As my vision was returning, I noticed that everyone was giggling at something.
“You didn’t cover your eyes, did you Seth?” said Twilight.
“I forgot with the distractions. Sue me.”
“It’s alright. Here you go.”
Thankfully, my vision was back to normal to see what she was talking about. She had her hand extended towards me with the coin inside it. A little smile was accompanying her gesture. I smiled back to her as I reached for it.
“Thanks Twilight.”
As I grabbed the coin from her hand, it started to glow again. Everyone took a step back as the coin levitated out of my hand and into the air on its own. I backed up a bit as well not knowing what might happen. After all, this was Discord’s coin. For all I knew it was about to send us to the other side of the world or turn us into some kind of Lovecraftian horrors.
What we got instead was a projection of Discord where the coin was.
“Hello once again everyone! It’s great to see everyone once more even if I can’t actually see you. Just so no one interrupts I should let you all know that this is a recording I placed into the coin. It was set to activate once the essence of all six Elements of Harmony had been added to the coin and then once the coin was touched by the little human here. You could talk or react all you want, but I wouldn’t if I were you. You might miss something important that I have to say.
“Now how long has it been since this day? I’m not even sure anymore. It’s been well over a thousand years to be certain. I’ve had a great deal of time to myself to think about this time in my life. The day of the magic duel was quite the intriguing day to say the least. It set this entire series of events into motion.
“One thing at a time, though. First off, you should know about how you came to be just what you are right now. In truth, I gave you about half of my substantial power for you to use while you are in Equestria. It’s slightly less than half so that if I need it back, it will return to me and we don’t end up having a tug-of-war over chaos energy. We don’t need that can of worms opened up.
“The reason I gave you that much of my power was so that I could whip you into shape. We both know that you aren’t exactly in the best of shape. A bit of the magic was to fortify you. You may have been a human, but you’re not a human from Equestria. You would have still had the same stamina, strength, and durability you had on Earth. However, that would make you a gibbering weakling for our meeting. How much fun would I have had if you had been tuckered out after fifteen minutes of running around? Of course, we both know I’m being generous with that amount of time.
“The reason I didn’t change anything else about you was to retain a bit of normalcy that you needed to keep your sanity. It may have been strained, but I didn’t want it to break. Your brain wouldn’t be able to handle any extra speed. Your ego would have burst if I changed your physical appearance. Although I will say that I did give you a bit of a boost when it came to your memory. It will come and go, but it can give you much better clarity for certain events when it does work.
“As long as you are there, my magic will continue to support you in this way. It is not an endless supply, however. It can deteriorate over time. However, it can be recharged through acts of chaos. Since I know that this recording will appear sometime between our meeting on Equestria and our duel, I can tell you that it will not be a problem. Your chaos magic will have been recharged quite well thanks to your little stunt in Ponyville. Just do not overuse it before then and you will be fine.
“Now, as for the coin itself, it has a great many uses. It can be used for more than just recordings like this. Thanks to the essences of the Elements of Harmony, the coin can now boost your magic even greater than it would on its own. Chaos and harmony are two sides of the same coin after all.”
I let out a groan and facepalmed.
“Chaos and harmony are vastly different, but together they can create synergy. So many people see them as separate entities, but they complement each other in many ways. The balance between the two is what is truly difficult. That is why I find your world so fascinating! It has a perfect balance of chaos and harmony. Not only that, but the sheer amounts of both are glorious! I was originally hesitant about being anywhere near humans. I was quite mistaken. Ever since I arrived here I have had to do nothing at all to recharge my powers. I can do nearly anything I want without having to worry about my limits.
“That, my dear boy, is where you come in. Due to my own hubris, I will end up sending myself and everyone else in your group to a different world. The coin will act as a beacon to retrieve them from wherever they may have gone. Once they are retrieved, the coin will return you back to Equestria with them. Just make sure that everyone is touching the coin at the same time when returning or else it will not work. Be careful with that coin or else no one will return safely at all. You won’t have to worry about me, though. I can find my own way back.
“Well, I suppose that’s everything that I can think of. Don’t worry little ponies. I don’t plan to return for a long time. Besides, I think that my time on Earth has mellowed out my demeanor. Everything will happen as it was meant to be. That, I can assure you, is the honest truth.”
With the last of his words spoken, Discord’s image disappeared and the coin fell to the floor with an echoing clatter. No one spoke for what seemed like an eternity.
“Oh terrific,” I said breaking the silence, “it’s a causality loop.”
“What the hay is a causality loop?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I already have a good example in mind. Twilight, do you remember the day when your future self appeared in the library with you?”
“Yeah! I couldn’t believe it.”
“Quite so. Basically, she appeared in front of you and since you couldn’t believe it you kept asking yourself a bunch of questions and by the time she was going to tell you what she came for, she disappeared leaving you to wonder about what had happened to make her come back in the first place looking as she did. As it turned out, worrying about what was going to happen is what led you to have that appearance. Then when you used the time travel spell to tell yourself not to worry you inadvertently created the very problem that you went to prevent. You ended up causing the very event that you wanted to prevent.”
“Then, does that mean it was destined to happen?” asked Twilight.
“In a word: yes. Other than minor, insignificant alterations that might happen, this duel will go just as it was supposed to. Meaning that whatever happened to him, will happen again for us. It looked like it worked out for us and him so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
“But what if he’s lyin’ tah us? It could just be ah trap he set up.”
“Discord’s greatest weakness is his overconfidence. He wouldn’t have the forethought of doing this if he believed that his victory was a sure thing. Besides, he showed up at my place before any of this started. He couldn’t have done that if he was still encased in stone at the time.”
“Ah suppose yer right.”
“Good. Now, let’s see if I can use this coin to try and boost the power we need to get everyone back to normal. Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong or that it’s nothing embarrassing that any of us have to do.”
I shook my head to clear out the remaining feelings of the princesses spells. Both of them working together on the scrying spell definitely made it go so much more smoothly.
"I do not understand," started Princess Luna. "The chances of all the spells acting perfectly to accommodate this happening is immense. It simply should not have happened."
"Yet it did dear sister. It did indeed happen. Not only that, but the circle is incomplete. He must still return them here safely and close the rifts that have appeared."
"Before we do that, I want to do something before I lose my nerve," I said.
I walked up in front of Luna and scooped her up into a tight hug.
"What is thou doing?" she asked.
"I just wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do. I spend most of my waking hours at night. I want you to know that no matter what, there is someone who appreciates it. Don't ever think otherwise."
"It is... flattering that you say this, but I have come to terms with what I have done long ago."
"While that may be true, it doesn't hurt that someone helps with it, right?"
"I... suppose that perhaps it does. Could'st thou put me down now?"
I complied and placed her back onto the ground. She tried to hide it, but I saw that her face had a little blush on it. I ended up reaching out and ruffling the mane on the top of her head a little.
"What art thou doing?" she asked with a hint of ire.
"It's a gesture of everything is cool now," I replied.
"What does the temperature have to do with anything right now?"
I facepalmed.
"I'll ask that Celestia explains that to you later. Right now, I have to focus on the rifts."
I pulled the coin out from my shirt and looked at it closely. The symbols on the coin were glowing. Each one was glowing a different shade that corresponded to the color of their coat. I pulled the chain over my head and held out the coin from me. The symbols glowed slightly brighter when they came closer to the rifts.
"I think it's a locator spell built into the coin. The closer I get to them, the brighter the symbols get."
"A good assumption," Celestia said.
"I suppose, but I should be careful. The more assumptions I make, the better the chance I have to-"
"Please, Seth, watch your language," interrupted Celestia.
"Sorry about that."
I walked closer to one of the rifts while holding out the coin. As I got closer to the rift, all but one of the symbols started to dim slightly. The one that didn't dim was Applejack's symbol.
"It looks like the coin can tell me which of them is in which rift. That will help me out quite a bit. It should tell me which of them to look for when I go through the rift."
I carefully put the coin back around my neck and prepared to step through the rift.
"Halt," said Luna. "We should accompany thou into these rifts."
"I'm afraid that you can't," I replied.
"What? Why shouldn't we accompany thou in your quest?"
"Is it not obvious dear sister? We cannot go because there will be too many of us to return here if we go through. Remember, we have to be touching the coin when we return. I suspect at the most, only three of us could touch the coin at one time. Even then, it might come out of our grasp and we could be stranded wherever we go. I am afraid that he must undertake this journey alone."
"Don't sweat it Tia! I'll get them back."
"Tia?" asked Luna.
I looked at her blankly.
"You've never called her that before?" I asked dryly.
"It isn't entirely proper for me to do so."
I facepalmed again.
"I don't think she would mind at all if you called her that, right?"
"Not at all," she responded with a warm smile on her face. "Perhaps I should start to call you Lulu."
"Why wouldst thou wish to call me that?"
"No reason in particular. We are sisters are we not?"
"Tis true," she said with apprehension.
"Oh right! The rifts!" I said; remembering what I was supposed to be doing.
"Indeed," said Luna. "This is not the time for such talk. Make haste to save them!"
"I will," I replied.
I looked forward into the rift that Applejack was supposed to be in. I slowly reached out and touched the rift. There was a blinding light for a few seconds and suddenly it was gone. I blinked away the lights in my eyes and looked around. I had no idea where I was.
Well, I knew I was in an alleyway. I guess that was a start. It wasn't very clean either. It was nighttime wherever I was. The alleyway was wide enough to let the light come down from the buildings that were lit up in the distance. It didn't provide all that much in the way of illumination, however, so I was forced to squint to see in the darkness.
"Moshimoshi? Soko ni darekaga arimasu ka?"
Ah crap. I think that was Japanese. The moshi part helped me know. I had no idea where the voice came from, but it was not a language that I knew well enough to speak. Though I did know one phrase to help me in this situation.
"Ummm, ei goga wakarimas ka?"
A simple 'do you speak english' question. It was almost all I knew despite the fact that I watched subbed anime a lot.
"Yeah, I do," a voice answered behind me.
I tuned around to see who it was. I was met by a trio of men. The three of them seemed to come out of nowhere. Their features were definitely Asian. Their clothes looked a bit ragged though.
"That's a silly question to ask. Aren't you capable of translating that with your cyberbrain?"
Cyberbrain? What were they talking about? Maybe wherever I am had that kind of thing in abundance. It would make-
Wait. Cyberbrain. I only knew of one thing that used the term cyberbrain so easily.
Ghost In The Shell. Oh this was going to be a really messed up rescue mission wasn't it?