//------------------------------//
// Epilogue - Friendship is Magic 
// Story: Cause, Effect, and Consequences 
// by Coltsguy 
//------------------------------//

"So... what is his name?"

"Shimoda Daisuke. I guess it's Daisuke Shimoda if you prefer English style naming."

"Kinda yeah. And what's his deal?"

"Naruto crossover with the game called Fallout 3."

"Eh, I never really played any of the Fallout games. So does that explain why he looks like... that?" I asked with a hand wave.

"Yep. Low charisma apparently warps how you look to everyone."

"Is it-, er, is he an S.I.?"

"Yeah. Reincarnation style. He's revealed some of his abilities but has told them it's a new bloodline."

I laughed a quick laugh at that.

"So Naruto bloodline bullshit at it's finest eh? Sounds appropriate."

"Not quite right, but still close enough. He'd fail the test right now despite how damn smart he's becoming, but then again he'd only be getting an underling position to me anyway and I doubt he'd want it."

"Yeah. I haven't had anyone even approach what they need in MLP right now. It's just me right now. Then again almost none of them think about it anyway. It's all wish fulfillment most of the time."

"You still down for a trade?"

"Damn skippy. Your only the second guy I've found interested in a straight trade. Everyone else wants favors. You have any idea what the guy in charge of Kill la Kill asked for?"

"That's pretty much how it is. You know that. You've been around for, what a few years?"

"Something like that," I said as I reached out my hand with a blue glow around it. My new buddy did the same with his hand glowing in a burnt orange aura. With a shake of each others hand a small bit of solid energy the size of a grain of sand materialized in each of our hands as we pulled them back.

"Thanks man. You and the guy from One Piece are the only cool guys I've found."

"Lucky Rick? Yeah, he's pretty laid back since One Piece is all about adventure."

He looked back to the side and I traced his gaze back to the centerpiece of this variance in Daisuke. Yeah, just watching him around with the entire rookie nine screamed of this somehow being ham-fisted. Eh, magnetic presence at its best. Not going to get any closer after seeing Naruto use his signature jutsu earlier. Might bump into him by accident. Oh now Daisuke's casting jutsu. Earth style there... Wait, was that fucking Storm release? Oh you fucking hax piece of shit. That off-setting appearance only grants you so much.

...Aaaand some goddamned fireworks. There's showing off and then there's this. I think I've seen enough.

"I think I've seen enough. I'm pretty sure there's some new works I have to help along by now."

"Sure go on man. I've got to make one with the demon realm invading Konoha soon anyway."

"...I'm going to ask to see that one later."

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. "It's pretty much clickbait since it's a High School DxD crossover."

"Now I definitely want to see that."

I chuckled to myself and after a wave goodbye I layered a portal along the ground and jumped in; closing it behind me. I was instantly back in Equestria standing inside the run down site of the Castle of the Two Sisters. There was a deviation coming up from canon where some idiot is going to appear in front of the beam meant for Nightmare Moon in a few days. A wave of my hand, a little bit of concentration and the beginnings of a spatial fissure were set in place. Soon this would lead to a new timeline that this hapless idiot would find himself in.

This was what I pretty much did nowadays. All of the multiverse was actually both simple and complicated at the same time. It's pretty much changes in cosmic background radiation patterns and the quantum wave-function both collapsing and not collapsing at the same time in the same way as the Schrödenger's Cat thing. Look that up if you don't what that is.

You know what? Now might be as good of a time as any to say that since I know that everything can be a story from somewhere then you should know that I'm typing this from some alternate timeline of my home in case it can be read elsewhere. Weird isn't it? It makes this more of an autobiography about a certain time in my life, but I'm posting it on some fiction site called ponytales.com.

Funny story about that. Ducktales, the old cartoon, was really popular here. As such when My Little Pony was rebooted here someone remembered a line from the theme song for that and used it to make a fanfiction site using the line. It became damn popular because of the fringe association and expanded into a larger site with all kinds of extensions and galleries and what not. Just some trivia for you I guess.

Anyways, since that cat is out of the bag I'll get back on track. I had seen quite a lot of shit now. Anywhere from Cupcakes to My Little Dashie and all the rainbows and dark clouds in between. I was especially digging the T.D. series lately that had this guy who wasn't a brony. Any sort of thing was possible. Okay... almost any sort of thing was possible. The reason the universe existed or why they could end up as fully human were things I was capable of creating. However, I was unable to go back and make them interact with other universes of my own volition. It had to be of the will of the person who created the universe in question. I can make up my own universe from a deviation of this one... which I kind of did once...where I made a human version of Equestria with every female willingly turned into my harem. But anyway!

I did end up making an alternate timeline so I could keep in touch with them. The timing was pretty clutch too. Well, in so far as it could be anyway. I showed up a few days before Tirek, the giant dick, showed up. I almost messed up the whole thing, but in the end it was a net positive because I saved the library! Too bad it made a bit of a conflict for Twilight when that crystal castle was formed.

Anyway, I'm still glad I did end up splitting off a new timeline to spend time with them. I think it was something that I needed to do to feel better in general. I hadn't returned home other than to leave a note that I was leaving and for quite a while I just did my job while living in that cabin which I kept separated from reality and that meant I didn't talk with anyone other than the man, I think it was a man, that stopped by every once in a while to make sure I wasn't messing up somehow. I wouldn't even know how and he would never tell me.

What I did find out, and what I think is the most interesting part of the job, is what I called the referral system. Those six stories I visited while in Equestria still had me in them. I would've thought that they would be adjusted in some manner to either get rid of me or change it to make someone else appear as me. I was wrong. If at any time either someone in my position or something that is considered a ROB is placed within a story then we are considered invited into that universe without anything stating that we are prohibited. That means that if I am mentioned in another fiction piece I can choose to go there or, if I don't really care for it, send a proxy of myself in my place.

I've honestly only taken that liberty just recently. I used it to go and hang out with Ember back in the Danny Phantom work. I've been demonstrating rock songs to her in order to increase her musical repertoire. Well, only songs that didn't exist in that timeline though. Ghosts can apparently get sued there. Vlad Masters really was a dickweed.

All the people, ghosts, and ponies I knew closely now were thanks to the lesson I learned that the show preached most of all: friendship is magic. It means that when you find that friend who takes the time to tell you how it is, who will help pick you up when you hit the ground, who will pay for the pizza sometimes, who will share a chuckle at things you find funny, and who will have your back when others won't then you've found a true friend. That's what I've found here in Equestria. It's something I will treasure for all my days.

.........Pinkie Promise.