"Star-searing flames of absolution!"
"Slit… Edge!"
Shulk and Melia's exclamations carried through the cool night air of Eryth Sea as their attacks struck the weird, crab-like creature — a Pagul, Melia had called it — visibily weakening it.
One more Sword Drive oughta do it, Reyn thought. So long as I use Berserker first, anyway. He readied the Aura, feeling its power surging through him. "Now it's Reyn Ti–"
And then his feet were no longer touching the shore, as though the ground under him had suddenly realized it was never supposed to exist, and had decided to rectify the error immediately. Reyn felt himself starting to fall to someplace unknown. In the instant before he vanished from Eryth Sea completely, as he heard Shulk yelling his name in panic, Reyn caught one last glimpse of the star-spattered sky. Then all he saw was the glare of a golden light striking a dark purple energy of some sort, shrinking it until only gloomy gray clouds remained.
Fortunately, it was only a fraction of a second before his feet hit solid ground again. Seeing as he was caught off guard, however, his legs gave way, and he fell rather painfully on his butt.
Oof, that smarts, Reyn thought as he rubbed his sore behind. Still, coulda been worse, I suppose. Looks like I only fell a few feet.
He clambered up to a sitting position and discovered that he seemed to be on top of a building of some sort, although it looked significantly different from any he'd seen in Colony Nine or Six — in fact, the same was true for any nearby buildings he could see as well. The walls were smoother, the colours more vibrant, and even the basic architecture seemed subtly more advanced. No way was all this built by Homs. I'd almost think it was made by High Entia, 'cept it's not all white and round. Reyn pondered a moment. Where on Bionis is this? A thought struck him. Actually, am I even on the Bionis anymore?
A flicker of movement in the corner of his eye made him turn and see a large group of people gathered around a yard — but while they had the same body shape as a Homs, their legs looked a little too long compared to the rest of their bodies, their eyes were huge, and their skin was every colour imaginable. Not only that, but there was a giant hole in the ground, glowing violet and cyan, that seemed to open to yet another strange world. Above the hole, two of the not-Homs floated in the air, one enshrouded in golden light and the other in a dark atmosphere. Both had massive wings and long horns.
Okay, definitely not on Bionis anymore.
Still, weird as they were, these people were his best chance of finding out where he was. Looking around, he spotted a hatch on the roof, and dropped through it to get inside the strange building.
He found his way through the corridors and stairs with fairly little trouble, and eventually reached the transparent front doors. By then, the light show had ended, and the ground just looked like normal ground. He made to step through the doors, but paused when he saw his reflection in the glass. As he inspected his reflection, Reyn found he now possessed the strange features of the people here; his eyes were at least twice as big as they used to be, and his limbs were much thinner. He even had bright orange skin. Reyn tried to avoid panicking. Don't lose your head now, he told himself. I need to find a way back to Shulk and the others. With a deep breath, he walked out the doors.
Immediately, Reyn was startled by the absurd proportions of a woman just outside. Her legs take up two thirds of her height! Nevertheless, this was no time to gawk. "Excuse me, Ma'am? Could you tell me where I am?"
The woman turned around to face him. "Oh, hello! Why, this is Canterlot High School… although I'm slightly confused as to how you got all the way inside without knowing that. Actually, now that I look at you, I don't believe I recognize you," she said, "and you're not wearing a Crystal Prep uniform either." She held out her hand. "Let me introduce myself; my name is Luna, and I am the Vice Principal here. Now, who are you, if you don't mind me asking, and exactly how did you get here?"
"I'm Reyn." He shook her hand. "I haven't a clue how I got here, though. One minute, I was at Eryth Sea with my friends, and now all of a sudden I'm here."
"Curious. I don't recall ever hearing about a place by that name." Luna thought for a moment, and then her eyes flew wide open. "You didn't come through the portals, did you?"
"The what?"
Luna hesitated, as if unsure whether she should divulge any more information. However, her desire to help seemed to win out, and she elaborated, "Did you enter the interdimensional portals that appeared just ten minutes or so ago? They were created by a student who was temporarily possessed by very powerful magic. Another student sealed them soon after, but it's possible you could've passed through within that interval."
Reyn thought back to the strange lights he had seen as he fell into this confusing world. "Yeah, that sounds like it makes sense."
"So you are from this… 'Equestria'?"
"What? No. I'm from the Bionis."
"Hmm… odd. Well, maybe it's best if I simply take you to meet the girls. They understand this 'magic' thing far better than I do; perhaps they can help illuminate the matter." She started walking and said, "Follow me."
Reyn obliged, and soon enough, he and Luna came upon a group of seven girls standing next to what he guessed was the pedestal of a destroyed statue, all seemingly around his age (as best as he could tell, anyway — it was harder to estimate what with them clearly not being Homs).
"Girls?" Luna called to them, causing them to interrupt whatever conversation they'd been having and turn to face her. "It seems this young man passed through one of the portals just now." This elicited shocked faces from the group, but before anyone could respond, Luna continued, "However, he claims he's not from the 'Equestria' you mentioned previously, but rather a different world altogether — one called…" she turned back to Reyn, "what was it?"
"Bionis."
"Yes, that. Now, due to the events that took place today, my sister and I have a great deal of paperwork to fill now, so I must take my leave. I am counting on all of you to assist him to the best of your abilities."
"Understood," said a red-and-gold-haired girl.
"Thank you," Luna said. Then she walked away, headed for the inside of the building.
The redhead said to Reyn, "I am so sorry for this. I should've made sure no one was in the wrong world before I closed the portals."
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry," said a glasses-wearing girl with purple skin. "I'm the one who created those things in the first place."
Reyn shook his head. "It's all good. Just help me get back to my friends. I'm Reyn, by the way."
The redhead nodded. "My name is Sunset Shimmer, and these are Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity," she said, indicating each person in turn, "and Rainbow Dash."
As Reyn turned to face the final girl, their eyes met and he felt like his heart exploded. It was then that he knew: it was true love.
"I love you," he said.
"I love you too," she responded, and they rushed into each other's arms.
Fluttershy fidgeted. "Umm… is… is it just me, or was that a little… fast?"
"Oh please, Fluttershy," Rarity answered. "Everyone knows that in any love story between a man and a woman, all you need to do is show the prospective couple share half a second of screen time, and all the straight people in the audience will be completely convinced."
As Reyn and Rainbow Dash cradled each other in a passionate embrace, however, a cruel truth struck them both, like a twisted bolt of divine understanding.
"We cannot be," Rainbow woefully stated.
"I know it too, my love," responded Reyn.
"Wait, what? Why?" Twilight inquired, frazzled. "Why is everything happening so fast? Can somebody please explain what the heck is going on here?"
"Nope!" Pinkie cheerily clarified.
"Why not?"
"Because the author really wanted to make this story two chapters long so he could do a fancy quote thing with the chapter titles, but then he procrastined for almost five months, and now his deadline's coming up, so he has to put an awkward cliffhanger here and then end the chapter!" the pink teenager elucidated.
"Oh," the lavender not-unicorn despondently sighed.
And then the chapter ended.