While Jak, Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight had been hoping that they would have been able to take a day or two off, after all the events that happened during their time in the Brink, it appeared that Discord, after discovering some of the displaced he had been looking for, fully intended on bringing them back to Equus, the name of the planet that Jak's sisters had come from based on what they had been able to tell, meaning that they couldn't stay here, in Spargus, not without the being forcing all of them through the portal he had made.
"Okay, so we use this portal to head back to Equus?" Daxter asked, as he wanted to make sure he understood what the chaotic being wanted from them, because while it seemed rather straightforward one look at the portal and how it had been made caused him to worry about something bad happening to them, something that caused Discord to nod his head for a few seconds, "Fine, we can do that... though if anything bad happens to us I'm blaming you."
"What can a rodent like you do? You aren't like Twilight, or Starlight and Cozy for that matter," Discord remarked, where he seemed to think that Twilight was the exception to the rule of an Ottsel possessing a vast amount of power, to which Daxter let out a sigh as he gathered his Eco powers for a moment, where he disappeared for a moment, a cut appeared on Discord's right cheek, and returned to his perch with an Eco blade falling apart.
"That's true, but I'm also a Light Sage, capable of slowing time for a certain amount of time, and other things," Daxter said, as he had grown into a warrior during his time with Jak and his sisters, to the point where he wasn't afraid of anything and this was just another example of his bravery, going so far as to show a new being that he had to rethink how he saw him, Tess, and all of the other Ottsels, before he considered something, "Oh, and you might want to wait for a moment... we've got some company coming."
Discord raised an eyebrow, as he now knew that Ottsels, as Twilight called this species, weren't to be underestimated and he was sure that the others likely had some good powers that could be used against those that annoyed them, before he found out what Daxter meant as three large dragons descended on the area they were in, even though they surrounded themselves with a dark mist before becoming three more Ottsels as each landed nearby.
"Alvin, Simon, Theodore! It's good to see you again," Cozy said, naming the three Ottsels as they approached the group, all so Discord had an idea of who was who, though as the trio walked forward all of them stopped for a moment as they laid eyes on the six Twilights that happened to be standing nearby, causing her and her sisters to sigh, as the brothers had missed all of the information that had been shared, "Don't worry, we'll tell you what happened later... once we've figured out what Discord wants from us."
"I'm taking you home so you can meet the other displaced," Discord replied, something that surprised Starlight, more in the sense that he was actually willing to share all of the information that he had with them, instead of speaking in his odd manner to make them think and make bad decisions, like when he tricked Twilight and her friends after he broke out of his prison some time ago, "not to mention the allies they have made, depending on whose there, before telling you about the..."
"Demonic threat that wants to seize control of the universe?" Jak inquired, which caused Discord to pause for a moment as he heard him speak up, where he and his sisters, plus Daxter and a few others, chuckled for a moment, while Eon joined them as well, though he could see that Discord was confused by why they were doing this in the first place, hence why he revealed their hand to the strange being, "Eon told us about it some time ago, as it lead us to unite the lands into a single fighting force so we could protect our world, stabilize it, and then prepare for the future... and then a demonic cheetah came and told us about the threat, even though he seemed like he disliked our enemies, though we haven't figured out if those robed figures are enemies or allies of some kind."
"I see. Well, we thought there was only one of them, but now it seems like there are more out there," Discord said, where he stood there for a few more seconds as he considered what they had told him, as he was surprised by the fact that they already knew about the demonic army that was threatening Equus, even though it would make things easier for him and those on the other side of the portal since they wouldn't have to explain some things to these three and the people they had brought together, "Oh well, it's time we head back to Equus... don't worry, you'll be able to return in no time, if you like this world more than your old one, especially since one of the displaced can make a much more stable portal, one that is far stronger than anything I have seen in the past."
"Wait, there's someone on Equus who can make portals?" Starlight asked, as while linking two points with magic was a lost art at this point in time, as Starswirl was the last one who did something with that type of magic, the fact that Discord told them that there was a displaced on their home world who could do such a thing, including linking two worlds together with such a spell, interested her far more than she was willing to admit, something that Twilight seemed to agree with, since it was new information for them to learn.
Discord smiled for a moment before beckoning to the crack in the air that served as his portal, where he stepped through it and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared, clearly showing them that he was willing to give them the information he had, all they had to do was follow him for a time and see what their old world had to offer, causing Starlight, Twilight, and Cozy to glance at each other before Jak and several others joined them... though it wasn't long before they stepped into the portal and let it take them to Equus.
What Jak, Twilight, Starlight, Cozy, Daxter, Keira, Tess, and Samos discovered, after stepping through the portal that had been left open for them, was that they appeared in a plains area that was between a castle resting on a mountain's side, how some of the group was unsure of, and a decent sized down known as 'Ponyville', as there happened to be a sign that revealed it's name to them. Another thing the group discovered was that there happened to be an area off to the side, one that held some arches that seemed out of place, structures that Starlight knew hadn't been here during her last visit to the town, as in before her disappearance and arrival in Jak's world with her sisters, and from what she could tell the arches were linked to other worlds, just like Discord had said. The being in question stood there for a few seconds, mostly giving them a chance to see what was going on around them and understand what they were seeing, before walking over to the town that was in front of them, all while the portal Jak and his sisters had stepped through had closed behind them, but if the chaotic being was to be believed someone could open the way back in a matter of seconds. Starlight wasn't remotely surprised to see Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Griffins, and a few other races walking around the town, as Ponyville was a place where all races were welcome and accepted, even though she was surprised to see Diamond Dogs walking around as well, and this gave the others a chance to see just how many races existed in their world, all while seeing a few dragons talking with some guards who seemed to be off duty at the moment.
Of course she wasn't expecting to see a few things, like Humans walking around, who didn't have long ears like the ones from Jak's world, talking with taller figures who had long ears and radiated nature energy, while some of the taller beings were dressed in red colored armor and seemed more elegant, not to mention some short beings, one being half the size of a Human, another being a fourth of a Human, while the third was a small fox creature who was standing next to a tall blue skinned figure who had curved horns on her head, a slender tail, and hooves for feet, and a number of other races they hadn't seen before.
"I take it one of the displaced is responsible for these new races being here?" Samos asked, because from what he could tell all of the foreign races had to be from another world, since they didn't look anything like what he expected from the world that Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy were from, or maybe multiple worlds since they had no idea what the other lost Equestrians had been up to since they reached their respective new homes.
"Two, actually. Rainbow and Spitfire, well, went to war with the Legion and won, and their powers are incredible," Discord replied, though as they followed him towards their destination, which seemed to either be the large castle on the outskirts of the town or the forest that was beyond it, Starlight could also see a number of what had to be demonic creatures, only they seemed to be joining in the fun and just chatting with those that were around them, "plus Rainbow has a reputation for killing demons and devouring their energy, preventing them from being reborn... it convinced a fair number of them to defect to her side, to avoid being eaten."
"Sounds like the displaced are meant to be heroes, righting wrongs and saving worlds," Jak commented, though as he and the others took a moment to process the information that had been given to them, especially since there was a demonic army out there, which was going to target this world at some point, but hearing this made him wonder if there was more to the story than what they had been told, even though he and Starlight noticed that Twilight seemed utterly amazed by what they were seeing as they walked through Ponyville.
Discord nodded his head, showing him that his thoughts were correct and that most of those had done so, even though they could tell that one of the displaced might have betrayed the notion of becoming a hero, though none of them knew what that meant, and would likely never know what it meant since Discord didn't seem to be in the mood to share what he knew with them right now, before they entered the castle and found several dragons inside it. Based on what Starlight and the others saw each one seemed to be an adult, standing at least as tall as Jak, with one purple scaled dragon with some impressive armor and who looked like someone who walked out of an ancient legend, who seemed to radiate power, that stood taller than most of the adult dragons around him. There were four other dragons in front of him, with two entering from one of the other rooms that happened to be part of the castle, though from what the group could see one dragon had red scales and seemed to be partly dressed as a warrior, a pink slender female who had mage robes on, a black scaled dragon who had to be female, who wore a set of armor that was nearly identical to the larger male, while she stood near a purple dragon who seemed to be dressed as an aviator with a nice scarf wrapped around his neck. The last two Starlight focused her attention on, as one happened to be a slender female dragon with blue scales and wore a set of silver armor, where it looked like she was a warrior of some degree, while the other happened to be a slim male dragon who had purple scales and a green chest, though he wore a light blue robe with a light grey feather design near the collar area and carried a powerful staff in his right hand.
"Spike? Ember?" Starlight asked, where the dragons turned and glanced at them for a few moment, discovering that they had new arrivals to speak with and potentially learn from, something that allowed her to see that the two dragons she was interested in were the ones that had come to mind as soon as she saw them, which allowed her to let out a sigh of relief as she realized that both of them were safe, "Oh, thank the Precursors that you guys are alright... after what happened during Twilight's experiment, as she was trying to see if dragons could interact with the magic that rests in the Tree of Harmony, I thought we had lost you two, as you disappeared in a flash of light and then we collapsed after that."
"Is that what you guys were doing? Well, it certainly had some interesting side effects," Ember remarked, though she had a smile on her face, showing them that she wasn't actually annoyed by the discovery that lead to her and Spike being sent to another world and living there for some time, meaning she must have enjoyed her time with the dragons who were in the castle with her, "But that doesn't explain how Cozy was displaced with you."
"I, um, heard tales of the power the ponies of Ponyville have and decided to use it to fuel my own schemes... basically, I was an evil child," Cozy replied, though she rubbed her arm for a moment as she remembered what she had forgotten in the moment of being displaced with the others, meaning she had been near Starlight and Twilight when they were taken out, before she sighed for a moment, "anyway, I've learned my lesson, so you don't have to worry about me turning out to be a villain in the future."
"Anyway, the spell could have worked, had Equus not sensed the impending demonic invasion and sent us to gain all sorts of skills and allies to prepare for their arrival," Spike said, something that caused Starlight to pause for a moment, as he spoke differently than what she remembered and the air around him seemed entirely new, like he had changed into an entirely new dragon over the course of his adventure, where he raised his empty hand to his chin for a moment as he took a moment to consider something, "Still, I'll have to speak with Twilight about this when she gets back from her adventure, as I think her experiment might be the missing key to completing the Awakening spell I've been working on... in fact, if we found her notes on the matter, I could complete it much faster. Of course, when she does get back, we can swap stories about our adventures, how we interacted with our new worlds, and our studies with each other, since I'm interested in what she might have discovered, especially after everything that I've learned from both Spitfire and Rainbow."
"...I... what?" Starlight asked, though this confirmed her suspicions, Spike was totally different from what she remembered, as he seemed more like a scholar and nothing like someone who disliked getting his claws dirty with studies, in fact he just so happened to sound a lot like Twilight, which was a shock since she wasn't expecting to hear something like that in the first place, before she focused on something he had said, "Spike, I know she doesn't look like what you remember, and we witnessed her changing into a new form not that long ago, but this is Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's personal student, the one who hatched you and raised you for some time, and a long list of other things that would take too long to list."
Jak and Cozy, however, noticed something odd as the conversation went on, Twilight seemed afraid of something, like she knew something and was trying to make sure it didn't become reality, a secret that she didn't want anyone else to know, though it wasn't long before Spike sighed as he considered what he had been told, though none of the dragons seemed at all surprised by what was going on right now.
"While you're right about some of those statements, this isn't Twilight... this is, in fact, Sci Twilight, so nicknamed by those on the other side of the mirror portal," Spike replied, where Jak and the others turned for a few seconds and watched as Twilight let out her own sigh and simply nodded her head, meaning that Spike was telling the truth and Starlight tilted her head for a moment, as her memories didn't match what he was saying right now, hence why Spike turned his attention to the individual they were currently talking about, "your magical signature is nearly identical to Twilight's, which makes a lot of sense considering that the people on the other side of the portal in question are the human versions of ponies... and dragons are dogs, sadly. However, your exposure to Equestrian magic left an imprint on you, changing your signature a little in the process, to tell the difference between you and our Twilight... you'll have to tell me all about what happened, just so I can record it with everything else that has happened so far."
"And here I was thinking that I could pretend to be her for a little while longer, before coming up with a way to explain the situation to everyone," Twilight stated, where she sighed for a moment as she considered the trouble she was in, since at this point Starlight now knew that she wasn't the princess that she had trained under for some time, before being pulled into the experiment in question, to which she rubbed the back of her head, "What happened to me was that I saw some abnormal readings in the magical energies of the portal that resides in my world, the one that links it to Equus, and I went to investigate, using a few of my machines and my own limited power to see what was going on... next thing I know, after I started my own experiment, a surge of magical energy shattered my machines and knocked me out, and when I woke up I was with Starlight and Cozy, despite having no memories of my old life."
"That's part of the magic that some of you got hit by, or at least that's how Spike explained it," the other purple dragon, as in the one that looked to be around Spike's age, said, which interested them since this was more information about what was going on with the displaced, though Jak, Keira, and the others remained silent as they listened to everything that was being said right now, just in case there was something that changed how they considered things, "based on what we have discovered some of the displaced end up in another world, like that Tirek fellow and both Rainbow and Spitfire, while the vast majority seem to have a few effects applied to them before they reach their destination, such as aging backwards to a more reasonable age... Spike and Ember ended up appearing on the day I hatched and grew up with me, with next to no memories of their past, save for what we make in our art lessons. Basically, as Spike told us, the Displacement spell has a few effects: the first being sent to a new world, the next being potentially losing all of your memories for a time, at least until certain conditions are met, and the last being that you might age backwards, to either being a hatchling, or a baby to use a more familiar word, or to being a few years old."
"Fascinating. Spike, you must be a genius!" Keira said, as while she had no idea what she should have been expecting from someone like him, since no one had said anything before they came here, she could tell that he was far smarter than what Starlight had been expecting to find, while Cozy tilted her head for a few seconds, no doubt thinking about something that hadn't been said yet.
"Tell us something we don't know." a voice said, where they found that someone was coming out of the room that was to their left, or to the right of where Spike's group was standing, only Jak and the others were surprised to discover that the speaker looked like a faun, according to some stories that Samos told them about, a race that Eon confirmed didn't exist on their world, though she had the clawed hands of an adult dragon and her feet looked like a dragon's, she had a dragon tail and a pair of leathery wings on her back, and she had small horns, have the size of Spike's, on her head, plus the scales on her dragon appendages were purple colored with green on the underside of her tail and parts of her wings, "I am Elora... and no, Discord didn't do this to me, rather a villain of our home planet struck me with his wild magic and it twisted my form into what you're seeing, and yet I prefer this form these days. You already know Spike and Ember, but allow me to introduce..."
Before Elora could say anything there was a shudder or something that Spike detected and they headed for the chamber that contained the map of Equestria, where Elora named the others for Jak's group, revealing that the aviator was Spyro, the black dragoness was Cynder, the pink mage was Aurora, and the red one was Flame, while mentioning that there were more members of their group, who were elsewhere right now. Not a couple of moments later they found the chamber in question and Starlight had discovered something odd, there was a purple crack in the air above a crystalline table, which seemed to be revealing a new scene to everyone as they gathered in the chamber, an area that seemed to be larger than what Starlight remembered it being, before they turned their attention to what had to be a crack in the fabric of reality, a bad sign for such. What they discovered was someone who looked a lot like Twilight, without the horn and wings, dressed in armor of some kind and seemed to be facing off against another Equestrian, another girl who seemed to be about the same age as her and seemed to have a pink color to her body, where it almost like they were in the middle of fighting to the death, or at least it sure looked like that, as it sure looked like both were either angry with each other and wanted to harm their foes. Of course that was when the scene shifted and they found another girl, again the same age as the other two, fighting alongside the pink one as she fought Twilight, where it was easy for them to see that the new girl had a dark tone to her body, much like Cynder for example, and she had a dark cerulean color to her hair, though not a few seconds later they watched as a ripple washed over the scene before the dark girl disappeared, as if she had never been there to begin with.
It seemed like they were seeing what was happening to some of the other displaced, where Jak quickly assumed that they were watching Princess Twilight fighting another displaced, though when it came to the third one he guessed what the crack had shown them was a possibility, as in one timeline where three displaced were together and another where only two of them were together. Of course that presented a problem for them and those who had been found so far, as they all assumed that Spike and his group had a fairly good idea of where in their universe the others had ended up, even if none of them could get to them or had made an attempt to retrieve them, but if this was actually happening right now, and the displaced were disappearing from their spots and appearing elsewhere in the universe, there was no telling what might be happening. As he thought about that, and it was clear that he wasn't the only one concerned by this discovery, they heard the sound of something, or rather someone, screaming as if they were in pain, where Spike informed them that it was the soul of their planet, meaning Equus was another Titan and had to be very powerful based on what they were finding out, and that she had to be reacting to the person sized crack in reality. Jak and Keira glanced at each other for a moment, as they were discovering that the young dragon was far smarter than what they originally thought, even after discovering his new nature that had surprised Starlight and the others, before they placed their trust in what he was saying, since he had a better understanding of all of this, even if he was taking notes on what they were seeing.
That was when they found that the crack they had been staring at started to glow for a moment before energy broke off of it, surging outwards as more cracks started to appear all around them, revealing more images of places that none of them had seen before and displaying scenes that were in the middle of happening at that very moment, without the people on the other side noticing at all, based on what they were seeing right now.
One of the groups they witnessed happened to be two different horned beings who had a bipedal stance, which meant all of the displaced were identical in that nature, who happened to be a male unicorn with brown fur and a female kirin, a fact that everyone learned thanks to Spike, and they were traveling with a feline creature with a robot on his back, one that did look like a backpack of sorts, or maybe it was a support bot of some kind. That image changed for a moment and showed them that another feline creature had joined the group, a female one this time around, who had a near identical fur color to the one the pair of displaced had started with, before it shuddered again as a few other creatures showed up, a rather tall figure in a green costume, a robot who seemed like a villain and had what appeared to be a robotic butler, and a good number of creatures they hadn't seen before. The interesting thing, for Keira and Twilight, happened to be the weapons that the group were using, guns that seemed capable of equally interesting and disturbing things, like throwing little robot minions at enemies, somehow using lava to burn enemies, and a large rocket launcher capable of wiping out entire groups in a matter of seconds, just to name a few, plus a rectangular item fell through a crack. Twilight found that it was plans for nanotech, where Spike came over to look at for a few seconds, since it appeared that someone on the planet he and Ember had landed on might have made a weaker version of the substance, so this would allow them to enhance their version at some point.
As he thought about that, however, the scene changed to the first feline creature standing near a female of his species, as she had blue fur, who were facing off against a pearl white robot and his robotic army, a massive one that could dwarf the armies they had seen in the past, and they were joined by a number of other beings that wanted to repel the invasion of a rather large and advanced city.
After that they watched as a number of other scenes appeared around them, one of them having a pink haired girl, who had a pair of blades on her belt and happened to be traveling with a black robed figure, one with short orange hair and a large sword on his back, and who had to be his friends, a girl who looked like she couldn't protect herself, a guy who did look like a fighter, and a guy with a white suit and glasses who might be the brains of the outfit. A few seconds later they found a new image as a second pink haired girl, whose hair was flat and straight down while the first's was fluffy, standing in an area with three others, a black haired individual who had a scar on his forehead and carried a large box on his back, a blond haired guy who seemed scared of everything, and a guy, based on his base chest, who wore a boar's head over his own head and seemed more wild. Another scene appeared with a displaced who seemed like he had been a ram, one of the more dangerous figures in Equus' history based on the fact that Spike raised an eyebrow, who seemed to be walking with some monstrous beings, like a dragon-like being who seemed to be covered in spikes, in certain places, and another who seemed to have scales that looked like they might be bombs. After that they found a scene that seemed to be a pair of displaced, a male pegasus with a gamboge coat and sapphire blue hair while the other was a female Earth Pony who had a bluish gray coat and a gray hair color, who appeared to be traveling with a pair of heroes as they walked through a tower and traveled to a land that seemed to be set up in a mountain range. One other scene revealed itself, a unicorn with an azure color to her body and two different tones of blue in her hair, who happened to be wearing what appeared to be the attire of a wizard, or sorceress maybe, traveling with a blue haired girl who carried a boomerang and seemed to be fighting some bipedal wolf creatures.
A few seconds later a new crack in reality appeared, one that showed an amber colored pony with a brilliant amaranth color to her hair, and had apple green stripes in parts of her hair, who seemed to be standing like she was a ruler of some kind and stood in an assembly consisting of nineteen platforms that were arranged in a circle from her platform, where all sorts of beings stood, like a purple bipedal cat creature, a large robot, and a number of silver haired individuals who had a staff in their right hand... but before they could do anything the female deity, who the other gods respected by bowing to her, actually turned and spotted them, where she raised her left hand and closed the cracks like they were nothing to her and her power.
"Well, at least we have an idea of what is happening to the others," Ember remarked, as the cracks had revealed what was happening to some of the displaced, though the female figure at the end had cut them off before they could see if there were any other cracks to worry or think about, even though she had to admit something to herself, that kind of power they had briefly witnessed, the power to erase the cracks and restore reality in a second, was terrifying and made her wonder what else the figure was capable of, before she noticed the look on her brother's face, "Spike, is something wrong?"
"Someone is messing with the boundaries of reality... I need to check on the portals, then we need to make sure nothing has happened to the other worlds," Spike replied, to which he turned and beckoned for everyone to follow him, though as the dragons and Elora did that without delay, showing them that his intelligence and influence had skyrocketed to a level that was beyond what Starlight had been expecting, Jak and the others made sure to do the same thing, "and the first world we'll check out is the Mirror Equus."
Twilight sighed as she heard that, as she had been hoping to avoid heading back to her true home, but with everything she and the others had discovered recently, with the cracks and the impending army, they needed to chat with their friends, as in those that were new and those that were old, before figuring out what needed to be done to prepare for whatever the future held for them.