“Well that was certainly an interesting year wasn’t it?” Orion asked Astrid as he looked over his shoulder at her, having finally eaten his bucket of gummy bears… he still wore the other bucket on his head though.
“Yeah! I’m glad I stuck around for that!” Astrid grinned from the couch she was lounging on and then frowned. “It got kinda wordy at the end though.”
The room occupied by the Astral Lords in the Infinite Kingdom hadn’t changed in the slightest and they hadn’t really moved from their spots since watching Oskar arrive in Equestria. However, there was one rather major change to the room.
“Well we certainly got some added guests,” Orion commented with a smile as he spotted the many, many other Astral Lords occupying the room, either sharing a luxurious couch or keeping one all to themselves. All were sitting before a massive crystal ball and watching as Oskar, in an altered human form, trudged through the Forest of Everfree, looking rather dejected.
“That’s because this guy you found is actually pretty fun to watch,” Astrid said. “I figured when most of the time Oskar was just going around doing random nonsense Dust Child stuff he would be boring but nope! He actually makes that typically boring stuff fun to watch. It helps that he still gets in fights every now and then.”
“Like I said, I know how to pick ‘em,” Orion said, leaning back in his couch smugly.
A pair of double doors suddenly opened and in walked two people, along the ceiling actually. One was a little girl with fair skin wearing an elegant purple gown with white slippers, and had her blonde hair pulled into a long ponytail fastened with a large lacy purple and pink bow. The other was a fully grown woman with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail as well and blue eyes. She was wearing a full body suit that was blue and skin tight with pink symbols over her left breast and on her back. The woman had a rather long, suffering look on her face as she packed the little girl into the room along the ceiling.
“Over there Sammy!” the little girl shouted excitedly, pointing a finger. “The couch next to Orion!”
‘Sammy’ grunted a reply as she spied a couch suddenly appear next to one of the many hundreds in the room and walked towards it. As she came to a stop over it, gravity suddenly asserted itself on the two and they fell. With practiced ease, Sammy spun herself around mid-air and landed with a thump on the couch, already in a sitting position. Slouching a little into her seat on the couch, Sammy glanced over to the spot next to her and became confused when it didn’t have the little girl sitting there. With a cheer, the girl made her appearance via landing on Sammy’s stomach and making the woman wheeze out loudly. The little girl giggled happily as Sammy cursed angrily, and latched onto her to snuggle in close.
“Hello Carina,” Orion greeted with a smile “Having fun with your babysitter?”
“Tons and tons! Oh hey!” Carina replied, then pointed excitedly at the bucket on Orion’s head. “Noms~”
“Here you go Carina,” Orion said as he took the bucket off his head and ported it over to Carina. “Dig in.”
“Yay!” Carina cheered, briefly clapping her hands together quickly before willing the bucket ever-filling and eating up the gummy bears.
“What is this?” Sammy asked as she stared at the massive crystal ball in the room, still scowling a little from Carina landing on her. “Are you spying on people?”
“Yes and no,” Orion replied casually as he crossed his legs and faced Sammy. “You can consider this as our… television? Yes, our television.”
“Only it’s livid all the time!” Astrid added.
“Live, Astrid,” Orion corrected.
“Whatever.”
“So you spend all your free time watching people just live their lives?” Sammy asked with a frown.
“You’ve been here forty years, I’m sure you knew that already,” Orion stated and then frowned. “At least I think you should.”
“I’ve been stuck moving between play date after play date and all these stupidly massive party rooms.” Sammy scowled before looking rather perturbed. “It’s been forty years? Already?”
“And you haven’t aged a day,” Orion stated as he spotted Sammy poke and prod at her face and willed a hand mirror into existence for her. “There are benefits to being a vassal of an Astral Lord after all, no matter how young she is.”
“I wasn’t given a choice!” Sammy replied angrily, sharply gesturing to the still eating little girl on her lap. “One of you ripped my ship open and tore me out of my suite then brought me here to take care of your omnipotent kid for who the fuck knows how long! Apparently the next thousand years, since forty felt like three in this place!”
“Yes, the laws of physics are more suggestion than unbreakable rules here,” Orion commented with a smirk. “I’m sure you have noticed.”
Scowling in response, Sammy turned back to the large crystal ball and saw that the view had changed a bit; Oskar was now walking down a long tunnel lit up with primitive looking, to her, electric lights.
“Are you scouting someone to recruit as a vassal?” Sammy asked.
“Hmm? Oh, no. Unlike some other Astral Lords, I rather dislike getting involved personally and interfering,” Orion answered and looked over his shoulder at another Astral Lord. “I know you like to do that yourself, Betelgeuse, but it just feels cheap to me.”
“Wait, what about what you did earlier?” Astrid asked. “You took Oskar from that one universe and dropped him in this one. Isn’t that interfering?”
“Well, yes, but not to the sure scale as what Betelgeuse likes to do,” Orion answered. “What I did was more of a… little push. Yes, I gave Oskar a little push in a general direction that looked interesting.”
“Oh, well what are you going to do with him now?” Astrid asked curiously. “Any fun sounding plans?”
“Do with him?” Orion replied with a rise of a brow. “I didn’t have any plans beyond take someone that could be rather interesting and place them somewhere else. Like I said, I dislike interfering so I don’t have any grand schemes beyond watching him do what he wishes, if that can be called a scheme. That said, I won’t tolerate others interfering in this either, so no Betelgeuse, you can’t go in and make things more interesting.”
“Fine, have it your way,” Betelgeuse replied in some boredom.
Sammy stared up at the crystal ball for a few moments before averting her gaze. This wasn’t someone who signed a contract to allow people to spy on them like those people on stupid reality shows; this was some girl who had no idea she was being spied on by thousands of people. Sammy couldn’t help but feel like a voyeur while watching the crystal ball, so she turned her attention to Orion instead.
During her apparently four decade long stay in the Infinite Kingdom, she didn’t really have much of a chance to get any answers. It wasn’t a matter of her being too busy with Carina, which she made sure no one would question her effort at, as Carina’s mother was rather sadistic towards Dust Children. It was simply that all the ones she had met did not want to waste time speaking with her. Sammy supposed they thought if she had questions she could see her… Lord, however the Astral Lord that was supposed to answer her questions either was too young to know or found such things too boring to bother with, leaving her in the dark for quite a few years. Until now that is…
“So, Orion…” Sammy began.
“Yes Sammy?”
“It’s Samus.” The woman scowled at the childish nickname.
“Sure it is,” Orion stated with a smirk.
“…” Sammy glared at the Astral Lord for a moment before sighing. “You call this place the Infinite Kingdom. Do you all actually control everything or is that just a grand name?”
“The Infinite Kingdom is called that because that is exactly what it is,” Orion replied. “Never let it be said that the founder was particularly creative. However, we only rule one infinity, not all of them, and one infinity in the entirety of the multiverse is fairly small.”
“Alright…” Sammy said with a nod, understanding the concept of multiple infinities easily thanks to her Chozo upbringing.
“Now, we Astral Lords control this one infinite spot of the multiverse and do not bother to expand beyond,” Orion explained. “A lot of beginners have this issue with finding yourself in command of an infinite of the multiverse, and think they are an up and coming multiversal overlord, only to start expanding and find themselves being overrun with a lot of rather peeved local ascendants.”
“Even when the scale is an entire sector of the multiverse, the concept of rallying against an utterly unknown outside force still applies,” Orion stated with a smile. “Luckily for us, this issue won’t be played against us. The sectors bordering this one are mostly overrun with warlords and independents; large powerful factions are a rarity. We only ever have to deal with singular ones blindly invading us rather than an equally large faction.”
“Really? There are no large factions in the neighbouring sectors at all?” Sammy said with a suspicious look. “How very lucky.”
“Oh yes,” Orion agreed with a sly knowing smile. “Very lucky.”
“Boring!” Astrid shouted, a statement shared by a few other Astral Lords. “Stop talking politics. I want to see what happens next!”
“Sure, sure Astrid,” Orion said with an absent wave at the Astral Lady. “I am rather interested in seeing what year two of Oskar’s escapades will be as well. Care to join us Sammy? Considering your charge happens to be preoccupied, you might as well.”
Sammy looked down and saw that Carina hadn’t slowed down in the slightest. Knowing the little omnipotent was as likely to just stay here eating for years on end without any negatives to dissuade her otherwise, Sammy just settled in. She rather wished she had something else to watch though, the feeling of dirtiness from spying on someone’s personal life bubbling up again.
“Alright everyone,” Orion began. “Here comes ‘season two.’ it’s going to be an interesting watch, I’m sure.”
∞
Nice to hear from the Astral Lords a bit.
4140944 It sounded like some people didn't notice the purpose of them in Chapter 1, so I knew I had to clarify why there were in the story weren't just inserted just because.
YAY! Sequel!
4140948 Oskar was the one inserted into Equestria 'just because' :D
4141030 That certainly was the in-universe reason
of all people, you choose Samus?
4141050 It literally could have been anyone \/(^_^)\/
I don't know if you will create a chapter in this story to tell us of a sequel, but I will hopefully not miss it.
That would suck....
4141057 it would have intresting reactions if you put in "Legionary"
4141063 I hate self inserts
4141066 Everyone hates them.
Well... at least you finished it... which is more then I can say for some stories. Can't wait to see how the sequel builds on this story, there is a lot of stuff I'd like to see expanded upon. Ill have to look into your other story due to enjoying this one as well.
Enjoy your break,
-C
4141070 May want to wait a bit, the early chapters are unrefined and I want to rewrite those
loved this story, looking forward to the sequel
Hm...I wonder if Discord is an Astral Invader?
A brief break huh?...... Sigh... See ya in 6 months
4141073
I'll keep an eye out then.
could you at least set up the location of the next story so i can favorite it instead of going here to check if it's out ever day?
I dislike the idea of Astral Lords.
Why? What Samus said happened to her clearly demonstrates my reasons.
Will you post a "sequel up" chapter in this story when ready to notify me of the next one?
You know when a writer says something like ‘I'm just going to take a short brake’? This is how it actually reads to their followers ‘I’m Just going to stand over here, just by this precarious cliff side and lean forward for a spell. Here's hoping I can pull myself back’
Please write more, this is an absolutely great story and deserves more!
you should have him leave equestrian and go be a dragon for a bit
..... This is the best fic on the net.
4141743 Yeah a whole lot of them can be considered jackasses, it's not an excuse but most of it can be attributed to the fact they don't understand 'Dust Children' or the problems they have to deal like death for instance... most of them anyway
4141939 Hmm... no harm in it so might as well!
4142023 What I can't take like three days off from constantly writing?...
Night is one of your editors? How long have i been reading this and not took notice. By the sun im getting less observant.
4142509
I mean, having beings that can just decide your fate and you actually having no say in that is a terrifying concept to me.
I am guy who fights Destiny, so yeah.
4142509
Part of me wants to say no, but trust me; everyone who’s followed enough stories on this site felt a chill shoot up their spine when they read that authors note...
4142787 They don't, at least, not usually. They are super-powerful beings, but unless they feel like meddling, things do their own thing. Like Orion said, all he did was pluck Oskar from Earth, and put him there. He has done nothing else. The Astral Lords aren't Overlords, they don't control everything, they just go around having fun. This fun is often highly destructive and/or disruptive to regular proceedings, but what can you do when you have nigh-all-powerful beings with little maturity?
I don't even play metroid and i saw what you did there
4143505
That fun actually would ruin the life of the person that they have taken, because while Orion simply plucked Oskar from Earth, others can do different said.
4143559 Here is something I wrote to SPudRum
I think it would be kinda cool if Oskar became somewhat of an Anti-Hero or the astral lords send him into a completely new and different Equestria, one that has never heard of him and/or is different in some way. Just a suggestion
4142509
I think what More Dakka mean that some authors often used the word 'short break' as few months, not yours three days
Trust me, I read one of the author notes said short break, I haven't seen him for months
4143586
Oooohh!! Oh!!
One question dear author, is there any chance that any Astral Knights or any elder Astral Lords who ascended even further that they were called 'Astral God'? Well they are not exactly a god, its just the term they were called since they are more powerful than other Astral Lords. They have their own world they take care and they don't allow Astral Lords interfere (unless they wish).
Just asking cause I really am thrilled if there is one . Imagine there is an Astral God called himself God but his is not a god
4146120 All Astral Lords have the same potential for power, all of them. BUT the difference between a young Lord and a elder is skill, pure and simple.
4141034
Well you already show us about Astral Lords in Erika Gefallen
Although that Astral Lords are kinda bit douche though
4146101 < This...
I think 2 years is the record so far, and its still going.
4147209
Woah... now thats a record.... Who is it?
4147218
LeafBug
The guy is still on the site and answers comments / questions about the story, even though the last update was march 6 2012.
I only really remember it because 'Displaced' was the second fanfic I've ever read (the first one being article 2)
Hey, great chapters! I was wondering, have you thought about those side stories? You could put possibilities in there that didn't fit in the storyline, like a meeting between Oskar and Blueblood, or the Gray Fox humiliating Luna by reading a love letter out loud in front of a crowd. You know, just little things like that.
4149519 Possibly
Kick ass man kick ass
Best story i have ever read
This.. is REALLY impressive. Both in quality and in the dedication shown. I think this is one of the best fics I've seen on this site and eagerly hope for a sequel.
A cliffhanger ending to one of the best fanfics I've ever read. Now, a sequel?!
Great story comrade, I hope you take a well-earned break.
(Also, I'm not dead. Just got online after a month and several days. "I Live!" )
4166035 Nope, your dead. Your totally a zombie.
Metroid!!
yo your oc is lik
4172496 HOLO!
So nice to see you again! and yeah, Nightmare Knight advised me to put spaces between paragraph's but I'm not entirely sure if it actually improves upon the story