DATE: February 24th
LOCATION: ???
[Perspective: Arrell]
It was a black void.
Well...maybe not black. It had that kind of shade you see when you close your eyes; not quite black, but...just darkness in a different way.
There was ground, somehow. I was standing on an apparently solid floor, even though there was just an abyss below me. And above me, beside me, in front of me...
Celestia stepped in front of me. “Arrell?”
I shook my head, snapping out of my little ‘abyss everywhere’ trance. “Yeah?”
“You are familiar with the concept of the multiverse, I assume?”
“Well...I did come from one universe into this one, so yes, I think I’m a bit familiar with that idea.”
She chuckled, a bit of a smile crossing her features. Instantly, I relaxed. Whatever she brought me here for, it wasn’t because she was mad at me. You don’t laugh when you’re angry.
“Yes, you did. And now you are standing in the single connecting link between every single universe in existence.” She gestured to the void. “Welcome to Alterspace.”
“...needs better interior decorating.” I stepped forward, looking around. “Seriously, there’s literally nothing here.”
She nodded. “The links between universes are generally closed. If they do open, such as when you humans came to Equestria, it’s never for long. It’s so quick that any regular being wouldn’t even see it happen. It could happen several thousand times while you were busy blinking.”
“How is this relevant to the exploding saddlebags thing?” I asked, trying to avoid sounding rude.
“Where did you think your saddlebags led to?” she responded, smirking. “They’re a condensed portal to Alterspace.”
I blinked. “But I had stuff in my saddlebags! Where is it all?”
“It’s in here somewhere. But Alterspace is, quite seriously, endless. The only reason you could always pull out what you needed when you reached into your saddlebags was because of the bond you have with it.”
...bond? “I’m bonded with Alterspace?”
She nodded. “I’m not sure how it happened myself. Perhaps it was something your god did, or perhaps it has to do with the Fine Rock. Either way, you are, and because of that, you have unleashed a great danger upon all of Equestria.”
I did a double-take. “Wow, don’t sugarcoat it for me, Princess!”
“The explosion that happened was an incredible case of good timing and bad luck,” she continued, not replying to my annoyed remark. “When you tried to access the contents of Alterspace through your saddlebags, you opened up a link between here and Equestria. However, with the Fine Rock’s magic already being connected to Alterspace from Risk Reward levitating the saddlebags, the link began to feed on extra power.”
I blinked. “So...what kind of danger got released from me trying to pull out some ice?”
“For reasons we don’t - and likely never will - know, a link between Alterspace and a different universe opened up at this moment. The Fine Rock’s magic began to fuel that link as well, keeping it open, and soon Alterspace grew unstable. Thousands, if not millions of links began to open. That explosion was all the links beginning to bring the universes together.”
“...I just caused the apocalypse, didn’t I?”
“Not yet. Since the link to Equestria was the ‘originating’ one, it began to act as a vacuum, and started to pull various objects and entities from other universes. When Risk passed out, the Fine Rock’s magic was cancelled, and the links started to close. But they weren’t fast enough. They were replaced by links to other places in Equestria, and the objects were scattered.”
I rubbed my temple. “So, wait. There’s a bunch of stuff from other universes spread around Equestria now? How is this a problem?”
“The Fine Rock-”
“GAH!” I stomped the invisible ground. “Every-bucking-thing is about the Fine Rock now! I just want to smash that damn thing to pieces!”
“...as I was saying.” Her tone was rather annoyed now, and I shut up. “The Fine Rock’s magic lingered in Alterspace. Each object absorbed a bit of its power, which seemed to magnify its own traits based on its purposes, its original universe, and more.”
I nodded slowly. “So...if one of these objects was, say, a gun...it’s become a lot more powerful now?”
“That is simplifying it a bit, but yes, it is along those lines.”
“So now there’s about a million dangerous things around Equestria based on movies, video games, stories, and a bunch of other things I wouldn’t even know existed...and let me guess, you want me to collect them.”
She frowned. “It is, I admit, a rather difficult task. These objects must be collected and restrained from causing further damage until we can establish a new link between Alterspace and the object’s original universe to send it back.”
I let out what was supposed to be a groan, but it came out almost like a sob. “I can’t ever keep a peaceful life going, can I?”
“Well, you are a Lord Windigo trying to fit in with a society of ponies.”
“...point.”
“New mission, Winter Solstice!” I declared the next morning.
Everypony just looked at me weird. “Winter what?” False asked.
“Winter Solstice...I thought it was a cool group name.” I shrugged. “Anyway. Irrelevant. Topic: Mission.”
Celestia had released me from Alterspace and helped me explain the situation to the others - sans Nimble, whom Risk took care of once he showed up. She told me she’d stay in touch, letting me know if she discovered where any of the objects - articles, as I called them so it sounded less boring - had cropped up. As it was, nothing in particular had shown up that could be attributed to something from another universe.
Until that morning. Celestia must have tapped into my bond with Alterspace, because I woke up to an annoying buzzing in my brain. As soon as I focused on it, I began to visualize a location, and seemingly random thoughts were forced into my brain.
Attacks. Badly beaten. Strange energy abilities. Many injured. One killed.
The location? Appleloosa. And we already had our train tickets.
“Hope you’re all ready for a trip to the west, because we’ve got some investigating to do in cowpony town!” I cheered, adopting a rather horrible western accent.
“...you know Appleloosa’s to the south, right?” Risk asked.
“Details, details!”
[Perspective: False Front]
“Ah can’t say Ah’m absolutely sure of what Ah saw. Hard fer even mahself to believe it,” the sheriff told us. “But if y’all believe me, then it’s gotta be true, right?”
I looked down at the notes I had taken. The sheriff had been woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds of a commotion, and had run outside to see what was happening. It was too dark to see clearly, but behind the saloon, he saw one pony fighting several others - and the one pony was winning by a huge amount. The others couldn’t even get a hit in.
What struck him as odd, though, was the weird fireball-like attack that the fighter used at the end. It seemed to come from the fighter’s hooves, and it killed its victim instantly upon contact.
“And you’re sure this wasn’t just ordinary unicorn magic?” Risk asked.
The sheriff nodded. “Ah didn’t see no horn on their head, even in the light their fireball gave.”
“Besides, Appleloosa is primarily an earth pony town,” I reminded the unicorn. I turned to Arrell. “Any ideas?”
Arrell wasn’t looking too good, but then again, he was a Windigo in the middle of the desert. It wasn’t so hot he’d melt, but it made him rather uncomfortable. He rubbed his temple. “I can think of about a thousand things that that could make fireballs. Anything else?”
The sheriff rubbed his chin. “Well...it wasn’t, say, red or orange fire. It was...blue.”
“That narrows it down to a hundred.”
Nimble stepped forward. “Did you hear anything unusual?”
“Whoever it was, they didn’t say a lot. Ah heard them say somethin’ when they were done, though...”
I got ready to jot down more notes. “What was it?”
“Somethin’ about an answer...lyin’ in a battle? Ah can’t remember...”
Arrell turned to look at him in the eye. “The answer lies in the heart of battle.”
The sheriff nodded. “Yeah, that’s it.”
“Sheriff...are you sure this pony didn’t say anything else? Even if it sounded like random gibberish?” He seemed a lot more intent now.
He must have thought of something... I looked at the sheriff, awaiting his response.
“They made a lot of noises when they were fightin’...oh! There was that weird thing they yelled when they threw that fireball.” He frowned, trying to remember. “Hah-somethin’. Hah...hah-doo...ken?”
“Hadoken,” Arrell said quietly. We all looked at him.
“That’s it. Why?” asked the sheriff.
“Hadoken...Ryu...Street Fighter.” He looked at me. “We’ve found our first article. And it’s already fallen into the wrong hooves.”
The victims were mostly unrelated to each other, according to the ponies we questioned. Two of them were brothers, but aside from that, there weren’t any common links. Even the one who was killed had nothing in common with the others.
As it turns out, the murder victim was a young stallion, barely my own age. He had gotten drunk (on salt, even - I reminded myself to ask somepony later on how that even worked), and when he saw a fight breaking out, he decided the wise move would be to join in. Everypony else had either been knocked out or run away by the time the pony with the article turned on him.
Asylum and Nimble had gone to examine the scene of the battle while myself, Risk, and Arrell questioned some of the other victims. But of course, none of them were any help.
“All Ah saw was a stallion chargin’ at me, then he just starts whalin’ on me,” one victim told us. “Woke up with a nurse hoverin’ over me.”
“Is that all?” I asked, sighing. He nodded, and I stood up. “Well, that helped in no way. Thanks for your time, at least.”
“Define ‘whaling on you’,” Arrell suddenly said. Risk and I looked at him, confused. “Did he just start pounding your head against a wall? Kick you in the stomach? What did he do?”
The victim rubbed the back of his head. “Can’t say Ah understand the question.”
Arrell stepped up to him. “Was he just attacking you wildly, or did he seem to be using well-practiced moves?”
“Er...well, he seemed to know what he was doin’...and it seemed like some kinda marshall art.”
“Martial, not marshall. So just like I thought. Thanks.” Arrell turned and started walking off. We followed.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“I wasn’t completely sure before, but now I am. Whatever this article is, it’s giving somepony the fighting style and powers of Ryu,” he responded.
“Ryu who?”
Risk intervened. “Human thing, right?” Arrell nodded. “Thought so. How does this help us?”
“More than you’d think. My Street Fighter knowledge is meager, but I’m pretty sure Ryu never carried any weapons, and he didn’t have much of a uniform either. If this article came from him, it’s got to be one of maybe three things. All of which would be pretty noticeable.”
I nodded, seeing where he was going with this. “So we just have to figure out who in town has gotten one of these things. What do we do with it once we have it?”
“Pop it into Alterspace. Celestia told me that once I’ve thrown an article into there, all of its effects are neutralized. Then it either stays there, or she moves it to something called the Black Vault, until we can send it back.” He suddenly stopped walking, eyes wide.
Risk waved a hoof in front of his face. “Arrell? Equestria to Arrell?”
“Red headband...” he mumbled to himself. We turned in the direction he was looking, but whatever he saw, it had already passed. “Risk. False. From here, which direction is the saloon?”
I pointed to the left. “Two streets that way. Why?”
“Because the headband-wearing criminal always returns to the scene of the crime.” He broke into a gallop, heading to the left. “And once he gets there, he’s got Nimble and Asylum as prime Hadoken targets!”
[Perspective: Asylum]
I sighed. Nothing of importance was behind the saloon. There were some bloodstains on the ground and the wall where the murder victim died, but everything else had either been moved or cleaned up.
“Well, this didn’t turn out to be very helpful,” I muttered, sitting down against the wall. Nimble walked over to me, also having found nothing. “Hopefully the others had better luck...”
Nimble’s ears flicked, and he looked to the side. I looked with him. A dark gray earth pony was galloping, his black mane and red headband flowing in the wind. He was running far faster than I thought capable of a pony...
Then, I realized he was charging right at us.
“Shoryuken!”