Spider in Equestria

by DarkSpider


32. Fiery Reception

(Third Person POV, Canterlot Castle Dining Room)

The group were all sitting by the table of the dining room, with the Royal Sisters having come to join them.

“Wow…” Shining Armor said with wide eyes. “You've had quite a life here.”

Dark nodded as his daughter was napping on his lap, having fallen asleep while he was explaining his time as a Displaced. “And it's still pretty early in my life.” He then looked to his cousin. “So how was your time in Equis?”

Elizabeth shrugged. “Not nearly as crazy as you two.”

“Well it must be interesting if you're a guard in training and already know about Displaced. So, go ahead.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Fine. It starts in the Crystal Empire, where I woke up in one of the rooms in the palace. I was...rather surprised when I woke up…”


(Crystal Palace, several weeks ago)

Elizabeth began to wake up after suddenly falling unconscious for no known reason. After opening her eyes, she discovered that she was in a rather nice looking room, covered in crystals. Before she could notice anything else, she heard a door open and heard a male voice.

“Oh, you're awake. That's good.”

Turning towards the voice, Eli saw a yellowish orange creature with matching wings sticking out of his back and blue hair sticking out of a helmet. After processing that, Elizabeth screamed and flailed her arms before getting stuck on her blanket and falling on the floor.


“Hey, stop laughing,” Eli said, her cheeks red with embarrassment as her cousins and Screwball were laughing at her reaction while everyone else chuckled.

“I-I'm sorry Eli,” Dark said as he started to calm down. “It's just… I didn't expect you to freak out that bad just by looking at somepony. Heck, I didn't even freak out like that when I went face to face with a timberwolf.”

“Well excuse me. Not like I knew I had powers at the time, or that he was a friendly.”

“So what happened after you fell off the bed,” Cece snickered.

“Well he went to get Cadance and Shining while I was getting up.”


After Elizabeth got her blanket off her and got up from the floor, she started to properly look at herself, noticing that she was still dressed up as Blaze, but looked different. She was shorter than before, and her hands and feet seemed bigger. The last thing she noticed was a long purple tail behind her.

“What happened to me?” She muttered before grasping at her throat, realizing her voice was different.

As she was trying to figure that out, Cadance and Shining approached her room, with a pink foal with blue eyes, smiling in Cadance's arms. When they reached the room, they saw Eli staring at herself, confused.

“Well, glad to see you're fine,” Cadance said.

When Eli heard her, she turned around and saw them. Her eyes widened in fear and she stepped back. “S-stay back!”

Cadance gave the foal to Shining before walking slowly to Elizabeth. “Calm down. We aren't gonna hurt you.”

“Where am I? What are you?”

“You're at the Crystal Empire,” Shining replied. “As for what we are, we're ponies.”

Cadance nodded. “I'm Princess Cadance. This here is my husband Shining Armor. And the foal is our daughter Flurry Heart.” The baby, as if on cue, happily said some gibberish as if to greet her. “What's your name?”

“Elizabeth,” Eli replied, starting to calm down. “How did I get here?”

Shining shrugged. “We don't know. We just found you knocked out in the middle of the street a few days ago. Since you looked like you needed help, we took you here and waited to see when you'd wake up.”

“What happened before you fell unconscious?” Cadance asked her.

Elizabeth shrugged. “I was just at some convention with my sister before we met some vendor selling some things. I bought a crystal he offered and she got some plushie. Next thing I know, I fall asleep and wake up here.”

“Well you can stay here as long as you need,” Cadance said reassuringly while placing a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder.

Elizabeth blinked. “Seriously? You'd just let some random person that you never even met stay at your place just like that?”

“Of course. Why not?”

Eli stared at her for a moment before shaking your head. “People around here must be pretty nice for you to be that trusting.”

“People?” The couple asked.

Eli blinked. “Um...yeah. People. You know, like the plural of person?”

“Can't say I ever heard that word in my life,” Cadance said, with Shining nodding in agreement.

Eli stood silent for a moment. After some hesitation, she said, “What planet is this?”

“Equis of course,” Shining said.

Elizabeth blinked. “Welp, that explains it.”

“What?”

“I'm in an alien world. And I can't be dreaming because I can't possibly come up with something this insane.” She said as she sat down by the wall.

“Wait, what do you mean?” Cadance said as she sat down next to Eli.

“I'm not from here. I'm from a world called Earth. And if I'm right, I'm not even the same species.”

Shining frowned. “So you aren't usually a bipedal cat?”

“Well that just confirms my suspicions,” Eli muttered. She then said, “No, I'm not. So to sum it up, I'm an alien who turned into a videogame character and now I'm in a world with horse people.”

“Actually we're ponies,” Cadance said. “Horses are in Saddle Arabia.”

Eli rose an eyebrow. “I'm sorry, did you say Saddle Arabia?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Nothing, nothing…”

“Well, my offer still stands. You can stay here as long as you like.”

Elizabeth stood silent for a few moments. “You're serious about this?” She asked again.

“Of course. From what I can understand, you need help. And we're happy to provide it.”

Eli gave a small smile. “Thanks. I...thanks.”

“Don't mention it,” Shining replied as Flurry was starting to nod off in his arms.

Cadance then stood up. “Come on, let's go get breakfast.”

Elizabeth nodded before getting back up and following them out of her room.


“And that's pretty much my first day,” Eli finished. “Later on I met a unicorn called Sunburst and learned that he's basically Flurry's babysitter.”

“Yeah, I know of him,” Dark replied. “Old friend of Starlight's. If I recall correctly, he's a smart guy, but doesn't have the magical power to do many of the things he read about.”

“Plus he helped fixed the Crystal Heart when Flurry broke it from crying,” Screwball said.

Elizabeth stared at the filly in shock. “She did what?”

Screwball nodded. “Yup. Before Sunburst gave Shining and Cadance here some spell to nerf her, she was crazy powerful. Dangerously so. Heck, a simple sneeze had her shoot a laser through several floors.”

“How do you know tha-” Shining started.

“I'm the daughter of Discord and I have chaos magic of my own,” Screwball said proudly. “Do you really think I don't have a way of learning about crazy stuff that happened before I was made?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Well makes me happy I showed up after all that then.”

“So nothing happened besides that?” Starlight asked.

“Not really. At least, until recently.”

“And yet you knew about Displaced by the time you came here,” Luna stated. “I take it that means you met one yourself?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah. A few weeks ago. Though it wasn't as eventful as the encounters Tito had.”

“Still, if you wouldn't mind, we'd like to hear it,” Celestia said.

“Okay then.”


(Crystal Palace, 3 weeks ago)

Elizabeth was wandering around the palace, looking for someone to talk to since none of the guards didn't seem very good in conversations most of the time. During her walk, she discovered a sword laying on the floor. Looking around, she noticed nobody was around. With a shrug, she approached the sword and noticed that it had a silver blade and a black hilt with a picture of the moon at the end of the hilt. When Eli picked it up, she immediately heard a voice in her head.

“My name is Ladon, servent the royal sisters of another world and caretaker of the old code. If ye seek mine help, kinship, or if thou desire to know what had happened to thyself, then ye must repeat those words after me. ‘A knight is sworn to valour, His heart knows only virtue, His blade defends the helpless, His might upholds the weak, His word speaks only truth, His wrath undoes the wicked.’” A strong, deep voice echoed in her mind.

Elizabeth blinked in confusion before looking around again. Finding no one, she decided to take a chance. “Okay then…” After clearing her throat, she repeated the words that she heard.

At the moment after she spoke the swords, wind started to softly pick up blowing through the hallways. She noticed a small orb that began to slowly expand in front of her and soon exploded into a swirling vortex of energy. Slowly, a scaled claw was the first thing to come out of it before a large creature walked through, revealing itself to be a bronze dragon with scaled plates along it belly. It looked around the hallway before its orange eyes landed on Elizabeth.

Eli backed up a couple of feet, staring at the dragon in disbelief, unable to say anything due to both shock and fear.

“Hold, friend. I mean thou no harm…” The dragon spoke. In size comparison to the anthro cat, he was quite a big dragon that was taller than Celestia’s height only by a few feet.


“Wait, how can you know that when you never even met Celestia before today?” Cece asked, interrupting the story.

“Cadance told me about her a few times during my stay,” Elizabeth replied. “Now do you want me to continue or not?”

Cece rolled her eyes but stood silent.

“Good. Now no more interruptions until I'm done.”


“You can talk?” Eli asked in shock before something crossed her mind. “Wait, why do you talk in old English?”

“That I can’t explain, it was just something forced upon me years ago.” The dragon explained as the portal closed behind him.

“Okay…?” Eli said. Before she can say anything else, her ears perked up as she heard some hoof steps. Turning to the sound, she saw Shining and Cadance coming towards her.

“Eli, what's going-what in Tartarus?!” Shining said, only then noticing the dragon a few feet away.

“I think I just invited a dragon here…” Eli said, confused.

“How?” Shining asked.

“Through summoning,” The dragon simply answered as he pointed with his paw at the sword in Eli’s hand.

“Summoning?” Shining asked.

“I honestly didn't know this would happen if I said a few words that a sword said,” Eli said.

“Word of advice, you should be careful what you say when you find something that talks,” Cadance told her. “You never know what trouble can come if you say the wrong thing to an item with dark magic.”

Shining nodded before looking at the dragon. “So what do you want?”

“As mine token hath told her; kinship, answers, or help with whatever she needs,” The dragon said before looking at Eli. “Surely thou didn’t do it out of curiosity despite what the sword hadst said?”

Elizabeth chuckled nervously and avoided everyone's gazes as she said, “I kinda did really…”

“If, however my presence is causing any issues, she can send me back home by saying ‘your contract is complete’” The dragon said as he looked around the halls.

“Who exactly are you?” Eli asked. “And what exactly are you talking about?”

“I suppose I am the first Displaced you’ve met then,” The dragon said as he bowed his head slightly. “Mine name,” He said before placing his paw onto his chest. ”Is Ladon. What thou hold in your hand is called a token; an object that can summon the owner. It is one of millions across the multiverse, each one can summon a different Displaced.”

Shining Armor tilted his head in confusion. “Huh?”

“Multiverse?” Eli asked. “Like in comics?”

“Pretty much. Let’s just say that everything thou know in comics, anime, video games, everything fictional is now a reality. You, for example.” Ladon said as he gently sat down onto the stone floor, causing his necklace with a sword to sway. Upon closer look, Elizabeth noticed it looks exactly the same as the one she is holding, except the one Ladon had was bigger.

“I kind of figured that, considering I'm now a videogame character in a world of magic ponies and a country with an artifact that can weaponize love.” Eli then blinked. “Wait a minute. You mean there are others? Like me?”

“Exactly,” Ladon responded with a nod. “I ended up becoming… well, some sort of hybrid of the dragons from the dragonheart series.”

“The what series?”

“Dragonheart. It's a movie series involving dragons and knights. I’d rather not delve deep and give ye information as we’d be here all day.” Ladon said with a small frown.

“Then do you know what exactly happened to us?” Eli asked.

“It’s a different experience for everyone though. For me? It was a necklace I bought from a pawnshop; beautiful lil trinket of a dragon’s heart. But when I put it on is when everything changed… By Celestia’s mane, was it a hectic and painful transformation..” Ladon said as he shook his head at the memory. “From what I’ve learned from other Displaced is that they’re all connected with buying an item, sometimes it's about meeting some powerful being while other items it happens out of the blue with no explanation.”

“So this happens a lot?” Cadance asked, saddened. “People getting their lives stolen by someone and forced to be taken from their loved ones?”

“It would appear so; don’t forget the part where some of them hath been forced to take on a different forms. Some of their minds hath been injected with information or instincts when it comes to their powers both mentally and physically while others had to learn the hard way. Despite what has happened to them, alot of them that I’ve met chose to try and find happiness to replace what they’ve lost.”

“I can understand that,” Eli said with a shake to her head. “So these Displaced all ended up scattered across the multiverse?”

“Exactly what is that?” Cadance asked.

“From what I heard, basically an infinite number of universes out there with just about every possibility,” Elizabeth explained. “A popular one is everyone being the moral opposite, good is evil and vice versa. And another is everyone being the opposite gender.”

“As Cadance said before, be careful of whom thou summon.” Ladon said said a nod. “In a way, you are a guard at the gate as you decide who should come and should not.”

“And how do I know who to summon and who not to?”

“Each one hath a different method of summon, usually with a message, a keyword, a function. As long as you speak or use any of their methods, they will and come appear. You spoke the words of mine token and hath sworn to oath. As long as you uphold it, you will forever have my trust and mine friendship.” Ladon said.

Shining blinked. “That doesn't really answer the question. That's how she summons one, not how to know who she should trust.”

“Forgive me. That part will be up to thine own judgement; you can always send them away quickly if they hold any ill intentions. Most of them cannot ignore the rules of the Displaced.” Ladon explained.

“Well that's good to know,” Eli said with an eyeroll. She then lifted up the sword she had, which she only just realized was smaller than before. “So this is how I summoned you, right?”

“When ye spoke the words, yes.” Ladon said as he turned his neck to look at Eli.

“And what did you call this? A token?”

“Yes.” He simply answered

“Care to explain what that is? I doubt it works the same as an arcade token.”

Ladon let out a soft chuckle. “I didn’t make the rules, it’s what I’ve been taught. It’s mostly a name to present it differently. For example, the one around my neck is not the same as the one in thy hands. Yours can summon me while the one I have is the original design I based the token on; it’s only enchantment is that I can hear your words when you speak to the sword. Think of it like a long ranged walky-talky, except a lot more clear in sound quality.” he explained.

“Good to know,” She said, examining the sword. “So any Displaced can make a token and others can summon them with it?”

“Yes, but of course an extra precaution can be applied in case the one that summons is one you cannot trust. When another Displaced has your token and summons ye, thou cannot return to thine home until they say the words.” Ladon explained as he held up a clawed finger. “Much like my own so that if someone breaks the oath after speaking it, it will undo the summon and send me home.”

“I'll remember that.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Cadance asked.

“Yes, while Displaced are forced to obey the rules, there are some who have gotten powerful enough to overcome them and thus, they are able to travel through the void and go to any world they come across. Hopefully, none of them will come to your world.” Ladon explained.

“Yeah, last thing we need is someone who makes Sombra look like a better alternative,” Shining muttered.

“Anything else to know?” Eli asked, wanting to stay on topic.

“Only one thing I’ve discovered. The sword appears to change after the user picks it up, I’m not sure if it’s a side effect of the void or a mistake on my part...” Ladon said slightly puzzle.

“Change how?”

Ladon points at the sword around his neck, then at Eli’s sword. “See the size difference?” he asked.

Eli nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“It changed size when you picked it up.” Ladon said, sounding a little annoyed that Eli was failing to understand.

Eli gave a deadpan expression. “Oh really?” She said sarcastically. “I just thought I grew a foot to be able to hold this properly.” She sighed. “Not really an important detail compared to everything else you said.”

“The void and the Displaced take a while to understand since their powers ignore any form of logic other than the rules their powers must apply to.” Ladon said as he places his hand onto his chest.

“Someone who has the power to ignore all forms of logic?” Shining asked. “Sounds like someone we know about,” he said to Cadance, with his wife nodded in response.

“So is that everything?” Eli asked.

“Yes, for now.” Ladon said as she slowly laid down like a cat, being careful not to knock anything over.

Eli sighed. “Okay then. Ladon, your contract is complete.” With those word spoke, a portal opened up from under Ladon, allowing his body to sink into it like it was quicksand.

“Remember, you can summon me anytime you need help.” Ladon said before he was gone from their world.

After he left, Eli looked down at the token. After a few moments, Cadance said, “Why didn't you ask how to make a token?”

“Because if I'm gonna be summoned by anyone, I'd rather be prepared,” Elizabeth explained.

“What do you mean?”

Eli looked at Shining. “You think you can help me learn how to use this? I wasn't the one who took up swordplay back home.”

“You know someone who did?” Shining asked.

Eli nodded. “My...cousin. He always loved sword fighting. Told me he even started learning it last time I spoke to him.” She said, her ears lowering as she thought about her family.

Shining nodded. “Sure, I'll help train you how to use a sword.”

“Thanks.” After a deep breath, she gave them a determined look. “I'm ready when you are.”

The couple smiled. “First, let's have some lunch,” Cadance offered.

“Okay.” With that, the three left.


“And after that, I started getting sword lessons and Shining decided to train to become a guard not long after,” Elizabeth finished.

“Huh,” Dark said. “Compared to my experiences in summoning Displaced, that is rather peaceful.”

“Like I said, nowhere near as exciting as any of yours.”

After a moment of silence, Celestia stood up. “Well, it's getting late. I'll be heading off to bed. Hope you all have a good night. And I'll see you tomorrow for the friendship summon Twilight.”

“Of course Princess,” Twilight said.

“I guess I should be off too,” Luna said as she got up. “I have my own duties to attend to after all. Farewell to you. And it was a pleasure meeting you Elizabeth.” With that, the Sisters left the room.

Cadance sighed. “Well, I guess we should get going.” As she and Shining got up, they were surprised that Elizabeth got up as well. “Eli, where are you going?”

“With you guys,” the feline said.

“Why?” Shining asked. “Wouldn't you wanna stay with Dark and Cece?”

“Well I still need to finish my training. And now that I know my cousins are here, I have more of a reason to finish.”

Starlight chuckled. “Well good luck.”

“Oh, before you go,” Dark said before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone. He then looked to his purple friend. “Twilight?”

The princess gave a small smile before performing the spell on the phone. When that was done, Dark placed Bri on his seat before giving the phone to Eli.

“What was that about?” Eli asked.

“A simple spell that means this phone won't die. As for the phone, it's so the 3 of us can stay in touch.”

Eli smiled before pulling him to her height and giving him a hug. “Good luck Tito.”

Dark chuckled as he returned the embrace. “You too Eli.”

After separating from him, Eli gave Cece a quick hug. During that, Cece whispered something to Eli's ear, causing the older Displaced to look at her in shock, to which Cece gave a simple nod. Elizabeth then looked at Dark before snickering to herself.

Eli then followed Shining and Cadance out of the room, giving a final wave to the others. When she caught up with the couple in the hallway, Cadance asked, “So what's so funny?”

“Let's just say Cece gave me some news that is very surprising but welcomed if you know Tito,” Eli said.

“Well I'm glad to see you in such a good mood.”

Eli simply nodded, glad that she wasn't as alone in that new world as she thought.