//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: A Tale of Two Witties 
// Story: Caverns & Cutie Marks: High School, High Stakes 
// by TheColtTrio 
//------------------------------//

“Um, Sunset?”
Sunset looked back from the gap in the hedges that surrounded Crystal Prep at Fluttershy. “What’s up?”
“Well, uh, isn’t what we’re doing kind of… bad?”
“What, spying on someone?”
“Yeah.”
“Probably. But from what Scilight told us, this version of Wits could be the most dangerous of the three boys.”
“You don’t actually think he build any kind of dangerous robots, do you?”
Sunset sighed as she turned her attention back to the school. “We’ve already had one egghead try to take over-slash-destroy the world. At this point, I’d be willing to believe Witstang is a member of an underground organization fighting aliens.”
“Don’t you think that’s overreacting a bit?” Fluttershy flinched back at the look of disbelief Sunset shot her. “Right. Sometimes I forget that ridiculous is normal for us.”
The girls fell silent. Inside the school, they could hear the bell chime, signalling the end of club activities. “I thought Scilight said Witstang wasn’t in any clubs,” Sunset said. “If he’s such a shut-in, why are we here instead of wherever he lives?”
“Twilight said he uses the metal shop and computer labs until the end of club,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe he’s working on some sort of project with teachers?”
“Or building robots.”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to disagree, but closed it after realizing that this was a version of Wits End they were talking about. “Um, why isn’t Wits End here helping us? I thought the rest of the girls were going to have the boys help them check on their alternate selves.”
“He said he had something else to take care of.” Sunset sighed again, this time in irritation. “Something about getting a text on the smartphone he’s been messing with. After I helped him to clean up the gym, too.” She made a ‘tch’ noise. “It’s like he goes out of his way to be unhelpful.”
“I’m sure he’s just being shy in his own way,” Fluttershy mused. “A lot of boys have trouble talking to girls when they’re teenagers.”
Sunset stopped, and slowly turned back to Fluttershy. “Are you suggesting that Wits End is being such a pain in the flank because he’s going through puberty?”
Fluttershy made a soft ‘eep’ and blushed. “W-well, I mean…”
“...It does make sense,” Sunset grumbled. “Human teenagers are more of a pain than colts. At least with colts, you can get them paired off with a filly via a potion, and then they’re somepony else’s problem.”
“It’s a little weird to hear you talk about humans and horses like that… Weird, and a little disturbing.”
“There he is!”
The girls leaned in, keeping themselves hidden behind the hedgerow as they watched the mint-colored teenager who had just exited the school. “Wow,” Sunset whispered. “Twilight wasn’t kidding about his hair.”
“I think it’s longer than mine is,” Fluttershy whispered back. “If it was untangled, that is.”
“It’s a good thing Rarity isn’t here.”
“Yeah.” The girls darted around a corner as Witstang neared the gates, keeping the hedges between them and him. “Where do you think he’s going?” Sunset asked.
“Home?” Fluttershy answered. “Unless he has an after-school job.”
“Guess we’ll just have to follow him.” Sunset waited until he was walking away from them, then stood up.
Fluttershy balked. “O-oh, maybe you should do that alone. I-I’d probably just draw attention to us.”
“Relax. It’s easy. Just do what I do.” Sunset slid her hands into the pockets of her jacket and started walking.
Fluttershy fidget for a moment, then took a breath to calm herself. “Sunset?” she said after moment.
“Yeah?” Sunset stopped and glanced back, keeping one eye on their target.”
“I don’t have any pockets…”
Sunset sighed. “Just… Come on.” She walked back and grabbed Fluttershy by the wrist, pulling her along to follow Witstang. “Here, take out your phone and act like you’re reading texts.”
“Oh, okay.” Fluttershy did as she was told, glancing up every so often to check where she was walking, and on where Witstang was. “How do you know how to do this kind of stuff?”
“Back when I was a villain, I spent a lot of time tailing students to get blackmail material. I got pretty good at it, as you can imagine.”
“Oh. Well, at least those skills are being put to good use.” 
“At least something from back then is.” Sunset frowned as she watched Witstang make a turn around a corner. “Where’s he going? There’s no residential areas down that way. Does he have a job in some parking garage by the stadium?”
Fluttershy thought for a moment. “There’s the park down that way too.”
“Park? Isn’t the park up north from here?”
“The city park is, but there’s a smaller park down here by Crystal Prep that was funded by some of the alumni. A lot of the sculptures there were designed by alumni too.”  Fluttershy looked up from her phone to see Sunset staring at her. “The shelter I work at does some work for the animals down here too.”
“I never cease to be amazed at how coincidence works in our favor.” Sunset muttered as they rounded the corner. “Where did he go…”
Fluttershy pointed with her free hand. “There, in the playground!”
“What’s he doing by the… weird… dome thing?”
“I think it’s supposed to be a jungle gym.”
“...Really?”
“Like I said, it was designed by Crystal Prep alumni...” Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. “It looks like there’s someone else there with Witstang.”
Sunset peered harder at the structure. “You’re right,” she said. “Looks like a girl and…” Her eyes went wide at the same moment Fluttershy’s did. “Wits End?” they both exclaimed.


* * *	


Meanwhile, a few minutes ago...
Wits End found himself standing next to a hole-filled dome-like structure in the park. Earlier, he had received a text on the mysterious smartphone telling him to find the “Dome of Silence” at a street address. “‘Silence’ my rear end…” he muttered. He waited for a moment, then rapped his knuckles against the side of the dome.
“What’s the password?” The voice that came from inside wasn’t deep enough to be a grown man’s, but the reverb coming from inside of the dome was give Wits pause.
“Uh… Jeff?” he asked. “Swordfish? Jeff the Swordfish? Admin?”
“...Close enough,” the voice responded, “Come in quickly, and make sure you’re not spotted.”
Wits glanced around. The park was mostly deserted, and people walking by didn’t seem to care. The holes in the dome were big enough for him to fit through if he kept his elbows and shoulders tucked in. “Yare yare daze,” he muttered, sliding in feet first.
The inside was more cramped than Wits End had expected, so he was forced to bend over slightly. Seated cross-legged along the side across from him was a girl around his current age. Most of her face was obscured by a hoodie, but the part that was visible, along with her hands, was a light red, almost pink, color. “You are late,” she stated in a flat, emotionless voice, “Resistance Member 003.”
“I got here early,” Wits shot back.
“Any Resistance Member who arrives after the Mystery Lord is late by simple definition.”
Wits dropped into a cross-legged position as well. “Who are you?” He raised a finger. “And if you say ‘Mystery Lord Kibarashi’, I’m going straight back out that hole and back home.”
“Using our true names is dangerous-”
“Wrong answer. See ya.”
“W-wait!” The girl grabbed onto his arm with a surprising grip, her voice wavering before she coughed and recovered. “I’ll tell you, but you can’t repeat it to anyone. Millions will be in peril if the Othersiders learn of my true identity.”
Wits thought for a moment before sitting back down. “Fine. What’s your name?”
With a grin, the girl shot to her feet. “I am know in this world as Mys-” With a heavy bang, the top of her head ran into the sloped ceiling of the dome, causing her to drop back down with both hands on her head. “Ow…”
Oh no, Wits End thought, his mouth forming a thin line. She’s an idiot.
The girl’s hood had been forced back partially by her concussion, revealing short, curly red hair with a shock of white. Over her left eye, she wore a black cloth eye patch embroidered with a stylized eye. “Am I bleeding?” she asked, all pretence of emotionlessness abandoned as she parted her hair for Wits to investigate.
“Looks like your head is fine,” he said. “At least on the outside.”
She chuckled, then winced as she let her hair fall back into place. “Just as expected from the parallel version of Resistance Member 002.” She sat back down, a smug smile on her face. “While I would prefer to be called my true name, Mystery Lord Kibarashi, I will allow you to call me by my cover name, used by those in this world whose eyes are still clouded by the mists of Maya.” She placed a hand over her heart in an overly dramatic fashion, closing her eyes as she did so. “You may know me as Side Track.”
Oh no, Wits End thought, feeling a drop of sweat forming on his forehead. She’s a delusional idiot.
“Alright, Side Track,” he said. “Here’s a follow-up question. What do you know about me?”
Side Track grinned as she sat back down. “I know a great number of things about you, Wits End.”
“Like what?”
“I know that you are not from this world, and that this is not your first foray into a world not of your own.”
Wits End’s expression grew serious. “And how do you know that?”
Side Track’s grin widened. “You are not the only one cursed with knowledge. For example, I know that you come from the same world that the other version of Twilight Sparkle came from!” She placed the index finger of one hand on the side of her head, pointing at Wits End with the other. “Your next line is ‘how could she possibly know that!’!”
Oh no, Wits End though, the weight of his most recent revelation causing him to sigh. She’s a chuunibyou.
“What’s wrong?” Side Track asked. “Has your Soul Energy been sapped by Othersider agents?”
“No,” Wits said, rubbing his temples with both hands, “but my patience is being sapped.”
“By Othersider agents?”
“What the heck is this Othersider malarky you keep going on about?”
“Wait.” Side Track held up one finger. “Resistance Member 002 has arrived.”
“You know you don’t have to literally say ‘zero-zero-two’, right?”
With an audible struggle, Witstang pulled himself and a backpack through one of the holes in the dome, landing in a heap between the two teens. “Alright,” he mumbled as he pulled himself back up, “I-I brought the snacks you w-wanted, Side Track. W-why did we have to meet out he-”
Wits End found himself staring himself right in the eyes. The two of them were silent for a good minute before they both scrambled to opposite ends of the dome.
“W-w-what’s he doing here?” Witstang stammered, pointing a finger at the other mint-colored teen.
“Me?” Wits replied, leveling a finger at his mirror image. “What’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be… anywhere but here?”
“I’m working w-with Side Track. What are you doing here?”
Before Wits End could answer, he was interrupted by a hand entering his pocket, He let out a yelp and pulled away to find Side Track holding the smartphone with a smile. “Your crazy friend’s put me on frickin’ goose chase the last couple’ve days!”
“Is that what you needed me to leave my test phone for?” Witstang asked. “I-I-I thought it was part of a secret mission!”
“The secretest of missions!” Side Track proclaimed as she unlocked the phone. “So secret that even my trusted lieutenant couldn’t be trusted with knowledge of it! Fuwa hahahah!”
“Did she seriously just say ‘fuwa hahahah’?” Wits muttered.
“I need that phone,” Witstang exclaimed. “Do you know how slow it’s been trying to test apps on an emulator?”
“A needed sacrifice for the greater good,” Side Track replied. “This is all for the good of the Resistance, after all.”
“I’ve been slowed down by a week’s worth of work! If I don’t finish this app in time, I’ll fail the extra credit assignment Mr. Ward set up!”
“Then you’ll just have to give it your 120% to make up for it! That’s what it means to be a Resistance Member, after all!”
“Someone’s gonna tell me what the hell is going on in the next 30 seconds,” Wits shouted over the two other teens, “or else I swear you’re gonna have a lot more trouble on your hands than teachers and Othersiders!” 
After a moment of stunned silence from Witstang and Side Track, the long-haired boy coughed. “There’s b-been some… weird things going on with realit-”
Side Track cut in. “We’re in the middle of an ongoing battle against the Othersiders for the fate of the wor-”
“You!” Wits pointed a finger at Side Track. “Shut up.” He ignored the pout on the girl’s lips for the time being. “You,” he turned the finger on Witstang, who jumped to attention. “Keep talking.”
Witstang gulped. “W-well, we’ve noticed some things around town that don’t seem like they fit with the rest of the world. Stuff that shouldn’t b-be there, but no-one thinks twice about.”
“Like what?” Wits asked.
“The castle on in the suburbs,” Side Track offered.
“Reports of wolves in the city park,” Witstang said.
“A secret organized nation of spiders in the sewer system,” Side Track continued.
“There’s no proof that they organized,” Witstang replied.
“You weren’t the one who got caught in their web! They were swinging around me like they were attacking some sort of titan!”
“Isn’t this just a weird city?” Wits asked. “I mean, you’ve had, what, four attacks from magical creatures in the last couple of years?”
Side Track turned back to Wits End. “Well yeah,” she said, “but the difference is that we know that’s not normal.”
Witstang nodded. “We’ve talked to plenty of people around town, and even though they agree that it’s weird that there was a demon that attacked Equestria High a couple of years ago, no-one seems all that worried about the rest of it.” He sighed, pushing his glasses up further onto the bridge of his nose. “Even for the two of us, there’s a part of our brains that feel like it’s normal.”
“Hmm.” Wits End processed what the two other teens had said. “One question: what does any of this have to do with me?”
“You’re the first person from another world we’ve been able to get a hold of,” Side Track said. “The Twilight Sparkle from Crystal Prep has never returned, and we need someone’s help to identify what’s ‘normal’ and what’s the work of an enemy Othersider.”
“So I’m spellcheck for reality?” Wits asked.
“It’s the b-best plan we’ve got so far,” Witstang offered. “I’ve been trying to compile a list, but I can’t tell what’s abnormal, and what’s just kinda weird.”
“What say you?” Side Track stood as best as she could, minding her head against the top of the dome. “Will you join us in our struggle for the reality of our world?”
Wits thought for a moment. “Alright,” he finally said. “But you two have to help me find a portal back to my world. Deal?”
“Deal!” Side Track said with a grin, Witstang smiling weakly. “Then, I officially welcome you, Resistance Member 003, to our newly christened Society for Ongoing Survival Brigade! Fuwa hahahah!”
Both of the Witses turned to stare at the girl. “...Did you seriously call us the S.O.S. Brigade?”