Gadget yawned and slowly stretched out her arms as she slowly woke up. Sitting up she blearily looked around to find herself in an unfamiliar location with a large red blanket draped over her. Noticing a large purple form nearby she groaned as she realized that she hadn't been dreaming and what she thought was a blanket was, in fact, a cape. Spike, now that he had taken his costume off, looked over and noticed the stirring mouse and spoke up.
“Oh, hey. You're awake. Are you feeling better now?” The blonde mouse sighed as she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, setting her head on top.
“A little, but it's going to take a while to get over it fully. I mean, it was just yesterday that I was talking to Scrat and Eyebright about our last mission while Marshmallow was making dinner for us. I don't even know what Philomena was doing that day, she loved to disappear for days at a time. But now I'm a thousand years away from them in the future.” The mouse snorted as she looked down at her hand-like paws.
“Golly, if you had asked me if I wanted to speak with you or Twilight back then I would have jumped at the chance. But after years with my friends? I would have said it wouldn't have been worth it.” The sadness she had been feeling started to return, though Spike just looked at her strangely as he rubbed his chin.
“Wait, that reminds me. How did you even know my name when you saw me? Not only was I wearing my hero disguise, but you are over a thousand years out of date. There's no way that you should have known about me.” Gadget looked up at him for a moment before sighing.
“Of course you would pick up on that. Your friends really don't give you enough credit for how smart you are, what with Twilight overshadowing you.” The young dragon glared at her for trying to divert his attention away from his question but inwardly preened at the praise.
“Well, there's no reason not to tell you. It's not like there's a point to keeping this information from you since almost all of it is irrelevant now. What do you know about the multi-verse theory?” Spike frowned at her before taking a thinking pose for a moment.
“Isn't that like how in comic books they have the heroes travel to a dimension that is like their but the opposite? Like when Flash Haydan overcast his haste spell and sent him into a universe terrorized by his opposite, Zoom Zoom?” The miniature mechanic raised an eyebrow at that and looked towards a nearby bookshelf full of comic books. But instead of them being full of superheroes, they were instead full of fantasy characters, one wearing a red tank top with a yellow lightning bolt on it. She shook her head and chuckled.
“Different universe, yet the same Spike.” The dragon looked confused at the comment, causing her to clear her throat and continue.
“Still, that is somewhat right though there is a lot more to it, but I don't feel up to going too deep into it. The short answer is that this world isn't the one I was born on. And-” She was cut off when the purple drake raised a claw in question.
“Wait, you mean you're an alien!?” Gadget looked at him for a moment before slapping a hand to her face.
“Aaaand of course that's the thing you focus on first.” Spike chuckled bashfully as he ran a clawed hand through the spines on his head.
“Eheh, well it's just that most aliens immediately tried to takeover the planet or abduct ponies. You just don't seem like the type to do that, or even be able to do that.” The diminutive being looked up at him for a moment, wondering if he was joking, before shaking her head in annoyance.
“Right, another thing to look into. Anyways, this world is actually part of a story back in my old world, or really a story within that story. In fact, this world was only a comic book in that world, which only appeared once but showed very little beyond you and the main six power ponies along with the villain Mane-iac. It just happens that those six are the main characters of the story that I know, but they lived in Ponyville while Maretropolis didn't exist from what I know. So anything that I know that matches up with the Power Ponies, like their names, will only be coincidental and knowledge of future events might as well be worthless.” Spike was silent after a moment before he asked something that came to mind that had come up earlier.
“Wait, does that mean that you know the identities of the other Power Ponies? Twilight and I are the only ones that have really started moving into the castle, which is now Power Pony HQ, but I don't think any of us know who the others are yet.” With a thoughtful frown, the blonde female scratched her head in confusion.
“Huh, I would have thought that they would have revealed their identities to each other, what with Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony bit. Unless that never happened or hasn't yet. Speaking of, how did this castle get up on top of a skyscraper? Last I knew, it was in where the Everfree forest should be, not sure if even that is around, and my tree was a good walk away from it, and especially not on top of a building.” The dragon's jaw dropped before he shook his head in wonder.
“You even know about the state secret that is the Elements!? Probably best I don't say more on that, but when Nightmare Moon returned she moved the castle up here, thinking it was where the country was ruled from. That tree was already here I think. Twilight was going on about how its root are part of the building's support structure.” The mouse blinked for a moment before looking around her at the castle walls before shaking her head.
“Yet another thing to catch up on then. It's going to take me weeks if not months to catch up. But you probably want to know how I got here, don't you?” Spike nodded causing the mouse to sigh. It had been a long time since she had thought of the event, but she still remembered what happened like it was yesterday.
vvvvvvvvvv
“Oh, that is so cute!” The young teenager let out a squee of enjoyment as she looked over the displays at the convention. This was the first time coming to one, yet she made an attempt to dress up as one of her favorite characters of all time. It was relatively simple to do as she only needed a wig and purple mechanics suit, as well as borrowing a pair of welding goggles from a friend. At the moment she was gushing over a Reepicheep plush, one of the few mice-based items for sale that she had been able to find. She always loved how cute mice were and how it was almost impossible for there to ever be one that she wasn't a fan of.
“Aww, but it's eighty dollars, but I only have fifty left.” The girl pouted as she slowly turned away from the object, a hand slowly trailing away from it as she moved. She was disappointed at not having enough for it, but she soon found something that made her forget all about it a few stalls down.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Those are perfect! I need to get those, please! How much are they?!” Her eyes were locked on a set of fluffy mouse ears of the exact color of her costume character's fur. She was so focused that she didn't even look at the man who began to chuckle at her enthusiasm.
“Ah, someone with an eye for quality. Yet, that is a part of a set, and it would go perfectly with it, I think. Forty for both sounds about fair.” His hand entered her view and gestured towards a nearby utility belt with a wrench hanging off of it. She had to admit that it would complete the mechanic look that she was trying for, yet the price was a tad high for what was basically a hairband and belt. She sighed and was about to turn away when her eyes caught sight of a book nearby. A familiar large-headed mouse on the cover caught her eye, but the title settled it for her.
“Um, how about fifty for them and that book of “Everything To Know About Brain” next to them?” The man looked down and chuckled at her offer.
“You drive a hard bargain, young lady. It's a deal.” She let out a squeal of joy as she quickly dug out the cash and handed it over. She quickly donned the ears and belt before hugging the book to her chest in glee. As she was bouncing around with her new purchases the salesman waved to her back.
“Have fun with your purchases. Try not to get stepped on by any hooves.” The girl paused in her bouncing in confusion before starting to turn back to him.
“What do you-” She was cut off as the ground fell out from her and the only thing that she saw before darkness took her was the man's brown trench-coat.
^^^^^^^^^^
“I was so focused on having fun back then that I never saw who that guy was. After that, I found myself in Equestria looking like this. At first, I thought it was all fun and games, but after a couple years alone it finally hit me that I would never see my family or friends again, especially when I realized I couldn't remember my real name.” Gadget sighed as she fingered the wrench at her hip.
“So after breaking down I joined a suicide cult, was saved by another cult, then was finally saved from there by my friends. They were inspired by what I had been doing and after I vanished, they decided to take up after what I was doing and attempted to find me. They were with me until something went wrong with my device and I was frozen in time until today.” Spike stared at her with his jaw dropped before he closed it and rubbed his chin. Looking over at the mouse he wondered just what exactly she had done to inspire them so much to try and find her.
“Well I got to say, that is a rather unique back-story. Heh, you should hear some of what got the others into the superhero business. But, what are you going to do now?” The question he asked was one that had been going through her head since she woke up. She had an idea, but one thing stuck out to her that was bothering her.
“First, I need to go back and find out just went wrong. It may have been an experimental attempt at time manipulation, but it was fully isolated from any kind of power system that would allow it to trap me for this long. It should only have been a week tops, and I triple checked those figures. That hints at something that I'd rather not think about.” Climbing to her feet she quickly began to sprint out of the room in search of her tree. She was brought up short at the door by the voice of the dragon.
“Hey, what's your name anyways? You never mentioned it throughout your entire story.” The mouse paused before straightening the goggles on her head.
“It's Gadget. Gadget Hackwrench, and I guess the last of the Rescue Rangers.” The purple biped made to follow her but was brought up short as the name fully registered.
“Nah, it couldn't be.” Shaking his head he began to chase after her once more, not noticing the figure hidden in the shadows beneath his bed.
“Well now. This is an interrrresting development. And here I thought that I was going to be borrred following the maid today.” The figure silently padded through the shadows, following after the two retreating figures.