchtower. Am I correct?"

"That is correct."

I turned around to see who I was talking to. I was quite surprised to see that it was J'onn J'onzz a.k.a the Martian Manhunter looking straight at me. He wasn't even with anyone as far as I could tell. He was just by himself with me. Staring at him made me think how silly it was to keep up my invisibility so I dropped my spell and continued to chat with him which, I'll admit, seemed way too calm for the situation I was in.

"I'm sorry I just popped into the place like I did. It's completely random where I end up to start with. I'm Seth," I said and extended my hand out.

He looked at my hand and then back up at my face.

"I am J'onn J'onzz," he said without shaking my hand.

I pulled my hand back and instead started scratching the back of my neck nervously.

"Iiiii'm guessing that you don't really trust me yet, do you?"

"That is correct."

"You've probably also told everybody else where I am too, haven't you?"

"That is also correct."

Man, that flat tone of his was a little annoying.

"Well, I guess when they show up I can surrender peacefully. Say, who else is around? I've seen quite a few people and surprisingly not any of the personnel around and yet the only two I've even recognized are you and Green Arrow."

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"So you already know who I am?"

"Well, yeah," I said in a confused voice. "I know who you are. I just gave you my name since you didn't know who I was. Though, I might need some additional information to figure out exactly where I am. I'm kind of a multiverse jumper."

It was a good idea. They do know about multiverses here after all.

"So, you are not from this universe then?"

"Of course not. There's no Justice League in my universe so I know that I'm not in mine. Heck, there aren't even any meta-humans in my universe. Heck, I only have my powers from going to a different one."

Wow, now I just seem to be really chatty. I wonder if this is his doing? I wouldn't necessarily put it past him. Then again, I might just be really comfortable around him since he's a superhero. That would make sense too.

Luckily, I was saved from any further chatter by the sound of an opening door. I looked slightly to my right to see two more superheroes rush in. It was too bad that I didn't recognize either of them. Well, that wasn't completely true. I did kind of recognize the cowboy guy from one of the episodes I'd seen. I think it was the same guy I had seen earlier too, but I hadn't put two and two together. Oh, and that guy without a face was probably that detective guy with the conspiracy theories. Why was my enhanced memory so damn finicky? Luckily for me, J'onn held up a hand to stop them from coming after me.

"I suppose that they are here to take me to a cell or something, right?"

"Again, you are correct."

"You know, your vocabulary doesn't seem that diverse. Perhaps you should think about expanding it. Just something to think about. I'll go to my cell peacefully now. Before I go though, could you help search for my friend while I'm in there? She looks like this."

I held my hand out and was about to cast an illusion, but I realized that I didn't know which of the two was here.

"Oh wait, which of the two is here? Let me check," I mused out loud.

I pulled the coin out from my shirt and took a look at it. Rainbow Dash's symbol was the one that was lit up.

"There we go. This is who I'm looking for."

I once again held out my hand and this time I cast a perfect life-sized illusion of Rainbow Dash.

"Her name is Rainbow Dash. She's a bit cocky and brash, but she's pretty nice and is very loyal to her friends."

I looked up to see them not so happy about me using magic like I was doing. Well, the two in back weren't. I couldn't really get a read on J'onn. The guy was completely impassive.

"I'm still cooperating," I said as I threw my hands into the air. "I'd just like someone to be searching for her while I'm stuck in a cell for whatever reason."

"We will assist you in your search provided that you telling the truth. There are some questions we would like to ask you first."

"I suppose that I can oblige you guys with some answers. There are a few things that I don't think I can tell you, but I doubt that they will come up anyway."

Ugh, why did I say that? Now I sound untrustworthy. Idiot!

"Go ahead and take him to a holding cell."

I dropped the illusion and walked over to the other two. The cowboy stayed in front of me while the other guy, some blonde dude with sunglasses who was wearing mostly blue with a five-pointed red star on his chest, stayed behind me. The only thing that I could think about was that I really hoped that I wouldn't be interrogated by Batman. That seemed scary enough just thinking about it. Of course, thinking like that probably almost guaranteed it.

I was probably not going to have a good stay here.
> Guess Who Interrogates Me?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been about three hours since I had been dropped off in my little holding cell. The place just looked like a futuristic version of an interrogation room. The same metal-like material was encasing this room as the halls and doors. The table and two chairs in the room were also metal, but of a much shinier variety. Also, there was, of course, the two-way mirror on one of the walls. Though, I did expect some kind of smell to accompany the room. On that, I was off. It was probably because of where it was.

It was interesting... for all of five minutes. Not even five minutes, to be more specific. It was obvious that either they weren't sure what to do with me, or they just wanted me to stew in here for awhile until they were ready to ask some questions.

I honestly didn't let it bother me. It probably would have bothered me if I hadn't already talked a little with J'onn. Instead, I just took my time and waited since they would digest that info and help me just on the fact of them trying to find her. At least I hoped that they did.

In the meantime, I just tried to come up with things to do. It was just like when I was at Fluttershy's cottage. I couldn't help but think about how short and yet how long ago that was. Just like then, I had to fill up my time with things to do while I waited for someone to show up.

This time was, thankfully, a different story. Sure, I still didn't have any games to play while I waited. This time, what I did have was my illusion magic. Thanks to that, I could come up with some things to entertain myself.

For the first hour or so, I simply listened to some songs while sitting up against the wall. Some AC/DC, some Metallica, some Five Finger Death Punch, some Shinedown, quite a few different artists. Though I did think about Wrestlemania when I played Ladies and Gentlemen by Saliva. I always do. I also, unfortunately, think about Chris Benoit when I do since that was his last Wrestlemania. It was just a sad thing to think about.

It also broke me from that train of songs. Instead, for the rest of the time, I simply conjured an illusion spell to watch some television. That honestly made me feel pretty good. The funniest part was that I just ended up watching Iron Man. How ironically hilarious was that? Watching a Marvel universe movie in the middle of a cell in a DC universe was awesome. It made me think a bit about Inception for a bit. I was a man inside a DC universe television show, watching a Marvel universe movie. For a bit, I was concerned about turning the place meta, but then again I doubt I was even using the term properly, let alone having that happen. Curse my lack of terminology knowledge!

As the credits rolled, there was a knock on the door. I instantly dispelled the illusion and got into my chair. I then watched as the door slid open and a figure walked in.

It was the Batman.

"Of everyone who could have come to ask me some questions, I can honestly say that you were the guy I was expecting the most," I said; unable to hold my tongue.

He simply narrowed his eyes and walked over to the other side of the table. He was every bit as intimidating as I had expected him to be. It was the eyes that really sold it. It wasn't what you saw in them, but rather that you couldn't see anything in them at all. It was like a spirit that you knew could break you without even touching you.

I closed my eyes for a bit and thought about what I was doing here in order to help calm myself. I needed to rescue Rainbow Dash. Nothing else really mattered as much as that. I had to do this. Despite who was in there with me, I needed to remain on that subject.

Although, the best way to deal with the Batman was actually the Joker's route. Humor in the face of danger, I mean. I wasn't a psycho after all.

I opened my eyes to see him in the same position as he was in when I closed my eyes. He hadn't moved an inch. I simply smiled at him a tiny bit.

"Sooooooo, you don't look too happy right now. Anything I can do to fix that?"

"I want to know what you are doing here," he said in a low tone.

"I already told J'onn that," I said in a confused manner. "I would have thought that he mentioned it to you. It's been three hours since I've been in here. That seems like more than enough time to tell you. But, in the interest of cooperation, I'll say it again. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Her name is Rainbow Dash."

I waited for him to respond. He looked like he was examining me to see if I was telling the truth. He really did have trust issues.

"Would you care for an image of her as reference? Maybe you could help me find her, please?"

Hearing me say please actually made him back up a bit. His eyes even widened back up to normal.

"How is it that this Rainbow Dash came to be in our universe as you say?"

"Ah, that would be the fault of Discord. It is a really complicated mess of time travel and multiple universes that I'm still not one hundred percent has resolved themselves. I'll try to make it as short as possible for you. That is, if you do want to hear it."

"I do."

"Well," I started while taking a deep breath, "it began when I was woken up in the middle of the night by this being known as Discord. Discord is an amalgamation of different animals put together and who uses his magic to cause chaos. His power is not really measured, but is very powerful. He woke me up, let me get halfway dressed, and then tossed me this coin around my neck."

I lifted the coin around my neck for visual effect.

"He then tells me to keep it on me and then shoves me into a portal that eventually dumps me into a forest. After wandering out of the forest, I am treated to the sight of a blue pegasus flying through the sky with a rainbow following in her wake. I then find out that I'm in a planet full of equine creatures that call themselves ponies. I made friends with a bunch of them as well as their leader, after a bit of a rough start.

"Then, I find out that the being who sent me there has kidnapped the royal sisters along with their guards. I then challenged him to a duel to get them back. He accepted pretty much immediately and gave me a day to prepare. Then, after some of my friends touch the coin I was given, I found out that it wasn't the same Discord. The one who gave me the coin was a Discord from the future. He had imbued the coin with his own magic and gave it to me after casting a few spells on it including a message spell to explain what was going on. It turned out the coin gave me magical abilities and the six friends I had made had stabilized the magic after touching the coin. At least, that's part of what I got out of that. The coin gave me enhanced durability, strength, some improvement to memory, and magical powers. Aside from a few spells, though, I could only use chaos magic. For example-"

I snapped my fingers and a plate with cookies appeared on the table.

"I can do things like that. I have a few normal spells like teleportation, levitation, invisibility, illusions, and a couple others. However, by snapping my fingers, I can conjure up just about anything I can think of. Well, after that image of him faded, I went to meet the present version of Discord and had a duel with him. Apparently, the rules were that whoever injured the other three times first was the winner. After a bit of a brawl and a close call with death, I actually managed to beat him. 

"Unfortunately, while I was celebrating with my friends he decided to be a sore loser and chucked some kind of spell at me. I managed to counter it and throw it back at him. However, he countered that and there was this explosion of magic. The coin managed to protect me, but he and my six friends were caught up in the resulting magical cascade, for lack of a better term. The effect was that each of the seven of them were ripped from that universe and sent into a different one. My coin here lets me go after them and track them down so I can bring them back. I've already saved four of them so far. Rainbow Dash is the fifth mare that I have to go after. After I get her back, I still have to go and save Twilight Sparkle. And maybe Discord too," I said grumbling out the last sentence.

I looked on as Batman he seemed to digest this information. He was ever the detective I had heard of. I'm willing to bet he's going to try and ask me about some things from my story that probably don't add up somewhere.

"So, how do I know your telling the truth and that you aren't this Discord in disguise?"

"Ummm, because I'm not him? That's a good question though. I don't really have any proof of my story do I? I'm kind of wishing I did now. Crap. Would you just be willing to trust me?"

I looked on as his eyes narrowed on me.

"I'm guessing that's a no. Well, damn, I'm not sure what to do in this situation. I don't want to do extortion. I mean you're the good guys, after all. I like the good guys. Whenever I play video games I like playing the good guy. I don't always do good things, but I try to. Trust is a hard thing to receive, though. I don't really have any way to prove that trust or earn any trust just sitting here either."

He continued to glare at me while he stood up from his seat. I got a little uncomfortable with him staring down at me from across the table.

I wasn't even sure where my next sentence came from.

"Would a hug change your mind?"

I saw him cock an eyebrow at that and his glare lost a great deal of it's bite. I decided to keep working with that.

"Is that a maybe?"

I swear I heard the sound of laughter coming from behind him. I also saw Batman take a quick turn of his head towards the two-way mirror behind him. He then turned his attention back to me.

"Come on now. Let's hug things out. I bet you could use a good hug."

That time I definitely heard the sounds of laughter coming from behind him. That laughter really helped me calm down quite a bit. I then had a horrible, yet unwavering little idea come to mind. I knew it would be a bad idea, but I hoped that they would get over it. Hell, I got over it.

"I know what you need! You need a party!"

I snapped my fingers and a cannon appeared on the table. His eyes shot wide as my hand went down to fire the cannon. He dove to the side and reached down on his belt as the cannon went off. The next few seconds were a blur as a plethora of colors erupted around the room. It was a swirl of craziness that eventually died down and revealed a very different room.

The entire room was now party central. There were balloons in each corner and tied to the the chairs as well. The table was now set with a plaid tablecloth of red and white that somehow got under the plate of cookies that was still on the table. Next to the cookies on one side was a cake and on the other was a bowl of purple punch. The walls themselves were now decorated in vertical stripes of red and white. There was also now a pink carpet that had somehow gotten under everything in the room. It was a literal party explosion.

Oh, and I was now wrapped up in a bolo rope.

Batman continued to stare at me while I was looking around at the room. I was surprised at the ability of that cannon. That thing could really do a number on a room.

"You know, I had that same reaction when Pinkie Pie pointed that party cannon in my face. That girl really knows how to throw a party. Did you know that she literally pulled that thing from inside her mane? How did she do it? I'm guessing hammerspace access of some sort."

I snapped my fingers and the rope turned into licorice. I snapped those bindings off and took a seat. I realized then that the party cannon itself had disappeared. I wondered where it had gone and simply shrugged while taking one of the cookies off of the plate.

I didn't even realize that Batman had gotten off of the floor until he twirled me around and planted me on the table. He looked upset. I guess he didn't get over it as fast as I did.

"Don't ever do that again."

"Yes sir," I squeaked out.

He released me from his grip and backed up a bit.

"I kinda felt the same way when, like I said, that cannon was pointed in my face," I said while finding my voice again. "It also helps me recharge my magic."

"Recharge your magic?"

"Yeah, that's right. My magic isn't infinite. I have to recharge it. Since the being who gave it to me was Discord, the only way to do it is by engaging in random acts of chaos. Though, from what he said in the message I'm willing to bet that just being in the vicinity of chaotic occurrences should also do the trick. And-"

I smacked myself in the forehead as I remembered what I was doing.

"I'm getting off track. I'm here to find Rainbow Dash and bring her home. All this other stuff, while entertaining, is frivolous and time consuming. Sure, there isn't anything happening back home for her right now, but she is one of the Elements of Harmony. Without all six of them there, the elements won't work."

"The Elements of Harmony? What are those?"

I sighed a bit.

"This feels like I'm giving a dissertation. The Elements of Harmony are a group of ancient artifacts that are wielded by the ones who best represent that element. They are based on five tenants of friendship; honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty. The six element is the result of the others and is summed up as magic. Together, these artifacts tap into a magic that can bend reality to reshape it in order to create harmony.

"Each of the six of them I have to or already have rescued corresponds to each one of those tenants. Applejack represents honesty. Fluttershy represents kindness. Pinkie Pie represents laughter. Rarity represents generosity. Rainbow Dash, the mare that is here, represents loyalty. Finally, Twilight Sparkle represents magic.

"I know that you don't trust me. I think that's pretty evident. I don't have anything that can really help alleviate that mistrust short of mind-reading and there are secrets in my head that I do not want getting out. Besides, I already had that done once by the princess and she didn't take it too well. Thankfully she is thousands of years old so she was able to get over it."

"Did you say thousands of years old?" he asked without a bit of surprise I could detect in his voice. Wow, that was professional.

"Yeah, she said she's about fourteen thousand years old. She also told me not to tell any of the other ponies about how old she is so I'd appreciate nobody telling Rainbow Dash that. Still, it brings me back to the fact that I need to go rescue Rainbow Dash. Sitting here is not going to help me accomplish that. Can you let me leave now or, better yet, help me find her?"

He just stared at me for a moment.

"We'll see."

After saying that, he went to the door and exited the room.

"That had to have been the coolest, scariest, funniest moment of my life. All I need now is a handshake from Superman and a kiss on the cheek from Wonder Woman and then I could take a bullet and still be happy!"

I turned around and took one of the cookies from the plate and had a bite. I honestly wish I had come here last. That way, I knew that everyone I cared about was safe and then I could rescue Rainbow Dash and just chill out here for a bit. I mean I just met the Batman! Sure, it was an interrogation and a half-hearted one at that, but it was still cool! I'm probably the only person in existence who could honestly say that they fired a cannon at Batman and didn't get beat up for it! I was having a total nerdgasm from the whole thing!

It took me about twenty minutes to finally calm down from the entire thing. It was another twenty minutes until I was greeted by another figure.

Green Lantern: John Stewart.

"Okay, we've decided to let you out of here."

That was all I heard before I went giddy again.
> I'm Getting Tired of Explaining Things
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

John took my little outburst about as well as could be. He humored me when I was gushing on him being a Green Lantern. He answered a few questions politely.

Then things got a little odd.

I asked about his ring. He was nice enough to let me see it, but not to touch it. I did grab his hand to look a little closer at it which he didn't seem to mind. Then, when I was telling him about the time when I saw an imitation of the rind made out of pure emerald, I got a weird feeling in my hand. It felt like it was falling asleep; complete with the feeling of pins and needles.

I tried it from a few different angles and with different body parts. Every time I did, I started getting that odd numbness feeling. The both of us found this very interesting. I decided to try out what would happen if I touched one of his constructs and when he made a construct of a baseball bat, I grabbed it to see what might happen. Interestingly enough, after a few seconds the construct started to flicker and shimmer. At seeing that, we both agreed that it was probably best to keep a good distance from each other.

That still didn't stop me from acting like a goofy idiot around him.

After about ten minutes of walking and taking the elevator, we got to the main bridge of the Watchtower. The place was big, but I was more interested in the fact that it was all kinds of cool. The ring of personnel stations, the teleport pad, the overseer nest about seventy-five feet above the main floor, the various superheroes hanging around the room, and the huge bay windows that let you see the Earth all drove me to actually squeeing by accident.

I heard a chuckle come from John.

"I take it you like it."

"This is, without a doubt, definitely the best day of my life to date," I replied with a tone of barely contained glee.

"Well, don't get too comfortable. I brought you here so we can get to work helping you with your search for your friend."

"Thank you so very much for doing that. The last several times I was teleported to a relatively close distance to the pony I had to save. This time something changed. Unless she's somewhere on the station and no one knows about it. I doubt that, though. I mean, the alarms went-"

That is where I stopped. I'm pretty sure John asked me why I stopped, but I'm only surmising that since I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. I was looking at a group of heroes laughing at one of the stations. One of them was Supergirl. She was pretty sexy, of course, but that wasn't the main reason I was looking at them.

It was the other two. There were only two people I knew who looked like that. Mousse and Shampoo from Ranma 1/2.

For a moment, I stared in confusion at the trio. There was no way they should be here. Then it hit me. There was one fanfiction I knew that involved these two elements. Dark Titans by Lathis.

"What are the odds of a second one? The first one was steep odds already, but a second one? The odds of this are astronomical. It just shouldn't be possible."

I felt a hand on my shoulder that brought me out of my ramblings.

"What's going on?"

"Those two," I said while keeping my eyes on them. "That's the connection. That is the combination of this universe. It also helps narrow things down somewhat."

"You mean those two with Supergirl?"

"Exactly. This universe is a merger with theirs. This development will definitely help me narrow down the places that I need to search."

"And where exactly would that narrow it down to?"

"If I'm right, then the possibilities are down to four locations: the Nerima Ward in Tokyo, the Amazon village in China, the city of Metropolis, or Jump City."

"And exactly how did you come up with those four locations?"

"First is the Nerima Ward and the Amazon village. Their universe has a hot spot in those two locations. A great deal of events occurs in those two locations. Next is Metropolis. Their association with Supergirl leads me to believe that they may have unknowingly directed Rainbow Dash to that location. However, I believe that is the least likely location. Lastly there is Jump City. In several situations like this, it is most likely that one or more of their associates is linked with the Teen Titans. The Titans main location is in Jump City which is a good location to bring up. Honestly, the most likely candidate for that problem is Ryouga Hibiki. That boy is a melting pot full of trouble."

"And just who is this Ryouga?"

At this point, I could tell that he was just listening because he had to. His very tone of voice and posture made it look like he wanted to do something else. I'm pretty sure that it was my fault for being a bit of a pest so I didn't hold it against him.

"If you want to know, then ask the Titans. I need to get moving on this."

I then teleported over to the station where the three of them were.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" I asked into them.

The three of them spun around with a look of a kid who had their hand caught in the cookie jar. That look quickly went away once they saw who was addressing them.

"Who is you? You no look like you belong here," said Shampoo.

"I haven't seen him around here before either," said Supergirl.

"I'm just here to ask you something. Do you think that you could get a message down to the Teen Titans for me? I don't exactly have a way to contact them myself."

"We're not supposed to let random individuals use the Watchtower's communications," said Mousse. "It's standard protocol."

"It's a communication to give them a missing person's report for their area. Also, it's to let them know that I'll be dropping in to do some reconnaissance in the area. Once I get planetside, I should be able to get a bearing on who I'm looking for."

"I suppose that we can do that," said Supergirl with a bit of trepidation.

Before they had time to react, as odd as that is considering that all three of them have superhuman reflexes, I managed to scoop all three of them in a hug.

"Thanks a lot you guys!" I said in a chirpy voice.

I was also wise enough to put Mousse in the middle of that hug. I can tell you right now from experience that if you ever hug a random person, hand placement is a major factor. Keeping your hands on the guy in the middle is a helpful way to alleviate that problem.

Despite all of that, I still received a punch in the face from Shampoo. It was pretty strong, but I managed to keep my grip.

"You let go Shampoo right now!"

I released the three of them and held my hand to my face. As it turned out, my enhanced durability was not transferred to the glasses I was wearing. As I took my glasses off, I noticed that the frame was warped and both lenses were now cracked, but at least they hadn't shattered.

"You know, I may have hugged the three of you, but still that was uncalled for. I didn't even have my hands on either of you. I had my hands on Mousse the whole time."

She was a little surprised from hearing me say Mousse's actual name. I could tell. It didn't last long.

"How you know Mousse's real name?" she asked in a low tone that was dripping with suspicion.

"Alternate dimensions, though I'm not sure you know what I mean by that. Think of it like you had a bunch of twin sisters all living the same life in different places. All of them have the same name. All of them had the same family. All of them chasing after Ranma to get him to marry her. There are many dimensions out there and many versions of you. That's how I know of you, Shampoo."

No one else spoke for a moment. They were probably all taking that in. I decided to fuel that fire a little for my own amusement.

"Some of those Shampoo's even succeeded in marrying Ranma."

"I is married to Ranma?"

"You know you can speak in Chinese to me if you want. I have a nifty little translator on my shirt here," I said and pointed to the little gift the TARDIS gave me. I love that big blue box.

"You're telling me that I'm actually married to Ranma just like I've always dreamed?"

Yowsa! What a difference a language makes. It sounds like she's still speaking English to me. However, that broken dialect of her's that is so well known is completely gone.

"Just like you've dreamed about. Of course, there a few times where you've instead married Mousse."

I swear I could see some green tint in her face as she sputtered from that revelation.

"There is no way that I would ever marry that stupid, blind duck!" she yelled at me while pointing to Mousse.

"A bit harsh of a reaction don't you think? Besides, all things are possible in the universe, or in this case the multiverse. You can marry Ranma just as easily as you might marry Mousse, or even a third party that came to the village and defeated you in combat before Ranma came along."

I examined my glasses once more. I then snapped my fingers and they were restored to perfect condition. That did make me think of something.

"Hey Mousse."

He looked away from Shampoo and towards me once again. I bet he was staring off into his own mind thinking about what I said about him marrying Shampoo.

"Present time!" I said and snapped my fingers at him.

There was a flash and then a gasp from Mousse. He took off his super thick glasses and looked at me. Now, I want everyone to know that I'm not gay, but his eyes actually looked, for lack of a better term, dreamy. He honestly had the most daring green eyes that I had ever seen on a human being. The fact that they starting tearing up really didn't help at all.

"I... I can see. I can see!"

"Don't go crazy on me now! It's only temporary. As soon as I leave this universe your eyes will go back to the way they were before."

I didn't have a chance to say anything else as he pulled me into a hug on his own accord.

"This is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me! Thank you so much!"

I patted him on the back as he kept up his emotional outburst. I didn't really mind any, but it was drawing stares from the people in the room. That was getting a little awkward.

"Yeah, just so you know, I get a bit uncomfortable when people are staring at me. Could you maybe tone it down a little?"

He broke off his embrace immediately. He then looked over to Shampoo and started full-on weeping at that point.

"I'm so happy that I can look upon you with my own eyes Shampoo. I never thought that I would be able to do so in my entire life."

He then leaped forward to give her a hug. It looked as though she was about to give him a knee to the face for his troubles, but I managed to push her forward before she got her knee up high enough and he managed to get his arms around her. She looked like she was about to break it off when I interrupted her.

"Just give him this one time. I mean, when will he ever get the chance to actually see you like he is now? Besides, like I said it's only temporary. Once I head back to the universe I just came from with Rainbow Dash, his eyes will return to normal. Let him enjoy it for now."

She definitely didn't look happy about it, but she didn't make a move to push him away either. I then looked over to Supergirl who hadn't made much of a fuss over this at all. In fact, all I saw was her with a lighthearted smile on her face.

"You know what? I'll just go ahead and teleport down there and hoof it. At least I'll have a bearing then."

I then charged up my magic, thought about where I wanted to go, and teleported away. I opened my eyes to see if I had gotten it right.

Only, I looked right into the face of Mousse.

"Mousse? What the hell man?"

"This is the greatest gift I have ever received. I feel that I am honor-bound to repay you in some fashion for your generosity."

I looked over to the left, and then up at the giant T looming over me. It looked as though my teleportation spell had worked. I then looked back to Mousse.

"I guess that's fine. It's not as if you'll slow me down or anything. In fact, you are much faster than I am. I am, however, more durable and stronger than you are thanks to magic. Though, I'm not actually sure which of us has more endurance. Oh well, I'm just rambling now. Let's see which way we need to head, first of all."

I grabbed the coin around my neck and held it out to check my direction. It pointed out into the city.

"Into the city it is."

"What is that coin you have?"

"Oh this? Right, you weren't there when I told Batman about it. This coin acts as a beacon to help me find who I'm looking for. It acts as a few other things including keeping my magic stable, I think anyway. At least, that's what I inferred from the creature who gave it to me."

"Who are you looking for anyway? You said her name was Rainbow Dash if I remember correctly."

"That's right," I said as I started walking towards the city. "She's a four-foot, cyan pegasus pony with a rainbow colored mane and tail."

"A pony?" he asked with a tone of disbelief.

"An intelligent pony from a world filled with almost nothing but good folks. They are the primary sentient life form of their planet. They are also very nice and friendly when you get to know them. I only met them a couple of weeks ago and I'm hopping around the multiverse to get them back."

"It sounds kind of girly if you ask me."

"Way to ruin the moment dude," I stated in a high voice.

"And what moment were you two trying to have in front of our tower?" said someone behind us.

I stopped and turned around to see who addressed us.

It was all the Teen Titans; Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Terra, and, in this universe, Ryouga Hibiki.

"I believe it was the moment where the two of us go track down a missing being and bring her home," I said to no one in particular.

"Why would a member of the Justice League be necessary if it's a missing person?" asked Robin.

"Firstly it's because I accidentally teleported into the Watchtower so they are keeping an eye on me. The other reason is that it isn't a missing person, it's a missing pegasus from another universe."

"A pegasus? What exactly is a pegasus?" asked Starfire.

I facepalmed at the fact that I kept having to repeat myself to every person that came along.

"I came here to rescue a four-foot tall, cyan colored, rainbow-maned pony with wings named Rainbow Dash and I have spent the last several hours explaining this to you, him, and the Justice League. Can I please go get her now? I still have to go and retrieve a purple unicorn after I'm done!"

The looks on everyone's faces were priceless. Of course, it was quickly broken by the sound of Beast Boy laughing his green butt off.

"Oh man! That's the nuttiest thing I've ever heard!"

"Oh screw you dude!" I yelled at him and spun back around.

I started walking towards the city again. However, I didn't get very far before a wall of ebon darkness blocked my path. I simply grabbed onto Mousse and teleported around it. I then continued on my way for a few more steps before both Mousse and I were encased in a sphere of the same substance.

"Raven, will you cut that out?" I asked.

"We want some answers first," she replied.

"I just gave you guys some answers."

I tried to teleport again, but this time I couldn't seem to do so. It seemed that her little sphere was able to block my teleportation spell. I didn't want to try forcing my way out with Mousse in there with me. I guess it was up to random luck to work it's way out of this. I placed my left hand on the sphere and channeled magic into both of my hands. I then snapped my fingers and the sphere turned into a sphere of water that promptly splashed down on the both of us.

"That's impossible!" I heard Raven cry.

"That's Tuesday!" I replied as I placed my hand on Mousse's shoulder.

"By the way, congrats on getting out of the stone prison Terra."

I noticed everyone's eyes widen as I teleported over the bay and onto the nearby shore where I was headed. I saw them spot me and start heading heading towards the two of us.

"Well Mousse, it looks as though the chase is on. Let's head towards the signal origin in that direction," I said and pointed towards the same direction as earlier.

"Is this really necessary?" he asked.

"You don't want to lose to Ryouga now do you?" I goaded him.

I saw him smirk as if he read my intentions, but didn't really care.

"You're right. This is what we came here to do anyway. Let us make haste."

"You go as fast as you can. I can teleport behind you and keep them at bay if necessary."

After a moment of thinking, he nodded and started running in the direction I had pointed in. I turned back to check on the Titans. They were three-quarters of the way over from their tower. Also, Cyborg had somehow taken the time to go grab the T-Car and was driving over the bridge with his head sticking out of the window.

I let out a smirk. Sure, they were the good guys and just talking with them would probably have been the right thing to do in the situation. Too bad I had grown a bit impatient from all the waiting around I had to do. I also had found that strange since I was usually a pretty darn patient person.

That really didn't matter to me now. I had seven superheroes about to do their utmost to catch me for some reason that I couldn't really understand. Although, it may have been a mere issue of pride. Again, it didn't matter.

I was playing tag with the Titans and they were it.

"Game on," I whispered.
> Cat and Mouse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it turned out, our game of tag was basically a full contact sport.

That was plenty evident when as soon as I was in range, Beast Boy morphed from the pterodactyl he was using to fly straight to a big-ass gorilla to bash me. I jumped back to avoid the overhead smash and instantly started to regret this course of action. I barely had the time to react to an ebony-encased trash dumpster flying in from my side. I threw up a slender half-shield and managed to block it. I then dropped the shield and teleported back about a tenth of a mile from the action.

"Dude!" cried Beast Boy. "How are we supposed to catch him if he keeps teleporting all over the place?"

"You're not supposed to catch me!" I yelled back. "This is tag and the Titans are it!"

I emphasized that point by turning around and running like I was trying to put out a fire with the wind speed.

"He wants to play tag," I heard Robin say, "then let's all tag him for real."

'Not really your best one liner, Robin.'

I looked up into the night sky and, using that for reference, I teleported up to the roof of a building. I then ran from one end to the other and prepared an illusion spell. The second I saw one of them crest over the edge, I let it fly. In retrospect, it was more perfect that it was Starfire carrying up Cyborg. I intentionally made it miss them and hit the side of the roof. It then made almost the entire roof look like it was on fire. It made a brilliant contrast to the time of day, despite the full moon that was out. I then decided to say something I've always wanted to say.

"The roof! The roof! The roof is on FIRE!!!"

I actually heard Cyborg laugh and he actually kept it going.

"We don't need no water! Let that mother burn!"

That was as far as he got before Starfire let out a loud gasp.

"Cyborg! Why would you wish to let an innocent person stay on fire?"

I laughed as he tried to explain it to Starfire. However, I decided to wave it off, so to speak. By that, I mean that I dissipated the illusion before things got out of hand.

"Don't worry. The fire wasn't even real."

I then snapped my fingers. Soon after that, a pair of dish tubs landed on each of their heads.

"That, however, was very real."

I didn't get the time to laugh as I quickly felt myself get tied up. I looked down to see Robin's grapple gun had tied itself around me. I almost teleported away, but realized that it may take Robin along with me and I wasn't exactly sure where that would leave him.

Instead of doing that, I tried a shield spell. I threw up a half-dome shield in the direction that the rope came from and, to my satisfaction, it cut straight through the rope. It had the unfortunate side effect of dropping Robin halfway up from his ascent. He was saved from a nasty fall from Ryouga catching him in a leaping maneuver.

I took the opportunity to teleport away from the scene. As I thought, the rope tagged along for the ride. I tried powering out of the rope and only halfway succeeded. It didn't break like I wanted, but it loosened up enough to get it off of me. Once the rope was off, I teleported one roof over to keep up some distance.

Too bad that all it did was bring me closer to an awaiting Raven.

"You have some odd power that overcame my own powers. How did you do that?" she asked impatiently.

"It's chaos magic," I answered truthfully. "You have to take it in stride. Think of it as a life lesson. I had to. Chaos and harmony are two sides of the same coin. You can always use one to counter the other."

"My magic isn't like that."

"Just because it's demonic in origin doesn't mean it isn't formed logically," I countered.

"How do you know about that?" she asked in an almost frantic manner.

"Geez, lighten up Raven. Here, I'll help."

I snapped my fingers. Her outfit was instantly transformed into a full-length, strapless black dress. The sequins that adorned it shone brilliantly in the moonlight. She simply cocked an eyebrow.

"How is this supposed to lighten me up?"

"Well, you can ask Ryouga to rip it off of you later," I said and waggled my eyebrows suggestively.

I watched as her face lit up in a brilliant crimson in the moonlight. At the same time, I heard a loud thump behind me and spun around to see said martial artist faceplanting on the roof. Next to him was an angry bird named Robin and a barely containing his laughter Beast Boy. Not too far behind them were Cyborg and Starfire. I was a bit surprised that I hadn't seen Terra yet. Did they leave her behind?

"Will you stop playing around and give us answers!" yelled Robin.

"Nnnnnope," I said and grinned.

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos!"

I had no idea what Raven was doing, but I knew if she was chanting her words of power, then I needed to GTFO! I turned on my teleportation and fled to the streets below. I briefly looked at my coin to check my bearings and turned to the correct heading.

Unfortunately, I was rooted to the spot by a cavalcade of rocks at my feet. I guess that they had Terra covering the ground level. Although, I was under the impression that she was sticking with Ryouga right now. In fact, I thought that as of the last update I had read online that the Titans were off-world headed to Tamaran for that botched takeover by Blackfire and that Terra and Ryouga were out in the woods for a trip with some kids. Then again, just like Rebel Against the Night was in the future, this might be in the future in this fic as well. Oh, wait, this was right about the time that the video of Jinx defeating Killer Croc was making it's rounds. I bet that was the origin of the laughter with Supergirl, Mousse, and Shampoo back on the Watchtower.

I shook my head hard. That wasn't the time to be thinking this through. I looked around to see if I could find Terra. I took too long, it seemed, as I felt an open palmed smack on the back of my head. I was then somehow turned around right into the face of a glaring Terra.

"Hey! I asked if you are going to surrender now! Well?"

You know, seeing her in the show was one thing, but seeing her in person was another. On television, she looked as skinny as a rail. In real life, while not much different, you could see the structure of her person as more than just skin and bones, She had actual muscle tone hidden away in that stick figure. Not to mention that she had some really nice almost ice blue eyes.

I managed to think all of that in the course of a couple of seconds. Then, I reacted by grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her into a hug. As she struggled a little, I spoke to her in a calm voice.

"No matter what anyone else says, you are a hero. You may have lost your way, but you found your way back. Just don't go all googly-eyed for Ryouga. He's got a crush on Raven."

Something sappy with something corny. It did quell her, though, so yay for that. I then teleported down the road a ways with her in my arms. After that, I let her go when I realized that my feet had gotten free as well.

"Now, I have to go help my friend who also needs help to find her way back," I said to her while she was still looking dumbfounded. "Go ahead and follow me there if you want," I said and ruffled her hair.

I then looked up and teleported back to the rooftops. It was a brief respite with Terra that I think she might have needed. Who knows though? She might already have what she needs with Ryouga and Beast Boy giving her the support she needs.

I looked down at my watch and noticed that it had been about eight and a half minutes since Mousse took off without me. I decided that he had enough of a head start and picked up my own pace. However, not before checking my heading again and waiting for one of the Titans to get within earshot so that they knew where I was heading.

After a few more seconds, Starfire was the first one to show up carrying Ryouga in her arms. I wasn't sure why, but then again I didn't really need to know that badly.

"You all need to hurry up if you want to catch me you know!"

I saw them advance on my position and tried to hurry out my next words.

"If you lose me, I'm just headed in that direction!" I yelled while pointing where the coin had led me.

In a blinding fit of speed, Ryouga actually closed the distance enough to almost get me as I barely managed to teleport away by a few hair's breadth. I had only ended up teleporting one rooftop away because of the scare that had given me. I hadn't put up my shield and I had no idea how much power he could really put into one of his punches. His Bakusai Tenketsu technique could destroy boulders with a mere poke. I didn't want to find out if my enhanced durability was that enhanced.

I was about to teleport away again, when Starfire started to hurl her starbolts at me from above the other rooftop. Feeling playful again, I started hurling magical orbs at her starbolts. I wasn't sure if they would overpower the starbolts or not. However, my goal was attained when each of the two contacted and detonated each other.

After not stopping with her attack, I knew that she was keeping it up so that the others could swarm my position. I knew then that I should have kept teleporting away instead of matching her in order to keep the building intact. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Ryouga jump over the long gap between the two buildings and land on the one I was defending while rolling to even out the force. That was pretty cool. On the other side of my vision, I could see Robin jumping up over the edge of the building to land on the roof as well, and even though I couldn't see any of the others, I could tell that they were probably surrounding me as well.

As if on cue, Starfire's attack ceased. I finished intercepting all of the attacks that she had throw and tensed up for an oncoming assault. I looked around and, sure enough, everyone except for Terra was now surrounding me. I decided to bring up a shield in this instance instead of teleporting away. It was more to the point that I was worried that they would try something that I couldn't avoid even by teleporting.

"We have you surrounded! Give up now!" yelled Robin.

"For what reason? All I've been doing is running away from you guys. I haven't even committed a single crime yet."

"Titans Tower is technically a privately owned property. We can charge you with trespassing," Robin said smugly.

"That is lame and you know it," I replied.

"We can also get you charged with accosting Raven," he said with a smirk.

"What? You mean for changing her outfit? You ought to arrest her for grand theft sexy."

I heard Beast Boy and Cyborg chuckle a little at that. I also think I saw Ryouga grumble a bit at that.

"Besides, I can claim self-defense on that easily."

I decided that this was getting a little too lengthy. I gathered up some magic and cast an illusion spell over my shield spell to throw them off of my trail. It was then that I think I noticed for the first time that my spells weakened when casting other spells. I flat out couldn't cast my illusion spell together with my invisibility spell, but I thought that it was because the two were incompatible somehow. It seemed that drawing out magic to fuel other spells actually weakened the spell that I was currently using.

I was just glad that the illusion was in place since my appearance was of sheer, dumbfounded confusion.

"That doesn't matter. We want answers and you are going to give them to us!" Ryouga suddenly yelled out.

"Oh come on," I said casually while judging my next teleportation. "That sounds more like you threatening me than trying to do the right thing here."

"We're only using force because of your evasive behavior," answered Robin. "If you would just give us some answers, then we can talk things out."

The diplomatic route eh? Normally, I'd be all for this. However, I'm too concerned over how far away Mousse is and what condition Rainbow Dash might be in to do this right now. Though, making them come along this way could be helpful. Or harmful too, I suppose.

I shook my head to clear those thoughts away. They were just distracting me.

"Like I said to Ryouga," I said while energizing my teleport spell, "I'm just headed in the one direction right now. That's where the coin is pointing, so that's where I need to head right now."

Whatever came next, I didn't hear it. I took that moment to teleport a good distance away from them on the street level. I knew I had to make good time because I was willing to bet that Mousse was really hoofing it in the direction I told him to go.

I then had a thought occur to me. If Cyborg had taken to the rooftops to go after me, then what happened to his T-Car? I memorized where I was right then and teleported all the way back to where I had originally waited for them. Sure enough, sitting not too far from that spot was the T-Car. I grinned manically knowing that I was probably going to have to come up with an excuse as to how I was in the car when they spotted me.

I walked over to the car and teleported both the car and myself back to the place from before. I then tried to open the door and, to my surprise, it was unlocked. I then got in, closed the door, and put on my seat belt because that is driving basics. After checking the mirrors I went to start up the vehicle only to remember that this isn't my car so I don't have the keys.

Well, I thought that might be the case so I came prepared...with MAGIC!!! A quick snap of my fingers and she was purring like a kitten. Wait, that was actual purring. I looked to the passengers seat and sitting there was mountain lion. Yeah, it was a freaking mountain lion. It was just sitting there staring at me. After a few tense moments of staring, I managed to snap my fingers and make it...

Well, it turned into a normal house cat, but that was a big improvement over a freaking mountain lion. I watched as it got up and jumped into the back seat...

And straight into the waiting arms of Terra.

"I'm just borrowing the car," I said haphazardly.

"Sure you are," she deadpanned back at me.

"Well, since you're here too, then I guess you'll be coming along for the ride. Make sure you buckle up."

As she actually did as she was told, I snapped my fingers and this time managed to make the car start. After checking the parking brake and all the mirrors again, I shifted into gear and we were on our way.

"So... since we're taking a trip together, will you tell me why you're doing whatever you're doing?" asked Terra.

I sighed before answering her.

"I guess that's fine. Basically, I'm from a different universe and I'm tracking down my friend who's also from a different universe. A bunch of crazy stuff happened and she, her five friends, and the being who caused it have all been flung into other different universes. Now, I'm going from one to the next in order to bring them all back. She is number five on my stops. I don't know exactly where she is, but the coin hanging around my neck points me in the direction I can find her."

She looked at me a few moments before responding.

"You know, if you had just said that in the first place, then we would have helped you instead of trying to catch you for some answers."

I let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, I know. I was just getting tired of explaining it to everyone I came across today. It can get very annoying to have to say the same thing to everyone you come across. I agree that-"

"Who jacked my ride!?!" I head an angry Cyborg yell.

"I just borrowed it! Lighten up man! I'll give it back when I get there," I said to the disembodied voice.

"Well, now you committed grand theft auto," I heard Robin say. "Now you are a criminal."

"Oh please. If I was doing something wrong, then Terra would have stopped me by now. Instead, she's sitting calmly in the backseat petting the kitty," I said while lacing that with as much innuendo as possible.

"WHAT!?!?!?!" I heard in stereo.

"Don't worry," I said while suppressing the urge to burst into laughter, "it's not a mountain lion anymore. Now it's just a harmless house cat."

I heard Terra start to laugh in the backseat and I soon followed suit. It was stopped by the sound of a thunk on the roof of the car. I looked on as somehow Mousse stuck his head on the driver's side window. As I rolled it down, I noticed the look on Mousse's face.

"Sorry Mousse, it took a little longer with the Titans than I thought it would," I said apologetically.

"That isn't what this is about. I believe I found your friend."

"That's great!" I exclaimed.

The look on Mousse's face soured at that.

"I'm afraid she's in trouble."
> Getting Serious (I Guess)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, this shit just got real," I began with a noticeably more serious tone. "I'm done with paling around with the Titans. If Dash is in trouble, then this just became a rescue mission. Mousse, in the car now."

Mousse proceeded to dive in through the driver's side window and came to rest in the passenger's seat. Instead of rolling the window up, however, I just placed my arm on it and let the wind flow in.

"New plan. Mousse, you saw where Rainbow Dash was, so I need you to navigate us to a good position so that no one will see us coming. Then, I'll hide us with an illusion spell and sneak up to the area to get a good idea of what we're dealing with. I do not want to go in there blind. After that, then we can formulate a rescue plan."

Man, I really sounded like I knew what I was doing.

"Sounds good," replied Mousse.

I waited a few seconds to hear Terra's answer, but it never came. In retrospect, I realized that it was because I never did say that it included her.

"Well? What about the blonde in the backseat? You in?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Well, you're a good guy, Mousse is a good guy, and despite the fact that I was playing around with the Titans I'm also a good guy. As good guys, we help those who need it when others aren't up to the task. I was the only one of my group with the ability to make it here without dying. That means it's up to me to save all six of them and return them home. This time, though, I have people around that will actually help me do the right thing and it's nice not to have to do everything on my own for once. So, on that notion will you help Mousse and myself rescue my friend?"

There were a few awkward, silent moments.

"Go ahead and help them Terra," I heard Robin declare.

"Are you sure?" asked Terra.

"He sounds pretty sincere. Either way, he's headed there and you can keep an eye on both of them until we arrive. If he is telling the truth, then go ahead and assist him in rescuing his friend."

"Alright Robin. I'll trust your judgement."

"And you better not lay a scratch on my baby!" added an upset Cyborg.

"Trust me. If I get a scratch on it, I'll give you a free shot," I replied.

"Robin out."

"Would you really give Cyborg a free shot if that happened?" asked Mousse.

"Hell no!!! I let him do that and the force would probably kill me. Let's just get on the way there."

The rest of the drive was spent in silence. However, I could see Terra in the back struggling like she wanted to say something. I wasn't sure on this occasion what to say to her. I had already said what I wanted to say to her when I ran into her on the street. It was enough to make her not pursue me and instead walk back to the car. Whether or not it had it's intended effect, it was still enough to make her think about things.

After a quick three minute drive, Mousse pointed out a place to park the T-Car. After leaving the car, I first tried to make the two of them invisible. I had gotten up to the size of a refrigerator to become invisible. The two of them combined to be around that size so I thought to try that first. I almost succeeded as everything but their feet was rendered invisible to my touch.

After deciding that I couldn't make that work, I then got to work on an illusion spell. I ended up working out an illusion that worked just like the one I did when I was in Rebel Against the Night. This time, I worked on a screen instead. I used a reflective surface to capture the surroundings and project them upon the other side of the screen just like I had seen on the James Bond car from Die Another Day. It was the only reference I could think of, but if I made it work then it didn't matter.

The three of us then proceeded to case out the area. The whole area was basically a bunch of warehouse buildings. Other than some different letters and numbers on the sides of the buildings, all of them were nearly identical. Each building was about six hundred by four hundred feet and was about eighty feet tall. I honestly wasn't sure until Mousse himself told me the measurements. Those buildings were huge. The fact that there were thirty of them all grouped together made quite the spectacle as well. They had a few windows along the side and the short ends each had some large, sliding double doors with a small man-sized door in them.

Mousse pointed out a few guards here and there that were guarding a specific building in particular. It was only the second one in from the city it bordered. I had quite underestimated his speed. Well, that or I just wasn't paying enough attention as to how far he had actually gotten.

We had counted up ten guards patrolling the building. Not too bad. They were all wearing full black suits with an earpiece. Mousse had pointed out that each of them were carrying two pistols on each side of their jacket. Not very good. They needed to be taken care of.

I asked Mousse to silently take them down. He complied and took off into the night. I only saw him take out the first one, but he was quick and efficient. A quick blow to the side of the neck and the man crumpled to the ground. The guy was amazing. I've never seen anyone that fast before. I mean seriously, the guy was barely a blur to my eyes. About thirty seconds later, he returned to where we were with a nod of confirmation.

"Good going Mousse. Now, let's take a look inside and see who we're dealing with."

The three of us walked along the side of the building until we reached a window. The window, however, was a good ten feet higher than us. To solve that problem, I snapped my fingers and created a ladder tower. If you've never seen one of those, it's just a mobile platform with a set of stairs on the side to get to it. The three of us climbed up and took a look inside.

The inside was quite a different place. Machine parts were spread out everywhere. Only a few of them seemed to be set up, though. Many of them were still being assembled by groups of people. The whole place was still being put together from what I could gather.

There was one area, however, that was very different. Several armed guards and some people wearing full-length lab coats were gathered near one area that was about the dead center of the place. It was a tilted steel table.

On that table, Rainbow Dash was bolted down around her legs, wings, and neck with a scared, yet defiant look on her face.

And that got me mad.

However, being mad made me get creative. That gave me a plan.

"Mousse, Terra, I want the two of you to head towards the far side of the warehouse. I'm going to create a distraction on the other side of the warehouse and draw in as many of the enemies as I can. Wait about a minute and then come in through the other entrance and take out as many of the enemies as possible."

"Shouldn't we wait for the other Titans to show up?" asked Terra. "We could use the backup."

"They have my friend bolted to a table. I'm too pissed to be told to wait. Just wait for the signal. It'll be loud enough to hear."

With that, I teleported back to the entrance to the warehouse. I concentrated my magic and began to cast a few spells. The first was an illusion to cover the sky in the area with dark storm clouds. Next, I brought up my body shield spell. The third was a powerful magic blast. I used to annihilate the doors with a loud explosion. Then, I fired up another illusion spell to let them know that I meant business. After both stops on the first break, I cast another illusion spell that made it look like lightning was striking right behind me. Then, when the third went up, I cast another spell to look like I was emitting a golden glow all around me. As soon as the music dropped to another low point I started advancing into the warehouse.

"Who are you?" one of the scientists asked at me.

"Seth! You came for me! And you look pretty awesome doing it!"

"One of her friends then. Then you will surrender or she will---urk!"

I cut him off as I picked him up with some levitation and threw him off to the side. He crashed up against one of the other guards before they had a chance to react. The others pointed their weapons at me in response. Unlike the ones outside, several of the guards inside also had fully automatic sub-machine guns.

"You all have one chance to let her go before I turn your world into a kaleidoscope of pain. Choose wisely."

They all started to open fire on me. The illusion of the glow around me worked like I had hoped it would. None of them could see the bullets impacting on my personal shield. All they could see was their bullets disappearing near me. I then cast a quick illusion around the floor so that the bullets couldn't be seen.

Needless to say, some of them started to freak out. Not very many, though, and it was primarily the scientists. As I had hoped, they started running towards the other side of the warehouse. Mousse and Terra would take care of the escapees. I needed to take care of the ones that were sticking it out.

I toned down the power and started firing magic bolts at the attackers. It seemed to work on most of them. They were knocked unconscious and that kept them out of the fight. The others were merely knocked down and started shooting at me from their backs. Only a few that got knocked down decided to run after that. I was surprised at how easily that things were going.

Then again, I had gotten pretty good at wielding these powers. There was also the fact that there weren't any supervillains trying to stop me either. I guess that was the trepidation that I was feeling. There weren't any supervillains there or smart bad guys trying to keep me from succeeding. Everyone there was a guard or a scientist. The problem was that they had to be working for someone. Perhaps the fact that I had caught them off guard has led to this situation. Not to mention that the Teen Titans were probably outside watching what was happening. They probably wouldn't risk getting into a fight with the Titans present.

A guard that flew past me grabbed my attention. It had seemed that Mousse and Terra had gotten close to where I was. I was down to a half dozen guards here as well. A few more magic blasts and then another flying guard that I picked out of the air and threw back in that direction and the fighting had then come to an end. I dropped all my spells and waited for Mousse and Terra to arrive. A few moments later, they showed up with a triumphant look on their faces.

After they arrived, we all went over to free Rainbow Dash.

"That. Was. Awesome!!!"

"I know. We were all here to see it," I replied.

"The way you tossed that one guy was amazing! He was all 'I'm going to hurt her', and you were all 'Not a chance', and then the way you just started blasting them all away was so cool! Not as cool as when you and I fought with Discord, but still pretty cool."

"Yeah, well it would be pretty hard to top that bout," I said fully knowing many things that might just top that bout. "I'd rather ask about you. Are you alright? They didn't hurt you did they?"

"Naw. I'm fine. They didn't do anything really bad to me."

"Nothing a future Wonderbolt couldn't handle I'm guessing," I stated in an amused tone.

"You betcha! Hey, who are the other two?"

"Oh, these two are Mousse and Terra. They are the nice folks who helped me rescue you."

"Really? Thanks a lot."

"It was no problem," said Mousse.

"I was just glad to help," replied Terra.

"Could you help a little more and get me outta this thing?" asked Dash.

I chuckled a little and snapped my fingers.

That was also when the gunshot rang out. It was accompanied by a sharp pain in my chest. I reeled backwards, flipped over, and fell face first to the ground. I heard some screams and some sounds of something happening around me. I wasn't sure what was going on. I just knew that my chest hurt pretty bad. Not as bad as when Discord stabbed me, but it didn't feel too good anyway.

I laid there for a few seconds before trying to get up. It took a little bit of effort, but I managed to get to a kneeling position. I felt a rush of wind go by me as I was still staring at the ground. I shook my head a bit to help me get my bearings.

"It's alright. Your friend is getting back up. See?"

I couldn't tell who said that, but I was able to hear the people around me again. A few seconds later, and I was tackled to the ground again. Even though I was face down on the ground once more, I could easily tell that it was Rainbow Dash. The hooves were a dead giveaway.

"I'm glad your okay," I heard her whisper.

"So am I, Dash. So am I."

I put my hands under my body and pushed myself up to a double kneeling position. Rainbow Dash got off of me and I finished standing up. I looked around to see that all of the Titans were in there now. I then remembered what had just happened.

"Did I just get shot?" I asked incredulously.

"We thought you did," said Robin. "Apparently, we weren't that far off the mark. Neither was the bullet," he said and pointed at my chest.

I looked down at my chest to see what he was talking about. Apparently, I did get shot. However, it didn't quite get me.

The bullet was now lodged inside the translator pin that the TARDIS had given me.

"Damn I love that big blue box," I said; smiling wide.

I then frowned again.

"Aw man. I just got this translator too. It was a personal gift from the TARDIS. I feel kind of bad that it got wrecked."

"Hey, don't feel too bad. It saved your life," said Ryouga. "I'm sure that TARDIS would be glad that a gift they gave you helped save your life."

"Yeah, I know. It was a nice gift though. I feel bad that it got destroyed. Who the heck shot me, anyway?"

"Obviously it was one of the guards," said Beast Boy. "You probably didn't knock them out properly and one of them shot you when you weren't paying attention."

I turned around the way I was facing and looked towards Rainbow Dash.

"Is that what happened?"

"I think so. I looked over to where that sound came from and saw this one guy with one of those things in his hand. I was sure he had done it so I started beating the stuffing out of him until the orange girl stopped me."

I looked over to where Starfire was. She was standing next to one of the guards who was lying on his back. Blood was running down his face and there were a few bruises as well. Wait, I think that was the guard that I threw the scientist into at the beginning. That was quite the ironic coincidence.

"Wow, you really did a number on him, Dash."

I ruffled her mane playfully and she quickly swatted away my hand.

"Yeah, well, you went down like a sack of potatoes and I just kind of reacted." she said while slightly blushing.

"I understand. I'm just glad I found you safe and sound. Now, how about I get you home so I can go and rescue Twilight?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"So you're leaving? Just like that?"

I didn't know who said that. It was from someone behind me, though, so I turned around to answer them.

"Yeah, just like that. My whole purpose here was to rescue Rainbow Dash. Though getting to see all you superheroes was a pretty awesome bonus. I mean so far I've been to a lot of different universes, but this one is by far my favorite. It's too bad I can't stay."

"If it means anything, you'll be welcome back in the Amazon village if you ever come back," said Mousse.

"I wish I could come back. The rift that I used to get here will seal up the moment I get back. Not to mention that if you go through it without touching this coin around my neck it can be fatal. Unless you have a safe way to follow me back, this is probably the last time I'll see any of you."

"Wait a second," interrupted Robin. "There are still a bunch of questions I'd like to ask you."

"Sorry, I can't really answer your questions. My mere presence here may throw off timelines that were supposed to happen. Telling you about things or even giving you answers may mess things up even more."

"You didn't seem to have that problem when you showed up in my hometown," said Rainbow Dash; walking to the front of me.

"That's because the princess made me tell you. Not only that, but I didn't have any more foreknowledge about anything else that was going to happen to you or your friends. I do have a bit of that with them. I can't take that risk."

"So you know about things that are going to happen to us?" asked Beast Boy.

"Somewhat, yes."

"Dude, do you have the lottery numbers for the future?" asked a hopeful Beast Boy.

Cyborg elbowed him in the side. I chuckled a little before answering.

"I don't. Besides, I don't think you're old enough to be playing the lottery anyway."

Rainbow Dash suddenly took to the air and hovered beside me.

"Come on, Seth. We still gotta go rescue Twilight."

"Sure thing."

"You're name is Seth?" asked Raven.

"Yeah. Sorry I didn't tell anyone. I was kind of rushed."

A small smirk appeared on her lips.

"What's with the smirk Raven? My name isn't that interesting."

"It's more interesting than you think," she replied.

"Uh... yay I guess?"

I was very confused. Sure, my name meant something in regards to the Bible, but other than that it didn't really mean anything. Well, I think it was also close to something in Egyptian, but I didn't really know.

She shook her head.

"It's merely a coincidence. Don't worry about it."

"Oh thanks a lot Raven. Now I feel like there's something important about it."

"Then consider this payback for putting me in this dress."

Oh yeah. I noticed that she was still in that dress I put on her. Dayum, she filled it out in all the right places! Though, I felt like I needed to change her back. I sighed and snapped my fingers. Her clothes then returned to normal.

"I think I've overextended my welcome. Let's go Dash."

"Right behind ya."

I grabbed the coin and held it out in front of me. However, I thought of one last thing to say before I left.

"Oh Ryouga. One last thing."

"What's that?" he said while raising an eyebrow.

"If you see Jinx again, tell her that unicorns are real. It should make her day."

"Wait. What?"

I quickly grabbed Dash's hoof and placed it on the coin. Instantly, we were both gone with a flash.
> Facing the Facts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Just where in Celestia's name did you go that made the feedback do this?" I heard someone ask.

I kept blinking out the usual flare in my eyes in order to see again. I was getting pretty tired of that. Even with my eyes closed, it still brought a painful condition to them. I thought perhaps that I should tint my glasses to help, but I was beginning to think that it wasn't the case.

"I can't tell who said that, but I went to a place with a lot of superheroes. Does that help?"

"What? Of course that doesn't help!" I heard who I assumed was the Doctor say. It was the very distinct 'What' that gave it away.

"Well, they do screw up the temporal plane pretty bad there. Maybe that's the reason for, uh, wait, what's going on? I still can't see yet."

"Yes, dimensional rifts can do that to a person. Well, that and death, but yes temporary blindness. To answer your question, the feedback from that place has rendered my equipment useless!"

As soon as my eyes cleared up, I saw what he was talking about. The three tower devices he had set up to control the amount of time that had passed between this dimension and the one I went to were now smouldering in several places. There was even a section that looked like it had exploded.

"Holy crap, how did this happen?"

I watched as he gave me a flat stare.

"Alright, stupid question. I doubt that this can be fixed, am I right?"

"It can, but it would actually be quicker to build another one from scratch. Either way, it would take over a week to accomplish."

"Did this happen when we left? I don't think I heard anything when we got back."

"You were gone for a few hours," Celestia spoke up. "It happened not too long after you left. You seem to have been successful despite the problem."

"He sure was!" interrupted Rainbow Dash. "You should have seen him when he came to rescue me! He was so cool!"

"He does seem tah like being over-dramatic about these rescues. It seems like quite the change from how he acts when he's talkin' tah others," said Applejack with a bit of a smirk.

"Laugh it up fuzzball. Though, I do admit that you all seem quite easier to talk to. I wonder why?"

Seriously, they all seemed easier to talk to than anyone I knew. Maybe it was the chaos magic at work again. At times, I seem much more personable and outgoing. Other times, well, I just seem like my old self. Not a very sociable person. Someone who likes being the wallflower because being the wall just isn't possible. I think it might just be the interest level I have in things. If you get me on a topic that I like, then I can really get going on it. Otherwise, I just seem dull and uninteresting.

"Oh well, I need to brighten up your day, so here," I said and snapped my fingers.

A cereal box appeared on the ground.

"What is that?" asked Applejack.

"It's a box of Applejacks cereal," I said while giggling like an idiot.

"What?" she responded in a flat tone.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing at that.

"It... It's a cereal b-brand from where *snerk* I'm from," I managed to say.

As I continued laughing, I started to hear Pinkie Pie laughing as well. Which was odd since I didn't even see her. Or Rarity for that matter. Come to think of it, there actually weren't many of the group there at all.

"Where is everybody?"

"Pinkie Pie and Rarity are working on the party. Luna and Shining Armor are headed back to Canterlot to retrieve the Elements of Harmony. And finally, Fluttershy was worried about her animal friends so I sent her to Ponyville for a short visit," explained Celestia.

"Oooookay. Of those, why are Luna and Shining Armor retrieving the Elements?"

"Why, to seal Discord when you return with him, of course."

I facepalmed.

"As much as I don't like Discord, I just as much don't want to go and try to retrieve him from wherever he is. I mean, he stabbed me in the gut with the intent that I should never get up again. If he was here, then I'd do what you want me to. However, tracking him down on the other side of that rift is going to be a nightmare.

"How in the hell am I supposed to bring him back, exactly? Ask politely maybe? That might work if I was Fluttershy. Trick him into touching the coin? I hate saying this, but the guy is smarter than me. He's also probably learned his lesson from the last time we met. Making him touch the coin on his own is a logistical nightmare that I would rather not even deal with. I can't exactly bring backup either. No one else can go through rift there without touching the coin and at most three of us can touch the coin at the same time.

"It isn't even a guarantee that you can come with me to a different dimension. I know that the coin can bring back whoever is on the other side that needs to be rescued, but beyond that the coin might not be enough protection for anyone else. I don't want anyone else hurt here. That just leaves me versus Discord in a battle I doubt I can win. I'd rather let him stay wherever he is now than risk the headache and possible second mortal wound I would end up with."

She closed her eyes and it looked as though she was deep in thought. She was probably creating a counter-argument in her head. The worst part would be that it would probably also work. She has thousands of years of knowledge as well as my memories up until the scrying spell was cast.

"With that said," I continued, "I still have to go and save Twilight Sparkle still. As much as I'd love to wait a week for the device to get fixed, I don't think I should wait to go and get her. I suppose I should go ahead and get her now."

I turned to go back to the rifts. As I did, I also couldn't help but think that there was something else I needed to do. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though.

It didn't matter, though, as I felt myself get levitated and set back down face to face with Celestia. I could tell that she wasn't done with me. It was pretty evident with the glare she was leveling at me.

"Your argument may be very strong, but the danger that Discord presents is too great for him to be left to his own devices. You must go after him. You are the only one who can. Even if you have no faith in yourself, we still have faith in you. I have faith in you."

Crap. That's just the kind of cheesy line that I get behind. I almost wish she had even said 'believe in the me that believes in you' just to make a point. Although, that probably would have ruined the seriousness behind her words. That argument wouldn't work back home, but here it might just give me the courage I needed to try and persevere with that ordeal.

"Dammit, fine. I'll do it. I'll go and try to retrieve Discord after I get Twilight," I said almost dejectedly.

She gave me a warm smile and released me from her magical grip.

"I am glad that you see it my way," she said with a hint of playfulness in her voice.

I caught on to that, but let it go. Once was enough for that. I needed to switch topics from this. To that end, I just blurted out the first thing I could think of.

"So Doctor, are you going to repair that device despite the fact that there won't be a need for it now?"

"No, I probably won't. I still feel like I should stick around to see how things turn out. I never have run into Discord before. It might be interesting to see him up close."

"Interesting ain't the word I'd use partner."

"No? How about exciting?"

"Ah wouldn't use that one either."

"More like absolutely bonkers," said Rainbow Dash.

"I'd say that's an apt description," I added. "He just wants to turn everything chaotic. He literally charges himself with it. Since I have his powers, so do I in that regard. I do get the feeling that it doesn't work exactly the same though. Still, I haven't run out of magic yet. That's good for me."

"You know this really interesting and all," interrupted Rainbow Dash, "but you still gotta go rescue Twilight, remember?"

As blunt as that was, she had a point. It was time to go.

"You're right. I'll be back later with Twilight."

I turned around and went to the last two rifts. I then grabbed my coin to check which one was Twilight's rift. After confirming that, I tucked the coin back into my shirt and reached out for the rift.

Right before I did, however, I felt a weight on my back.

"I'm gonna come too!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"Woah! What are you doing?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear me? I said I'm coming too! I'm not gonna just sit here and wait around for you to come back with her. I want to come and help bring her back too!"

"It's too dangerous Rainbow Dash. Without the coin, anyone going through the rift would be killed."

"Oh yeah? And who said that?"

"The Doctor," I said succinctly.

"Who's that?"

"That would be me," he said making his presence known to Rainbow Dash.

The weight disappeared from my shoulders and I turned around to see Rainbow Dash get into the Doctor's face. Wait, didn't the Doctor talk about this before?

"And who are you to say that we can't go? She's my friend. I can't just sit here and do nothing!"

She was then yanked back out of the Doctor's face by Applejack yanking her tail by the teeth. Hah, classic skit.

"Woah there sugarcube. I understand how ya feel. I was just as upset as you were when ah found out that ah couldn't go help 'em either. But, he's telling the truth. Unless yer touchin' the coin, you can't go through that there rift. You remember that dontcha?"

"That was Discord who said that and I don't trust him one bit! Just because he said that doesn't make it true!"

"Calm down everyone! Fine, we'll test this out."

"What about what I told you?" asked the Doctor. "I told you that these rifts would kill any organic creature that came into contact with it unless they had some sort of suited protection."

"I know, but I also said I... oh wait, now I get what you're saying."

Well, I remembered what I had said before. Not to mention the fact that I was flip-flopping my position like crazy. Somehow, I was just unable to keep my thoughts coherent from one moment to another. Oh well, I'm in this now so I might as well continue onwards.

"Still, I'm able to bring them back without them being affected. That means that they are being protected by something or else they would be dead. It may be explainable if only Discord or I were the only ones surviving. However, that isn't the case. I believe that Rainbow Dash would probably willing to take the risk of trying to go with me if it means helping her friend."

"You bet I am!"

"So am I!" yelled Applejack.

"So is she!" I parroted. "Alright, you two grab a hold of me and we'll try this experiment out."

Applejack wrapped her foreleg around my left leg and Rainbow Dash plopped herself back onto my shoulders again.

"I really don't think this is a good idea," said the Doctor.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," I said.

I then pivoted around on my leg since I couldn't move it with Applejack rooting it to the spot and then I reached out for the rift. I then noted that is was out of my reach. I chuckled a little at the realization.

"Why don't we try this where I can actually touch the rift from?"

The two of them chuckled nervously and let go of me. I then walked two steps forward and let them get back to where they were. I then, once again, reached out and this time I made contact with the rift. Like usual, the light blinded me temporarily. The difference this time, however, was I could instantly feel the difference in weight. I could tell that Rainbow Dash and Applejack weren't there with me. I could only hope that meant that they didn't come with me and they weren't vaporized.

It took a bit, but my vision did finally clear up. However, this time I wasn't by myself. In fact, who I saw in front of me made me both excited and terrified. I was excited because I knew where I was immediately. I was terrified because of who it was.

Not fifteen feet away, I was staring straight at perfect form Cell.

"Oh, shit."
> Going Exactly as Scripted...Until...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honestly, I should have expected something like this to happen. Seriously, I've made a dozen or so references to Dragonball to the girls and I even made a senzu bean to save my own ass. Why in the hell did I not see this coming? It's one of those things that just screams that it's going to happen.

That was not what I was thinking when I spotted Cell in front of me. Those thoughts came later in the day. I was thinking something completely different when I was looking straight at Cell. In fact, what I was thinking came out in two simple words.

"Oh, shit."

"Anata dare?"

Oh great. What was worse is that my translator was broken and I couldn't understand almost any Japanese. That really bites.

"I don't speak Japanese."

"Pity. However, I do speak English," said Cell in flawless, well, English.

"Oh really, that's good," I said while I think my brain was going on autopilot.

"I'll ask again, who are you?" he asked with an exasperated tone.

"Oh, uh, my name is Seth. I'm a bit lost. I didn't mean to impose on you."

"So you are not here for the Cell Games then?"

Thankfully, my brain switched back into manual at that point. Avoiding a fight with Cell was a must. Sure, I had reality warping powers, but I wasn't sure that they were that powerful.

"Well, I heard that there was a fighting tournament here, but I'm not really the fighting type. Is that what this is?"

"Indeed it is. Then if you are not here to fight, are you here to watch in person?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Then perhaps you should leave the ring."

I blinked hard. It was then that I actually got a good look at my surroundings. I was standing in the middle of the ring for the Cell Games. Not a place that I wanted to be, that was for sure.

"Sure, I'll do just that. Though, how long is it until the start of the Cell Games anyway?"

"About half an hour."

"Ah, thank you."

He then snorted and closed his eyes. You know, Cell wasn't as bad as I thought he would be. As I left the ring and headed for this little hill near the only road, I contemplated where I was exactly.

The obvious part was that I was in Dragonball Z. That was pretty obvious to anyone with any awareness of the series. However, that was the only thing that was obvious. Everyplace I went to was a fanfiction universe. I wasn't sure yet if this was a crossover, a self-insert, or an alternate universe. Well, I didn't have any data on the place other than that was Cell and this is the area where he would fight the Z warriors. Everything was the same as before.

However, this was a vastly different situation. It was basically a fixed point in time, as the Doctor would say. I honestly believed that in this situation Twilight was probably with someone who would find their way here and I could meet up with her here. If I was wrong, well it was just thirty minutes of wasted time.

You know, that's not true. In thirty minutes or so, I would be able to meet the Z warriors in person. That was worth the wait as well. Seriously, how often do you get to meet one of your lifelong heroes in person like this? I can tell you right now. It has never happened to me. Well, I don't count my dad, but that should be obvious if you knew me.

As I reached the hill, I heard the sound of a car. I looked over to where it was coming from and saw a familiar sight. It looked as though Mr. Satan had shown up.

For those who never watched the Japanese version, basically the guy was named Hercule Satan. At least I think that was his full name. It was always Hercule in the dub and Mr. Satan in the sub. Either way, the guy was the reigning martial arts champion of the world. In the years Goku and his friends hadn't been there, there really wasn't that big of a competitive pool and he was technically the best of who was left. And damn was he a braggart about it.

Still, it didn't really concern me. Well, unless he decided to come and talk to me. I didn't really care. He was technically a good guy, but he didn't really fit in until the end of the series. In other words, he was not really a big deal to me.

I ended up just sitting up against the hill watching as he made a spectacle of himself. He then walked up to the ring and started pointing at Cell.

"Kutabare!"

Stupid, razzle frazzle, translation, son of a, argh!!! Why did my translator have to get destroyed? I'm pretty sure I could've taken that bullet. I doubt it would have hit my heart.

"Soredewa, hajimemashou," said Cell.

Yeah, I was definitely hating this. Cell was probably the only one here who could speak English well enough to want to do so. I watched as Mr. Satan took his sweet time getting to the ring. As he took his first step onto it, he paused. If I knew my DBZ properly, he was about to motion to a camera crew that was nearby.

Which is exactly what he did. A quick nod soon followed. If nothing else, that crazy bastard was filled with confidence.

I thought about that for a second while the camera crew came over. Is that what I was doing? Was I so filled with confidence that I was being thoughtlessly reckless? No, that couldn't be it. I actually was aware of my situations. Mr. Satan can barely create a battle aura and even then only when he's mad. He had no idea what he was getting into here.

After a minute, the camera crew made it to the ringside.

"Dakara, watashi wa, watashi wa sai zenretsu no seki no misutā. Satan-sama no tame ni anata ni kansha suru hitsuyō ga arimasu to katei shimasu," said the announcer guy.

Okay, that's really getting annoying.

"Koko made oide. Jinsoku ni!" shouted Mr. Satan.

"Kashikomarimashita. Anata ga iu mono wa nani demo," said the announcer.

Alright, that was it. I decided to just tune the whole thing out until the important people showed up. They were pretty much just speaking jibberish to me anyway. Of course, I couldn't help but chuckle as the announcer actually flipped Cell off. Man, that guy had a death wish.

That was nothing as Mr. Satan actually bent over and taunted Cell by slapping his own ass. I couldn't help but think that it might actually be worth it to see Cell kick that guy's ass just for the crap he was going on with. He then kept going on with a bunch of facial gestures that really made no sense to me at all. It was just getting sad at that point.

Thankfully, that was when I noticed Cell turn his head. I knew that must mean that someone important was coming in. I moved slightly away from the hill and looked out as far as I could. Then, I finally saw it. It was a blue speck in the sky that was slightly off from the natural color of the rest of it. It kept getting larger and larger and finally it zipped down to the side of the ring.

It was Vegeta. Holy crap that was cool! The guy just seemed larger than life. Seriously, the guy was ripped. Even as the crew came over to speak to him, he was calm, yet kept up that angry face he was known for.

"Shizuka! Watashi wa jūbun ni anata no gōman o motte ita!" I heard him shout at the camera crew.

I guess I wouldn't get to hear him say anything cool like back home. Oh well. Just being near that kind of awesome was good enough for me.

The two of them kept their gaze trained on one another. I watched as they just seemed to size one another up. It was interesting, yet kind of boring. I guess that was to be expected since no one else had shown up yet.

Of course, as soon as I say that on the opposite side Cyborg 16 dropped out of the sky and landed silently. Crap, that guy was big. I didn't just mean that he was well built. Heh, built. Anyway, I mean that the guy was well over six feet tall unlike everyone else around here.

Cell then said something to him, which I tuned out because it was still Japanese. I was honestly surprised that no one had noticed me yet. Of course, they may have noticed me and still didn't care. I was probably an ant compared to them.

Cell then said some more unintelligible things that I didn't understand with the exception of one word.

Goku.

Goku was about to arrive on the scene. That was when I got really excited. Dragonball got me into anime and it's biggest hero was always my biggest idol. Needless to say I was pretty giddy.

I looked off into the distance again to get a look at them. I could see them a little bit. The white specks actually blended in with the clouds pretty easily. The two gold spots, however, were a different story. Those two specks were Goku and his son Gohan. I didn't have to see them to know that's who they were. After all, this show is ingrained into my life-blood.

Hey guess what? I love Dragonball! Did I mention that yet?

Anyway, I watched as they picked up speed and left a bright contrail behind them. I was left thinking if there would ever be a moment I wouldn't love about this particular trip. There was one blue amongst the white that I realized was probably Trunks. Why did that matter? I still don't know.

They all dove in and landed peacefully at the ringside next to Vegeta. To someone who couldn't fly, it was pretty impressive. However, there was one amongst them that didn't quite belong.

That would be the lavender pony that was being lowered to the ground by Krillin.

There was still no one who was paying attention to me, though. Not really a surprise. Cell was the main attraction here. I was a bit surprised that nobody noticed me from the air. I decided that I ought to let myself be known.

"Hi Twilight!!!" I yelled.

Pretty much everyone collectively turned to acknowledge me for the first time. However, Twilight was the only one who looked ecstatic to see me.

"Seth!!!"

I watched as she literally teleported herself into my face. She was literally in the air in my face and dropped herself on me. I was just glad that I had enough time to brace myself and catch her.

"I knew my friends would come and retrieve me! I just knew it!"

"Oh please. As if something like traveling to different universes would stop me so easily," I told her as I set her down. "Hell, I'd fight Cell to get you back safely. I'd probably get my ass handed to me, but it would be the thought that counts I hope."

"Where is everypony else?"

"I've managed to get all of your friends back home safely. I'm the only one who can traverse through safely so I was pretty much on my own the whole time."

"So they all went to different places just like I did."

"Not just different places. You all went into entirely different universes than your own. In fact, Pinkie Pie got stuck in an alternate universe where Nightmare Moon was in charge."

"Nightmare Moon!?! We need to stop her!"

"The Twilight Sparkle of that universe will handle it eventually. I'm sure of it. However, right now you are my responsibility. I have to return you home."

"Not yet."

"Wait, what?"

"I promised Goku that I would help him in any way I could even if it wasn't by fighting."

I stared at her for a few seconds, utterly dumbfounded.

"Seriously, what?"

"I told him about how you were an enormous fan of his. He was quite surprised by that. I wasn't able to go into much detail, but I did mention how you imitated his Kamehameha Wave as you put it."

"Oh no. Did he end up asking about how I fought or something like that?"

"Yeah he did! I told him about how you fought Discord and helped us defeat him!"

"Oh great. Did he mention something about wanting to fight me to test himself?"

"Wow, that's right! How did you know?"

"Holy crap, it feels like a child wrote this," I said almost disdainfully.

"Wrote what? What are you talking about?"

"I've now been to six different universes and in each case they were the work of fiction by a fanfiction writer. Basically, somebody wrote a story about a story. Oh God it sounds like a horrible version of Inception. And that's saying something."

"You do realize I only understand about half of what you're talking about right?"

"Yeah, I do. You know how I said that your world was a story right? Well...wait."

I looked back over to the crowd by the ring. It seemed that their attention was no longer on us. However, I looked in particular over to Piccolo. Namekians had an excellent sense of hearing. I knew from this distance that any of them could hear me if I talked loud enough. However, Piccolo could hear us even if we were whispering from that current distance. I was not ready for him to find out that his world was basically just a story.

"Well? Are you going to tell me?" asked Twilight almost impatiently.

"I'll have to tell you when we get back. Piccolo can hear us from this distance and there are some things better left unheard by his Namekian ears."

I could tell that he heard me as I watched him turn to regard me.

"Yeah, I know things Piccolo. I've got vision like Kami did so don't be too shocked."

I couldn't see his eyes from this distance, but I doubt he liked that by any means.

It was about then when Hercule started getting into a rant with the others. It did remind me of something.

"Hey Twilight, how can you talk with the others anyway? They're all speaking Japanese."

"I used a translation spell. It lets me understand the first spoken language I hear after casting it."

"You think you can cast that on me? I can barely understand a word anyone here says."

"But I thought you knew about them?"

"It was either subbed or dubbed. Either way, I only know a bit of Japanese... Wait a second. How did Piccolo know what I was saying? Doesn't he speak Japanese?"

"Apparently he also speaks Equestrian as well. He was the only one who could understand what I was saying originally."

You know, I should have picked up on that sooner. I am such an idiot sometimes. I pulled my glasses off and slowly brought my hand down my face in the presence of my utter fail.

"Let's just get the spell cast before I completely wreck my own brain," I said flatly while putting my glasses back on.

Twilight nodded and took a stance. Her horn then lit up and a beam of magic flew from her horn and hit me; encasing me in a purple hue. A few seconds later, it disappeared. I then listened in to the conversation that they were having over at the ring.

Only to be interrupted by the loudspeaker coming from above.

"Hold on everybody! It's time to get happy!" came the voice of a woman from a pink helicopter.

"Ugh, I totally would rather my first thing to hear be that of someone I actually cared about," I said dejectedly.

"What is that?" asked Twilight.

"It's a helicopter. It uses rotating blades to create a down burst of air strong enough to lift the weight of rest of it into the sky."

"That's incredible!"

"I agree. It is quite the feat of engineering. You ought to see a jet. Those suckers can fly just as fast as Rainbow Dash."

"REALLY!?!" she pretty much squealed.

"Yeah, though they aren't as maneuverable as her I'll bet. Anyway, we might as well take a seat somewhere. This is going to be really idiotic until Goku gets into the ring."

"Um, okay."

The two of us walked back over to the area where the real fighters were. I then thought of something that I needed to ask her.

"Hey, did you tell Goku about that final move I used on Discord?"

"Yes, I did. Why do you ask?"

"He hasn't ever used it yet. The first time he uses it is during this fight."

"You mean you already know the outcome of this tournament?" she asked in complete shock.

"Remember what I said about your world, Twilight. I've also seen how this world plays out. Though, I was expecting something different to happen at some point. So far, it's exactly the same."

"Then if you know how things are going to happen, shouldn't we leave after all so that we don't interfere?"

"Normally, I'd say yes. However, I'm a little concerned with your appearance here. I need to make sure nothing has been changed."

"But things don't change. Time travel is consistent and things always happen the way they should."

"This isn't time travel. This is an outside context problem. We are a third party here and our actions can change things from the way they should be. Be careful what you say and do. I, especially, have to watch what I say. One slip up and bam! People get whitewashed out of history. I'm not having that on my conscious."

"Alright. I understand."

I realized our pace had slowed considerably and by the time we were done talking we had arrived in the fighters camp. We were also getting some looks from several of them.

"So, are you one of Twilight's friends?" asked Gohan.

"Yeah, I am. I'm Seth. Her newest friend."

"You were the one that defeated that Discord creature?" asked Goku with sudden interest.

"Yeah, though it wasn't as much defeated as it was outwitted. It was a first to land three blows format of fighting. Still, I managed to win three to two."

"You don't really seem like the fighter type."

"I'm not. I was just lucky. It was mainly using my head and my magic like so."

I snapped my fingers and a top hat appeared in my left hand.

"That's some strange energy you have there," said Piccolo.

"No kidding," added Goku. "It feels kind of murky."

"I'll take your word for it. I can't really feel energy," I said and snapped my fingers again; making the top hat disappear.

Holy crap I was talking with Goku! BEST. DAY. EVER!!!

Before I could continue, I heard a yell come from the ring. It looked as though Hercule was doing his tile gimmick. Just like on television, he broke all but the last tile. What a meathead. In fact, I could almost hear the voice in Cell's mind from when I watched the show. I could almost hear him say how Hercule's ignorance was painful.

I softly facepalmed and tilted my head as far back as I could. That guy was so lame. Then again, back home that might actually be considered impressive. Maybe that's why he was so highly lauded. If I managed to do that back home, I'd be pretty pleased with my weak ass self for doing that. Ah crap, I'm starting to see the appeal of that dork.

However, instead of looking back into the ring to see him get utterly humiliated, I noticed something in the sky that grabbed my attention. It was, for lack of a better term, a line in the sky. It was just hanging in mid-air over the ring. It started to bug me a little.

"Is it just me or does anybody else see a line in the sky above the ring?" I asked.

I kept my gaze trained on it as I waited for someone to answer me. It wasn't that big, but it did seem to be slowly expanding.

"I don't see anything," said Twilight.

"Neither do I," I heard someone else say.

I kept looking at it as it kept getting bigger. Suddenly, it stopped for a moment and then it began to expand the other way. It was then I came to a realization. It was like a light bulb went off in my head.

"You guys seriously don't see that?" I said with a little more urgency in my voice.

"I can't see anything, but I'm starting to feel some dark energy up there," I heard someone say.

"Please just be a coincidence," I said half-heartedly.

In my mind, however, I knew better. There wasn't really anything else it could be. Someone was opening a Garganta in Dragonball Z.

It was a damn Bleach crossover.
> You Know What They Say About Assuming Things
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd like to say one thing that my dad constantly told me. If you assume about things too much, then you just make an ass out of yourself when things aren't that way. I'm mostly paraphrasing the latter half, but I digress. When I saw a Garganta open over the ring, I assumed that I was in a DBZ/Bleach crossover. In that situation, it certainly seemed like a good and accurate assumption.

However, things like that can come back to bite you in the ass. I'll get to that later though.

At the time, all I could think about was how messed up things were. There was a Garganta opening up over the ring for the Cell Games. Not only that, for some reason the only one who could see the damn thing was me. Granted, at least they could sense it, but that wouldn't help if something came through it that needed to be taken care of.

My fears were affirmed when the Garganta opened and through it I saw the huge ivory face of a Menos Grande. I swear I almost shit my pants at the sight of it. It was the second time I was frozen in fear of something. The thought of those bears and the way Fluttershy stopped them helped me work through it.

"Menos Grande," I whispered.

"Menos what?" asked Twilight.

"A spirit monster. It lives by eating the souls of those with strong spiritual energy."

"That sounds really bad," I heard Gohan say.

"What I don't understand is why I can see it, but not sense it, and you guys can sense it, but not see it. You guys should-"

I was then cut off by the howl that the Menos gave off. It was loud, but not too loud, and really eerie.

"What was that?" yelled Krillin.

"That would be the howl from the giant face in the sky that you guys can't see!" I yelled in response.

I wanted to show them by firing a blast at it and showing it exactly where, but that thought died a quick death when I realized that doing that could easily draw it's ire. Then, I realized something that I should have thought of first. My illusion spell.

"I have an idea. I'll screen an illusion spell over the real thing so that you can see what I'm seeing."

I concentrated my magic into my hands and got to work. Working from left to right, I brought to realization for everyone else the enormous creature that was looming over us. I was very glad that the thing was essentially mindless since it just seemed to do nothing other than peer down at us.

Needless to say the new look for everyone drew quite a bit of attention.

"That's what you were talking about!?!" asked an astonished Twilight Sparkle.

"Menos Grande. A Gillian class to be more precise. It's pretty powerful. If it unleashes a cero blast, it could kill the bystanders nearby."

As if it heard what I was saying, the Menos started to charge up a cero.

"Shit! It getting ready to fire one!"

I wasn't sure who fired it, but a blast of energy flew by me and straight at the Menos. It impacted with the energy the Menos was gathering and exploded violently. I looked back to see who fired it and saw something I did not expect whatsoever.

A guy in a green suit. The energy around his outstretched hand was slowly dissipating as he kept his gaze trained on the Menos. I knew that I knew him from somewhere, but I couldn't place it right away. However, the three people who were standing besides him helped me place it very quickly.

There was a blonde guy with ridiculously forward-styled hair wearing a suit identical to the first guys' only in a blue color. There was a black, spiky haired short guy wearing nothing but black on everything. Finally, there was a red haired young man wearing nothing but red and carrying a red rose. I'd have to be an idiot not to recognize them when they are together.

They were the main protagonists from Yu Yu Hakusho.

They were also making my brain go haywire. What the hell was going on? Three shows in the same place? Was there even a fanfic of this to begin with? This had more of the makings of...a...

That was when I pieced it together. The first had setting, the newly approaching enemy from a second, and a hero showing up to help from a third.

I was in the beginnings of a megacross fanfic.

The possibilities at that point literally were unfathomable. A megacross fanfic was a piece of writing that was extremely difficult to pull off let alone keep up. Anyone could show up at any point. The rules were now thrown out of the window and anything could happen. It was too big of a risk to stay and see what happened.

Unfortunately, thinking about this made me forget all about the Menos hovering over the ring. He had been hit by the blast and it's cero was blown away in front of it. However, all that did was momentarily stun the sucker. A quick bellow later and we all drew our attention back to it.

However, it wasn't bellowing in anger. I looked on as a most familiar wave of pink surrounded the Menos and after a bit, it dissolved into a black mist before disappearing completely. I continued watching as the wave of pink slowly shrank down and flowed towards the ever-stoic visage of one Byakuya Kuchiki who was standing far away from the other side of the ring.

At that point, I know I shouldn't have been surprised. Still, I was, unfortunately, surprised by the fact that the captain of squad six of the thirteen court guard squads had made a personal visit to this rapidly growing spectacle. What was sad was that at least he had a reason for showing up. His job is to deal with hollows.

The cast of Yu Yu Hakusho was a different matter altogether.

"Pardon the bad pun, but I think I just entered the Twilight Zone here," I quipped.

"The Twilight Zone?" asked a confused Twilight Sparkle.

"An old t.v. show where I'm from. It doesn't matter a whole lot right now. I need to speak to the new guy right now."

I teleported over to him to get his attention. I wasn't sure if it worked or not since he kept up his usual appearance.

"I don't suppose I can get an explanation as to why there was a Menos appearing here could I?"

He looked completely unamused to my line of inquiry.

"That is none of your concern," he replied with his usual 'I don't really give two shits about anything' tone of voice.

"The hell it isn't! I'm not sure why I'm able to see either you or that creature, yet not sense you and why the fighters over there can sense you, yet not see you, but damn it I am getting a lot of players here from completely different universes showing up in one place and pretty soon I'm willing to bet that it's going to attract more than just one Gillian here. This place is a hotbed of activity right now and everyone here has strong powers that I bet taste delicious to a hollow. I'm not even sure how everyone is arriving here in the first place, but that is beside the point. Heck, on top of that I'm surprised at the fact that the green guy in the ring hasn't decided to start nuking everyone around here because he hasn't had a chance to fight yet. He isn't exactly a hero. I'm not trying to piece everything together, but I'd at least like to know why there was a Menos opening a garganta over this place. Can you please at least tell me why?" I finished while starting to breathe a little heavier at that rambling.

Byakuya regarded me for a few moments before closing his eyes and sighing.

"Very well. I'm not sure how you are aware of certain aspects of these things in the first place. However, your argument is just valid enough to make you aware of the situation. In short, for some unknown reason, gateways between the world of the living, the Soul Society, and even Hueco Mundo have been opening up on this world instead of their intended destination. We are simply investigating the matter right now."

I waited for him to say something else, but soon realized that that was all I was going to get from him.

"I see. Thank you for disclosing that information," I said to him. "As for the cause, I'm pretty sure that something is causing the tunnels to intersect with this universe from your own. Judging from what I've seen, it isn't just your universe. There is another group from another universe over there that had this happen to them as well. There's also my case as well. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else just fell from the sky."

As if on cue, there was an enormous crash that came from the direction of where the road was. I turned to look and saw something that obviously didn't belong there.

A damn wooden ship. On closer inspection, a damn familiar wooden ship with a very familiar jolly roger painted on the main sail. One that had a very familiar straw hat on top.

I facepalmed. Hard.

"Mr. Kuchiki, if you can get that message back to your superiors that would be very helpful. Also, I'd give a heads up to Ichigo Kurosaki since I have a feeling that somehow he's going to get himself dragged here against his will at some point."

"I will consider it," he said before vanishing from sight.

"This is getting out of hand," I whispered to myself.

I took a quick look around to see if there was anyone else coming. Seeing nobody else, I teleported over onto the bow of the Going Sunny. I took a quick scan to see if I could see anyone. It didn't take long to see activity on board.

Literally the entire crew save for Zoro were busy having some kind of discussion on the main deck. It looked like they were the post time skip crew. What they were discussing I had no idea of. I decided to break into the probably soon-to-be fiasco before things got out of hand.

"Hello there! Everybody alright?"

I knew full well that they were alright, but it didn't hurt to ask. They all turned to regard me for the first time.

"Who the heck is that guy?" asked Luffy.

"I don't know, but maybe he knows what's going on," stated Robin.

"Oy! Beard guy! Do you know where we are?" asked Luffy.

I set aside the beard guy comment since it didn't matter and tried answering them.

"Well, first off, you're on a boat in the middle of dry land. As to where specifically, what did that one guy say?" I asked out loud while trying to remember.

I rolled through episode 167 of DBZ really fast to remember and finally it hit me.

"I believe you're about twenty-eight miles northeast of Eastern City. Oh, and you're most likely in a different universe as well."

As they all brought out their overreaction bits which included some panicked screaming that I had to stifle a chuckle from, I started thinking about the implications of so many of these characters in one place. Too bad I didn't have long to do so. Cell's patience had worn out.

"Enough of this little farce!" he bellowed. "I'm sick of waiting. It's time to get the fight started. Who will be first?"

I watched as Goku stepped into the ring. It looked like he had his game face on. As cool as watching that fight would be, I needed to figure out what I was going to do.

Before I got to do that, I got surprised by Luffy jumping up beside me on the bow. His gaze was directed at the ring.

"Who are those guys? They seem pretty tough."

I scooted a little to the side before answering him.

"The green guy is Cell. He's an evil monster who has killed many people here. The one in the orange is Goku. He's a noble warrior who's saved the planet on several occasions and is my own personal hero. They're having a fighting tournament to determine the fate of the planet."

"That sounds pretty awesome."

"It is awesome. You can't interfere, though. This may be happening in front of us, but to me this is in the past. If we interfere, he may lose and the planet could be destroyed as a result."

Yeah, I know Goku loses on purpose later, but like hell I'm going to tell anyone else here that.

"I'm going to get a front row seat! This looks like it's going to be a great fight!" Luffy yelled before jumping down and running towards the ring.

"Luffy get back here!" I heard Nami yell.

I looked back at who was left. I watched just as Zoro also leaped over the side of the boat in the same direction. I briefly wondered where he was before. Usopp and Chopper seemed like they had gone into deep denial mode as they were laying against the main mast with foam coming out of their mouths. Sanji was taking a forced nap for some reason that probably had to do with the nosebleed he was having. Franky was being Suuuuuper!!! Brook just seemed to be, well I didn't actually see him anywhere. Finally, Nami and Robin were just watching as Luffy and Zoro were running towards the ring.

I want to take a brief time out to say that Holy Crap Robin and Nami were sexy as hell!!!

Ahem, where was I? Oh yeah. I kind of started staring at Nami and Robin. It was one of those stares that you know you're going to get in trouble for, but you just can't stop. It didn't take them long to notice.

"What are you doing?" asked Nami.

"Oh sorry," I said as I looked away. "You two are much sexier than I thought you'd be."

I instantly covered my mouth with both hands as I finished saying that. Where the hell did that come from?

"You seem to know a great deal more than us," said Robin; breaking into my thoughts. "Perhaps you could tell us what's going on?"

Needless to say, I was a bit happy that she was letting that whole thing slide.

"Well, it seems that people and other assorted creatures are gathering here from all kinds of different universes. I'm not sure how, but I don't think you'll be the last ones either."

"You seem to know a great deal about what is happening," she said while smirking. "You know about that fights' outcome and you seem to know who we are despite us coming here with no knowledge of  this place. Just how do you know such things?"

Damn she's pretty sharp. Well, that's a scholar for you. They are much better at noticing things and making connections. What's a good line to use?

"I'm from an observable universe. That is to say I can peer into other universes like this one or yours. That's why I know things. Unfortunately, I'm not from one that can interact with them. There are a few beings I know of that can feasibly do this, but I'm not sure how or why."

Wow, that was pretty good. I think I'll just use that as my default answer from now on. Bonus points for it being a technical truth.

"I hope that helps," I continued. "I don't plan on being around for that much longer. Between the ridiculously overpowered group, the spirit detective group, the keepers of the afterlife group, and you guys, which I'm dubbing the zany group, I'm not sure what to expect here. Not to mention that I have to get the purple unicorn back home before she gets in trouble like I promised to do. Don't worry though. You'll all get back home sooner or later. That's what happens. That or you carve out a life here. You all aren't exactly wanted criminals on this planet after all."

I then activated my teleportation spell and brought myself back over to the fighters area. It looked as though the two casts had mingled a bit since I had left. It stopped after the fight started, but I digress. I knew I had to get out of there soon or else I was going to get dragged along for whatever crazy antics were about to happen.

I took a quick look back to the ring to see how the fight was going. Except it wasn't going. Well, I think there were in a short pause since that wasn't where they started from and instead they were standing at opposite sides of the ring.

"You seem out of place here," I heard someone say.

I turned to see Yusuke Urameshi looking straight at me.

"If you think I'm out of place, just wait until you see the talking skeleton musician," I rebutted. "That will blow your mind."

"You might be surprised," he countered.

"I suppose. Anyway, yeah, different universes are colliding here. The unicorn and myself are probably the only ones who can get back right now, and that's just to her universe and not mine."

I then looked down to her.

"Speaking of which, Twilight. I think we ought to head back home"

She didn't even regard my voice. She was too busy looking at the ring. I turned to look at the fight that had resumed.

I was instantly mesmerized. The movement, style, speed, and power were unlike anything I had ever seen. Sure, I was unable to keep up with a lot of it. I wasn't trained to keep up with that kind of ridiculous speed. However, what I could see was undoubtedly some of the best fighting I had personally ever seen in my life. My eyes were literally tearing up at it. Reality was so much better than on t.v., despite the fact that I couldn't keep up.

And then they took to the air. It was jaw droppingly awesome. Punches gave way to kicks which in turn gave way to more punches. It looked so natural it was as if they lived in the sky.

Then it happened. Something I'd always wanted to see.

"Kamehameha!!!"

Goku launched his signature move right at Cell. It wasn't all that powerful since he didn't have time to charge it up, but I could still feel the power coming off of it. Still, Cell merely batted it away from himself effortlessly.

However, watching it fly away gave me a really ridiculous idea.

"I have always wanted to try this," I said as I channeled some magic into my palm.

Then I held out my hand and snapped my fingers. The energy wave disappeared and then reappeared in a different place going a different direction. I heard some gasps from the people around me. I was pretty stoked too. It had worked just like I wanted it to.

"Sweet! I just teleported raw energy! How cool is that!?!"

"That's not even possible!" I heard Piccolo say.

"It's chaos magic! It makes physics cringe on a daily basis," I countered.

"Could you redirect that towards Cell?" I heard Twilight ask.

"Maybe, but I doubt Goku would be happy with that. He's fighting an honorable match with Cell and I don't think outside interference would be a great way to end it."

I then looked away from the dissipating energy wave and back down to Twilight.

"As cool as this fight is, we need to leave."

"But I said that I was going to help them out. I promised I would," she said almost pleadingly.

"You yourself told me that we ought to leave so as to not interfere with these events."

"And you told me that we needed to make sure that things stayed on track," she countered.

"That was before. The situation has changed. This isn't the same place that I thought it was. The more we stay here, the greater chance we have to affect events in a negative way; even if you mean well. Besides, after we get back, I still have to go get Discord and bring him back. When I do, you girls will need to seal him up again. I hate saying this, but you have to go fulfill your duty as an Element of Harmony."

She looked on like she desperately wanted to protest. However, we both knew that I was right. Her duty as the Element of Magic came first.

"I know how you feel. After all, Goku is my hero. If I could stay, I would. We just can't."

I pulled the coin out from my shirt and knelt down in front of Twilight.

"Come on Twilight. It's time to go."

She seemed to understand and nodded. I turned to look at Gohan.

"Hey Gohan, tell your dad we got back safely alright?"

"Sure, I can do that."

I wanted to give him some words of encouragement for his upcoming fight, but that would be a reveal that I don't think I could explain my way out of. Instead, I turned my gaze back to Twilight and held out the coin for her.

Just as she was about to touch it, I noticed one last thing. It was a couple of girls touching down behind the group. I almost chuckled as I recognized them instantly. It was Nanoha and Fate from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. The Strikers version of them. Instead, I smiled as the light from the coin brightened up the day since I knew that they would be the ones who would fix things.

I smiled because they were the last piece of this puzzle and I had no more worries. Things would be alright.
> The Final Boss is a Letdown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"YAY!!! THEY'RE BACK!!!" I heard who was most likely Pinkie yell.

As I was trying to get my sight back, I felt the weight of several ponies pile onto me. It didn't really feel heavy, but at least it was noticeable. I scooped up whoever was on me and wrapped them up into a big hug.

"I do like a good hug," I said.

A few moments later, my vision returned to me and I saw that I had wrapped up Rarity and Fluttershy. I gently set them down, then stood up and looked around to get my bearings.

The first thing I noticed was that the destroyed machines had been cleared away. After that, I realized that everyone had returned there. I was definitely glad nothing bad had happened to Rainbow Dash and Applejack after I had touched the rift. However, based off of the displacement, I would have thought that the others would've still been gone for a bit. After all, my trip this time around hadn't even been an hour and from what I could tell Twilight had been there at least a day...

Oh wait, that probably meant that is was the other way around this time.

"How long was I gone?"

"About six hours," I heard Celestia say just out of my view.

"I see. I guess you weren't there for that long, were you Twilight?" I asked.

"About a day and a half I believe," she answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Temporal offset. It's been about three and a half days time here. Universes don't seem to be aligned properly when it comes to time. I bet the Doctor could explain it better than I could."

I looked around for a moment. I then realized that he was the only one that wasn't present.

"Wait, where is the Doctor?"

"Oddly enough, he said he got a call from his TARDIS. His screwdriver told him so," Celestia informed me.

There were so many things that I wanted to nitpick about that statement, but honestly I probably wouldn't have had a leg to stand on in that fight.

"Now that Twilight has returned," Celestia continued, "we can hand out your elements to each of you."

Seemingly out of nowhere, the ornate case the elements were kept in levitated from behind Celestia and opened up. Then, each of them were levitated to their proper owners. I kept my eyes trained on them as they were placed around their necks and, in Twilight's case, onto her head.

"Coooool," I said while staring at the actual elements.

"They are pretty rad, aren't they?" added Rainbow Dash.

"I never thought I'd get to see the Elements of Harmony up close," I said as she displayed her element necklace up close to me.

"We have them ready for a reason," Celestia said. "It is time to go and retrieve Discord. Are you ready?"

I nodded and walked over to the last rift. As I looked on at it, I felt like being a little playful since I kinda didn't want to to do this. I was, after all, getting minorly railroaded into this.

"Pinkie."

"Yes," she said while appearing to my right.

"Balloon."

"Balloon!" she said and handed me a red balloon.

I pointed the open end towards the rift and slowly let the air out. Then I dropped it on the ground.

"Hoofful of confetti."

"Hooful of confetti!" she said and handed me just that.

I then held it out over the top of the rift and let it fall. A few of the pieces fell on the rift and simply disappeared. The others simply fell on the ground.

"Hmmm, I see. Gummy."

"Gummy!" she said and handed me her pet alligator.

I took him in my hands and simply pointed him at the rift while making sure he couldn't reach it. He simply stared at it while blinking a few times. I then brought him back and faced him towards me.

"Anything Gummy?"

He simply stared at me. Nothing more.

"That seems about right."

I then handed Gummy back to Pinky.

"Cupcake."

"Cupcake!" she said and handed me a cupcake with pink frosting on top.

I eyed it for a moment and then took a bite. Just so you know, I've actually never liked cupcakes before. However, the taste of this was pure goodness. Perhaps it was just a case of perception being reality, but for some reason it didn't even taste like any cupcake I've had before. It was like a textured doughyness mixed with a sugary frosting that screamed delectable.

"This is the best cupcake... in the history of cupcakes."

"Yippee!"

"Seth, have you had your fun?" asked Celestia.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said a bit dejectedly.

"Then you should be on your way."

I took a hold of my coin and studied it for a moment. The side with the elements' cutie marks was glowing just like before. However, all of the cutie marks for the elements were dull and instead the tiny horseshoe on the inside was glowing brighter than the rest. I surmised that he was represented by that symbol like the others were by their cutie marks. Originally, I thought that it represented me, but it seemed that I was wrong.

I slowly reached out for what would be the final time, I hoped, towards the rift. I hesitated a bit before finally touching it. As per usual, my world exploded in a blaze of blinding light. It took me a while before I was able to see again, but when I did I was shocked beyond shocked at what I saw.

I was in my bedroom back home.

Everything was just how I left it. My t.v., my Xbox, my air hockey table, my dresser, my mini-fridge, my shelves full of movies and anime series, my 'girls of Tenchi Muyo' wall scroll, and even my stuffed teddy bear that I've had since I was a year old was sitting on the ledge next to my bed. Everywhere I looked in there was exactly the same as when I had left.

"So the prodigal son has returned."

Perhaps I spoke too soon. I whirled around to who was there, but I saw no one. I walked over to the bathroom and peered in, yet I still didn't see anyone.

"You're getting warmer," I heard the voice say.

I opened up the door to the garage and looked inside. I still didn't see anyone. By then, I knew who it was. I would have to be an idiot not to know. I left the garage and looked around outside.

"You're almost there," the voice beckoned.

I walked down the short driveway and looked down the road. Finally, I spotted him sitting on the message board of the old church across the street.

General Chaos. Whoops. I mean Discord, god of chaos.

"It's so good to see you again. Though, I told you I could find my own way back. You really shouldn't have come for me, you know."

He then teleported off of the board and right in front of me.

"I got stonewalled into getting you by Celestia. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered. You stabbed me in the gut if you recall."

"Ah, memories. Believe it or not, for me that happened over a thousand years ago."

"A thousand years?" I asked in a flat tone that screamed disbelief.

"I don't blame you if you don't believe me. However, you of all people should know about the temporal offset that occurs between universes."

"I'm fully aware."

"What you don't know is that with my infinite power and wisdom I can control where and when you end up," he began as he also started to walk circles around me. "When I pushed you into the portal, not but a few minutes passed before I sensed my old self coming here. If he was to show up in this time, I highly doubt that he would have been very quiet or benevolent to those around you. So, I sent him back to the dark ages in Europe. A bit of a mistake on my part. He ended up creating the first Holy Crusade just for kicks I'm afraid."

"Should I even start to tell you how messed up that is?"

"Of course not. You'd be lecturing pure chaos and what would be the point of that? Now where was I? Oh yes. He was me and I tried to use the same trick over and over again and soon that became boring. As you recall, I wasn't the biggest fan of humanity back then. I've since mellowed out considerably."

"Wait, didn't you try to get back to Equestria at some point?" I interrupted.

"That would be right about then," he answered. "After it became boring, I tried to use my magic to cross back to my world only to discover that it was impossible. I simply didn't have enough magic to do so."

"What happened to infinite power?" I asked mockingly.

"Sadly, it wasn't quite as infinite as I had believed it was. After my failed attempts, I simply roamed around the world for a while. Took in the sights so to speak. That was when I was found that my magic was slowly growing. I then wandered from place to place to try and increase my magic as much as I could from the chaos that occurred wherever you humans were."

"I doubt that it would've taken that long to get enough power to return home."

"More than you could possibly imagine dear boy. It took over a thousand years of storing the chaotic energy of humanity for me to attempt another spell to return me home. Just when I was about to do so, I came across something that made me wait."

"Which would be?"

"My Little Pony. It was intriguing. It was just released as a toy, but I found it to be too great of a coincidence considering the amount of times that that phrase had been uttered back in Equestria. I decided to keep waiting and soon enough, I found my answer."

"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic I'm guessing."

"Right you are! I couldn't believe it. It was the very same Equestria as I had known down to the last detail. It was crazy. Which would be why I understood it so quickly. Then the second season came and I watched as I was introduced. It was quite interesting to see myself in an even better form than my own memories could conjure. It was then that I realized that everything was one gigantic loop in time. I spent the remainder of my time tracking you down. It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but two weeks ago I found you.

"You were nothing like what I had seen back in Equestria. Well, in appearance you were, but other than that you were so dull. Go to work, mess around on your little computer, watch some television, go to sleep; it was dreadful. Your imagination, however, was quite amusing. Always dreaming of having superpowers and saving lives. Able to seduce any women you wanted into doing whatever you desired. Leaping across time and space with a mere gesture. All powers that I have and you wanted. It was fascinating!"

"I'm glad I entertained you," I said rolling my my eyes and speaking with full-blown sarcasm.

"As you should be. If I hadn't been so entertained, I may have chosen someone else. Then again, you were so fitting. Did you know that your name is the same as that of an Egyptian god? Not only that, but in fact that god was also the god of chaos?"

I blinked at that.

"I didn't know that. Ugh. Now it just sounds corny," I said and facepalmed.

"It is, isn't it! Now then, the day before I sent you away is when I made the coin you wear around your neck and created the recording that you saw. Do you remember what I said to you?"

"You said that the coin would help me return everyone home."

"And?"

"You put half of your power into it."

"That's the one! That, however, was the only lie I told you."

"No kidding," I deadpanned.

"The real truth is that I gave you all but a tiny amount of my power. I needed to do so in order to send you to Equestria. I bet you fainted not too long after you arrived am I right?"

I grumbled out a weak yes to him.

"That was simply my magic taking hold inside of you. There was actually almost no magic left inside of the coin. For that reason, I sent you to the Everfree Forest. It's natural chaotic energies would make it the ideal place to recover the magic I had just given you. A normal being such as yourself would be unable to handle it and you would pass out while the energy was restored."

"That does explain a few things. Though, if you had lost all that power then how did you redirect your past self into the past anyway?"

"It's relatively simple. After all, it is me. I simply chose to put myself back in time."

"Yeeeah. Right."

"If it's too complicated, I can give you the long-winded version of it for your clarification."

"Chaos be crazy, I get it," I said while waving it off.

"I knew you'd understand!" he exclaimed gleefully.

"I also understand that you said you used up almost all your power sending me there, which means I'm currently more powerful than you are."

"Ah, but that's where you are wrong. You were more powerful than me. However, you should have tried to defeat me before I began explaining things. While I've been walking circles around you, I've been slowly draining away your magic," he finished saying while stopping in front of me with a comically over-sized grin.

I jumped back and tried to summon up my magic, but I found none to draw upon.

"You fell for quite the cliche. Haven't you read the Evil Overlord List?"

"I have, but then again I don't plan on being one."

"It's too bad that you didn't even think about it. While you were standing there like a fool, I regained all of my power from the coin. All that is left is the essences of the Elements of Harmony and all they can do is return me back to Equestria."

"You mean return us to Equestria."

"You heard what I said. Though perhaps I should simply tell you outright."

"You can never return to Equestria," he thundered.
> He's...Gone?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To her subjects and her sister, Princess Celestia managed to maintain a calm air about her. However, internally she was deeply concerned about what was happening on the other side of the rift. She knew Seth better than anyone present thanks to the scrying spell and also knew that even though he would do as she asked, she couldn't help but worry that he may not be able to match Discord a second time. The fact that it had been almost three weeks since he had entered the rift was a mindful concern of hers as well.

She was concerned, but showing it to anyone would cause them more grief than what they were already demonstrating. The fact that it was Discord who who coming along with Seth meant that they could not leave their post to go anywhere else. They had done what they could to keep their spirits up, but she could easily tell that things were slowly becoming strained over the circumstances.

She couldn't blame them for their feelings. Before this trip, the longest he had been gone in one of the rifts was three days. The fact that he had been gone three weeks on this trip was slightly disheartening. However, she knew that no matter how things looked they always turned out alright in the end.

Wait. There! She could feel it. The buildup of chaotic energy inside the rift. Whenever he had come back, there had been a similar buildup coming from it that she could feel.

"It is time," she announced.

The ponies around her perked up at hearing her words.

"Finally! We've been here way too long," said Rainbow Dash.

"Now's not the time Rainbow Dash," Twilight Sparkle said. "Everypony get ready!"

The six Elements of Harmony gathered together a relatively good distance away from the rift and prepared to activate their powers. A few seconds later and a bright flash erupted. It was accompanied by an uproarious laughter. Discord had arrived.

He had come by himself.

Celestia's heart sank. Discord had returned by himself. That meant that Seth might have succeeded in his goal, but it came at a cost. She watched as her faithful student and her friends came to a similar conclusion.

"Discord!" they yelled in unison.

"The one and only," he stated in his usual flamboyant manner.

"Wait, where's Seth?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Oh him? He's been taken care of."

"What did ya do tah him!?!"

"Are you sure you want to know? The details may give you nightmares after all," he said while dropping his tone for the last part.

"You monster!" yelled Rarity.

Discord simply laughed for a few moments before continuing.

"Oh it's not all that bad really. Still, there's no doubt that he will never come back to you. I've made sure of it."

Celestia couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was gone? It was impossible. Things didn't work like that here. Things always turned out for the best.

She continued to observe as the Elements activated. She almost didn't care at this point. It was necessary, but she felt as though she had lost a part of herself. She knew that she held no real attachment to Seth. Still, thanks to her scrying spell, she couldn't help the fact that she cared for him in the same way a mother would of a wayward child. Knowing that he had been lost due to Discord's hubris was slightly disheartening.

She continued to look on as Discord became awash in the light of the elements. As his body once again turned to stone, she also couldn't help but wonder what she could have done differently. What steps could she have taken to prevent this? What precautions could she have implemented to forgo this outcome?

As the light faded and Discord's new prison was established, she steeled herself to those present. Despite what she felt, she needed to keep up any appearances in front of those she cared for; her little ponies.

"Well done my faithful student. You have once again stopped Discord and saved us from any chaos he might have spread."

"I know, but still it doesn't really feel like that big of a victory," she responded.

"I understand," Celestia remarked.

"But you can bring him back right?" asked Twilight.

"I am sorry. I do not know of a way to bring him back from wherever he went. Not only that, I am unaware of the place he went to in order to bring him back. I would need to know that in order to even begin to research a way to do so. I am afraid that he is lost to us," she finished in an even somber tone that before.

"But Discord was able to do it!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "We can get him to tell us how to bring him back!"

Celestia simply shook her head.

"Discord would never tell us how he managed to get there. I doubt that he even did it on his own. If you recall, his magic and Seth's magic clashed to create the rifts in the first place. It most likely was created by accident."

"But it was both the same magic!" yelled Twilight.

"Indeed they were. However, they were different spells. Three different spells reacting to each other at the same time to be precise. Recreating those three spells would be nearly impossible since we are not even aware of the spells that they used."

"But! But!"

Celestia watched as Applejack placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. It saddened her to see her faithful student feeling powerless to do anything. She knew how Twilight felt, but there wasn't anything that she could feasibly do to bring Seth back. She could only hope that he wasn't in any danger.

It was then that she felt a hoof on her own shoulder. She peered over to see Luna looking back at her. She knew that they didn't need words to express what each other were feeling. It was as plain as day. She simply grinned sadly back to her sister and then turned back to her loyal subjects.

"There is nothing more that we can do here. I believe it is time to head back home."

They all nodded and began by returning their elemental jewelery to the ornate box that they came from. They then began their walk back towards Appleloosa to board a train home. She as well as Luna and Shining Armor stayed behind to chat for a moment.

"Tis true that there is no normal way to bring Seth back. However, is there really no way to return him here?" asked Luna.

Celestia sighed before continuing.

"There is only one being who knows the spell to cross between dimensions. That being is Discord. Even if he created the situation unintentionally, he could still have seen the spell come forth in the chaos that occurred. After all, he is chaos incarnate. If a spell was created, he would have learned it then. He is a mad genius after all."

"We could always try to interrogate him and make him tell us," Shining Armor said. "I may not have any attachment to Seth, but I feel obligated to help him since he helped return Twilight and the others home safely."

"As I told Twilight and her friends, it is much too risky. Even if all the necessary precautions are made, there are still too many things that could go wrong in addition to the fact that he will most likely not tell us anyway. I wish there was a way, but there is not."

The three of them remained silent for a few moments.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to go with my sister and her friends back to Ponyville for a while."

"I understand," Celestia replied.

Shining Armor then saluted her and galloped to his distant sister.

"Come Luna. It is time that we returned to the castle."

"You are not going to say goodbye to the others?"

"I feel that now is not the time to say anything. Until now, they have never felt like they had failed at anything on this scale before. He may have only been here for a small time, but he left an enormous impact upon them. To have him just as swiftly leave them is something that they would never have expected. I feel that they need some time to think about this by themselves.

"There is also the matter of the royal business we need to attend to. We have been away from the castle for nearly a month. It is best that we return to make sure that things are still running smoothly."

With that said, the two of them took to the skies and flew back to Canterlot under their own power.

Things there went smoothly after they had arrived. They had missed several dignitaries and diplomats, but things were smoothed over and talks with Prince Blueblood went well. He had done an admirable job in their absence. With things wrapped up, she gave her thanks to everyone who had held things together in her absence, finished lowering the sun for the day, and retired to her room for the night.

The circular room itself was befitting one of royalty such as herself. There were shelves full of books and items that she was fond of dotting in several places. A grand ivory styling booth with a full length mirror was sitting near her bed. Her bed itself was a grand affair. It was an ornate gold and red affair that looked absolutely plush.

It was on that bed that Celestia simply collapsed onto. Despite expending no effort on her own part, she had been emotionally drained. This ordeal was unique in it's overall stature. The appearance of Seth, finding out that she was entertainment to millions, adding a new life's worth of memories, Discord's return, the subsequent loss and return of her student and friends, and the loss of Seth to them as well were all a great deal to in take despite how long it had actually taken. All she wanted to do now was rest and recover so that she could face forward once again like she always had.

However, her thoughts were interrupted as she went to grab her pillow. Sitting on top of said pillow was a peculiar object. It was an object that wasn't something that you would see in here since she never used them. 

It was an envelope.

It made her very curious. Why was there an envelope on her pillow? Who would even place it there? No one ever entered her private chambers with the exception of Luna and she didn't use envelopes either. In truth, no one could enter her chambers other than herself and Luna unless invited in.

She stood up from her bed and levitated the envelope over to herself. All that was written on the front was her name. She turned it over to see if there was anything written on the back. To her astonishment, there was.

Written on the back of the envelope was 'From: Seth'.

How had he left this here for her? He had never been to the castle before other than his quick trip with her to the throne room. He had definitely never been anywhere near her private chambers. He couldn't have sent this here. But if not him, then who did? Who else could have known about him and could access this part of the castle?

It then hit her. There was one possibility, but it seemed impossible. It didn't seem like something he would do. However, she remembered the words of Sherlock Holmes from Seth's memories. If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Perhaps that was why she was having such a difficult time believing it.

Only Discord could have dropped this in here.

She picked up a small ceremonial dagger from one of the many shelves with her telekinesis and used it to open the envelope. After returning the dagger, she pulled out the contents of the envelope. All there was were a few sheets of notebook paper. They all had writing on them in Seth's style of cursive. Thankfully, she could read it now since it was different than Equestrian cursive. She took a moment to compose herself before reading what he had written for her.

Dear Princess Celestia,
>  But Not to be Forgotten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hah! Listen to me. I'm no Twilight Sparkle. Anyway, if you're reading this it means that Discord kept his word and that means that he is trustworthy now. I'm writing this letter a little after I went trough through the last rift. As it turns out, I simply went back home. Seriously, what are the odds of that?

I found Discord outside and we had a bit of a chat. As it turned out, he actually sent himself back in time when his younger self arrived. That was what brought this whole thing full circle. It wasn't the human hating Discord that sent me through the portal to Equestria. It was a millinea millenia thousand years older Discord who did it.

The fun part, though, is that now I am back to my old life. Well, I will be in the morning. As it turns out, I arrived back home only a few minutes after I left. The temporal alin alignment here is really off and, according to Discord, is also not permanent. It seems to fluctuate with places that we've already been to. Not a whole lot, but enough that it's gets a little loopy.

The biggest problem I have is that Discrod Discord can't send me back because he doesn't have enough magical power to transport me as well as himself through the rift back. The coin had just enough power thanks to the mixture of harmony and chaos that were was inside of it to transport Discord. However, it wouldn't have worked for me since Discord's natural chaotic sef self was the only one wo who was strong enough to go through with the magic inside of the coin. I'm honestly not sure if he's lying to me or not, but it makes sense enough that I wou won't question it.

Apparently, it takes a lot of magic to transport between this universe and Equestria. I was going to call BS on him saying that the coin had enough power to do so. However, he told me about how there is still half of a bridge with the coin sending something here, but not yet sending something back. Stupid Discord and his making sense.

Honestly, the two of us ended up having a long chat about what he's been up to and how he's learned his lesson. I wouldn't be surprised if he was lying since he's a natural at it. However, we did come to an agreement that he was pretty much reformed. The problem is that no one there would believe him if he just came back by himself. It's highly doubtful that you'll even give him the chance to explain himself. Even if you ponies are the epitome of love and tolerence tolerance, you still have times where you act without thinking. I cite the wedding as a case in point.

If things end up working out, the last test to make sure he isn't a lying sack of crap is to send this letter to you. I'm literally watching Discr Discord in front of me as I write this so that he doesn't know what it is that I'm writing. If this gets to you without any problems then I believe that he is trustworthy enough to let him go.

Of course, there becomes the next problem. The girls won't be so ready to trust him after this. They will trust you implicitly, but not him. That means that you should probably wait a bit before letting him out. Not only that, but I'd probably make it something elaborate to help them learn to trust him. I honestly believe that Fluttershy would be the best for that se situation.

Still, that leaves the problem with me. If I had to choose to live either here or in Equestria, I'd live on in Equestria. I actually thought long and hard about this. The reason I say that I would go back is because you were pretty much right. I don't have anyone here that I would really consider as a friend and honestly I think my family would probably be better off without me. I'm not saying that they wouldn't miss me or anything of the sort. They love me and I love them. It's just, what am I doing for them? I'll admit that love would be enough for them, but I don't feel the same things that I used to from them like I did before. It might just be the difference in love from here and Equestria that's messing me up. I don't know. Discord's magic may might alos also be messing me up.

That's not really the point. The point is that being in Equestria just seems to feel more 'right' than living here. The stir craziness would probably get to me in no time and the whole meat thing would probably get on everyone's nerves at some point. There's also the fact that Discord took all of his magic back and now I'm a normal human again. There's also the whole bathroom thing I encountered while there, but I refuse to talk about that. However, at the end of the day at least I know that the ponies will won't care about things like taht that. They will accept me for me regardless of what I end up as. I'm a unique being there.

Here, I'm barely even a cog in the machine. I'm completely replacable replaceable. What makes me, me, is my thoughts and dreams. People love thoughts and dreams, but usually only their own. People are good, but they tend to be selfish much too often. I, myself, have encont encountered that problem and it made me question my very sense of self in those times. I would rather not even have the problem arise in the first place.

Honestly, I'm just writing whatever comes to my mind about the topic right now. It doesn't matter, though. I can't go back. I'll accept that in time. Right now, though, it just feels like kind of unfair. Despite the stabbing and the accidents and the issue with the alternate realities, it was a lot of fun being there. I just get the feeling that I was more fulfilled being there than I was here. That was the real clincher. Sure, some of the things I was doing while I was there were something that am any average joe could do. The thing was that  I was that average joe. It was me and no one else. I was the one fortunate enough to get to do it.

Now... now I'm back to being the same person that I was before; boring, fat, and obsessed with the internet. What has changed? Nothing. And at the same time, everything. Now I realize just how boring it is to be me. I'm still the same person I was before. Still, I now realize just how much the saying 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone' really means. What you told me ended up being true. You did end up giving me a new look on my life before coming back. I doubt that this is what you meant, or hoped for though.

Despite the downsides to being away from home, I think I miss being in Equestria even more. The grass is always greener after all. It would be nice to be able to return there one day. I just am not sure if it's possible. Like Discr Discord said, it takes a lot of magic to get there. The elements might have a great deal of magic, but they can't be used like that. At least, I don't think that they can. I might be wrong. After all, I've only seen them used twice and both times were in response to a threat to harmony. Anyway, I doubt that would be enough.

I don't know if I'm trying to be a wishful thinker or if I'm being realistic here. Maybe both, who knows? I'm getting off topic though. I'm fine and back home and I suppose that's all that really matters. Let everyone know that I'm okay and that I'm not in any danger. Make sure that Twilight doesn't go all nutty to try and bring me back. Honestly, it just seems like she might.

I just met them, so it doesn't really feel like I have anything personal that I would want would have to say to them. I mean, I could probably come up with something, but I'm not sure how much time exactly is passing between here and Equestria. I bet in the time it's taken to write this almost a mot month has gone by. I guess that means I should wrap this up.

It was a blast being there. I had fun. I really did. Probably more fun than I've had doing anything in a long time. However, all good things must come to an end in this world. As much as I wish they didn't, it just seems to happen that way. Give Fluttershy one last hug for me.



Sincerely Yours,

Seth the human


P. S. I almost forgot, Discord said something about something going on up north that he hinted was important. I'd check it out if I were you.

After checking that she didn't miss anything else, Celestia folded the letter back up and placed it back in the envelope. She was glad that nothing else had happened to Seth and that he had returned home safely. Still, his message was sticking with her.

There were a great many parts of the letter that bothered her. The half-hearted goodbye seemed bad. The way that he returned Discord seemed off. The time difference seemed wrong. However, the most unbelievable of these things was the one about Discord.

Discord was reformed. She couldn't quite believe it. One of the greatest enemies to harmony that she had ever encountered had been reformed thanks to the time he had spent on Earth. Could it really be so perfect a turn of events? It was written in Seth's handwriting. Discord couldn't fake something like this. It's too meticulous and orderly. Well, except the scribbles where he misspelled things, that is.

There was one way to know if this was the truth. The last part of the letter. There wasn't anything to the north except the mountains. There hadn't been since-

Not since the Crystal Empire had disappeared.

Is that what Discord was talking about? Could it be that the Crystal Empire was reemerging? It would make sense. Every event that seemed to have happened a thousand years ago was now becoming resolved ever since the Elements of Harmony had been wielded by their new owners. Perhaps the mystery of the Crystal Empire was the next event that was to be played out.

She kept thinking about this thoroughly. It would be a great test for Twilight. Perhaps it would be the next step in seeing if she was ready to become an alicorn as she had hoped Twilight would. First, though, she must send Cadence there with her husband. She is the rightful heir to the throne. Her presence is necessary before anything else.

As she prepared to leave, she took one last look at the envelope. If things held true, then perhaps this was all according to destiny after all. If he hadn't shown up, if he hadn't fought Discord, if he hadn't sent Discord back, then terrible things might have happened. She then placed the envelope on the shelf next to the dagger.

"Perhaps you were destined for something important after all. Maybe one day, Seth, you'll see that for yourself."

Her horn then glowed and she disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.