"Lis, you feeling better?"
Lisa rubbed her head. "Ugh... I guess so." She pushed herself up, though she continued to lean against the wall. "What happened back there?"
"I have absolutely no idea. Does it look like this middle schooler's got a clue?"
She chuckled. "Fair enough. I should--"
"Nuh-uh, no you don't!" Zoey pushed Lisa back to the ground. "I'm gonna be running the time machine, and we're taking you back home to the ship." She grunted, dragging Lisa by the arm. "Can you walk? Er..." She shaded her eyes, looking up to the time machine perched in the tree. "Climb?"
"I... can try."
Lisa rolled onto the thin canopy that somehow supported the time machine, panting. "Th-there we go. I climbed the tree."
"Alright. Just get into the time machine, and we'll be off."
"You're sure acting mature for someone your age."
Zoey shrugged. "Considering how most of the time I don't really even know who I am, I'm not sure if I really am a middle schooler or not. That other Zoey we met earlier is still somewhere inside of me, along with every other version of me that's existed under the sun, remember?"
"O-oh. Yeah."
She watched Lisa crawl into the time machine before entering behind her. Zoey stood before the controls, frowning. "Um... by the way, how do you work this thing again?"
"There... should be a home button somewhere. Press it."
Zoey proceeded to slap the home button with her entire hand.
"Zoey?"
"Zoey?" Lisa repeated, sitting up in the time machine. "Zoey... I don't think we're home."
Zoey groaned as she lifted her face from the control panel. "Why's everything so... blocky?"
It was at this moment when the two realized that they were in Minecraft. Lisa opened the door and looked outside to find Sammy again. Except this Sammy was also a blockhead in the most literal sense, and...
"Hi, I'm Sammy." Sammy waved a boxy hand. "I'm a Pichu gjinka."
Lisa slammed the door shut. "...Yeah, no. This isn't part of any story universe and only ever happened in the author's head."
Sometime in the far future, Butter Knife heard the narrator groan.
"Guessing you're feeling better now?" Zoey watched Lisa sit down in front of the controls. "You definitely seem better at least."
"Yup."
"Ooo-kay," Lisa opened the door again. "Let's forget that that ever happened."
"Yup."
The two stepped out of the time machine.
"Who are you?" A light magical aura suddenly enveloped them both. "Are you with Aniceturs?"
"N-no?" Zoey looked at her... hoof. "Oh. Looks like it's smurf horse ti--"
"Stay on topic!" The tan stallion in front of them shouted. "Answer me--were you sent by Anicetus?"
Lisa shook her head. "No, we're not. We don't even know who you're talking about."
"Is this what you come here for?" The stallion brought out a strange, glassy ball, letting it hover gently within his aura. "If so, I'd recommend turning back. Before I use it on you. You're powerless here, Anice--"
"Stop."
Zoey looked to Lisa... who now looked like Twilight Sparkle. Because of course.
"Sammy, that's your name, right?" Lisa pointed a hoof at the orb. "I figured, 'cause we've already met two of your previous incarnations. I promise you, we're not here for anything malicious. Our time machine seems to be taking us through every story universe that's existed within this author multiverse to date."
The magical aura around the two mares dissipated, dropping them to the ground.
"Huh. Multiverse, you say?" Sammy scratched his head... about as best as a pony could scratch their head using a hoof. "Is Anicetus going after you as well, then? You said something about my... previous incarnations."
"Nope!" Zoey shook her head. "We're just time traveling! It turns out that the times we stop at are outside of our control, because plot purposes!"
"You say plot purposes as if we live within a story." Sammy mused. "Are you suggesting that we are?"
"Suggest? Nah, I know we are. We've got a friend back home that can talk to the narrator, even!"
Sammy fell silent, making the pony equivalent of the ">.>" face in a way that I have refused to describe. Also because plot purposes. I think.
"--Anyway--" Lisa cleared her throat. "You are the third incarnation of Sammy that we have met, though from how you behave and your connection to the... Orb, you called it?"
The stallion gave a nod.
"I'd wager that you may very well be the same Sammy as the one we met not too long ago, when our time machine got stuck in a tree. Or at the very least, narratively equivalent to him."
"You're surprisingly okay with this, Twili--"
"Lisa." Lisa corrected. "Don't mind the fact that I look like Twilight Sparkle right now. It's a long story. Literally. And yes, I know that I have a tendency to do that. It's a trait I share with a few other characters, to my knowledge. I did fall ill near the end of the previous chapter, though."
"I... uh,"
"No need to respond if you're at a loss for words."
Sammy shut his mouth. Hardly anything had actually happened within Wielder of the Orb: Of Magic and Ponies, after all, so there was nothing to say about him. Like, the closest thing to an actual plot continuity is something to do with McDonald's food and paintball. That being said, that's all this narrator's gotta rant about.
"Soooo... is there anything we can help you with?" Zoey was the first to break the silence. "Or at the very least, are your friends around? I have a feeling that not much actually happened leading up to now."
"No clue. We just got here not too long ago after escaping a zombie-infested dimension."
"Alrighty then."
"Ah-ha!" A swirling portal tore itself through the fabric of space-time, dumping a shadowy figure into the world of Equestria. He collapsed with a quiet crunch, followed by an even quieter "Ow."
"Anicetus!" Sammy lit his horn again, picking up the Orb. "I didn't expect for you to follow us here this quickly."
A trio of ponies came rushing to Sammy's aid as the figure slowly rose again. "What a pretty world to ravage." The figure began to hover closer to the group. "Such vibrant flora and fauna... ripe for the slaying..."
The figure lunged at Sammy, but was stopped short by some kind of invisible barrier.
"What a dastardly trick!" The figure threw off its cloak, revealing itself to be... a shadowy figure. Wow. Continuing on--
"Whuhhh?" Sammy scooted further back from the figure, looking all about for the source of the shield. "Er... thanks, Lisa!"
"Your little sister's here?" Brodie the pony looked at pony Zoey. The other pony Zoey. The one that isn't currently passable as a ponified Smurfette.
"She did nothing!" Zoey-that's-passable-as-a-ponified-smurfette shouted back. "She's just as confused as you are!"
"There's two Lisas now?" Caleb flinched as Anicetus threw himself against the shield again. "What, did everyone get duplicated here or something?"
"Nope! We're from the future!" Zoey shouted again. She gasped. "Wait, I know what that shield is! It's plot armor!"
Anicetus stopped bashing on the barrier. "Say what now?"
"Plot armor!" Zoey repeated, grinning from ear to ear. "Sammy from Wielder of the Orb was never meant to lose, so no matter what happened, everything always turned out for the better!"
Sammy made a face at smurf-horse. "That's... the stupidest--" He threw his forelegs out, inadvertently punching Anicetus through the shield and completely annihilating him. "--huh. That sure didn't happen when we were in zombie-world."
"Because you never actually went to zombie-world." Zoey emerged again from behind their conveniently-placed bush that they were hiding behind while Anicetus was attacking. "I know I don't look like the Zoey you know, Sammy, but I remember! We were dumped here in Equestria, with the only reason given being that we supposedly jumped realities!"
And then the world froze and nothing happened after that because that's basically how the OG Wielder of the Orb ended.
Just kidding.
"So, you're saying that the world we're currently living in... was meant to be a major section within a larger story?"
Zoey nodded. "Yup! With the intention to write the story that the first Sammy that we met came from up to the beginning of this one! I have no idea where I'm getting this knowledge from, by the way!"
"...Weirdness aside," Lisa placed her hooves on the table. "What will you do now that the threat's apparently gone for good?"
"Go back home, I guess. We came here to get away from Anicetus. Though, now that I think of it, I have no idea how he was able to overpower us in the zombie-world before this one."
Zoey waved her hooves in the air. "Plot purposes!"
"...Right. Plot purposes." Sammy groaned, rubbing his face. "I... haven't really had time to think about it until now, but sheesh, we're living in a story? Does that mean we have no free will?"
Unbeknownst to Sammy, the author silently chuckled as he continued to play with his puppets.
"Yeah, to an extent."
"Dang."
"Granted," Zoey added, "I don't think that this story universe is the one that we think it is. Something about tampering with timelines and splitting the canon." She looked up. "Hey narrator? You think you can talk to me, your most-recycled character to exist?"
I suppose. You hear me now, Zoey?
Zoey gasped. "Holy heck, I hear you! Are the events of this story canon to any of the stories we visit?"
No.
"Aaaaand she's gone off the deep end." Lisa picked up Zoey in her magic and stood up from her chair. "Sorry 'bout... er, everything. I hope you can still find peace after what you've learnt."
Sammy watched the mare walk out the door with Zoey in tow. The other Zoey silently ate french fries under the table. Because potato.