It had been a week since the mythbusters arrived, and they were fitting in quite well. Natalie had taken to visiting Twilight for lunch, Zack had helped out Fluttershy when he wasn't patrolling, and the cutie mark crusaders enjoyed following Maxwell into the everfree forest to watch him hunt myths, much to his frustration. Normally, Toby would play with Kepher for the majority of the day, but today, Kepher was off to who knows where and he didn't know why. Toby sat in his room, wondering what he would do that day. "Psylocke is usually at auntie Twilight's house about now...maybe i'll go see what they're up too..." he thought. He got up and went downstairs to find Fluttershy had left a note for him on the dining table.
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Dear Toby,
I've gone to Rarity's for tea, if you need anything, come find me.
Love, Fluttershy.
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Toby put the note down and decided to head out right away, he left and started down the path to Twilight's house.
On his way, Rainbow dash flew beside him. "Hey little buddy? watcha up to?" she asked.
"Hi auntie Rainbow, i'm just going to auntie Twilight's for a bit." he said.
"Okay cool. I'm gonna get back to training, I wanna be at my best when I race Sugar cane later today, the kids off training on his own, and i'm not letting him get ahead of me!"
Toby smiled. "So that's where he's disappeared to..."
Rainbow dash nodded. "Yeah, well see ya later." and she flew off.
A little later, he finally reached Twilight's library. He knocked and heard a familiar voice answer. "Coming!"
The door opened and there stood Spike. "Oh, hey Toby." he said.
Toby smiled softly. "Hey spike, I was wondering if I could chat with auntie Twilight and Psylocke for a bit."
"Oh sure, they're over there." Spike pointed to the two girls sitting beside eachother. Natalie was using some sort of cell phone. "Hi Psy, what's that thing?" he asked.
She looked at him with a grin. "Hey Squirt. it's nothing much, just a dimensional rift phone, it's a lot stronger than a normal phone, strong enough to be able to call into other worlds. I was just sending a weekly report to my boss to tell him how things are going." She continued typing away at the small keyboard that had runes instead of letters.
Twilight had been staring at the device, fascinated deeply, but she snapped back into focus at the mention of a boss.
"I send weekly letters to princess Celestia! Wow, what else could we have in common?" she beamed.
Natalie looked back to Twilight. "Well...my boss is my uncle, and he isn't the big boss, just higher up than me. The real bosses are called the counsel of noh."
Toby stiffened a little at hearing the word. "Noh? that's what Sugar cane said was dark energy or something..."
Natalie shot a serious look at him. "Not exactly... noh is the name for the aura around the body of every living thing. The color represents the amount of energy in the being, thus gauging its power. Those who would spend long periods of time around myths however, do tend to develop negative energy in their noh aura, the counsel have the strongest noh of anyone else, they lead the mythbusters."
Toby held his hand to his chin in a thinking manor. "Hmmm so that kid did have contact with myths..."
Natalie looked puzzled. "What kid?" she asked.
"Some kid that walked in on me and Sugar cane while we were baking at auntie Pinkie's. He had shackles on...Sugar cane said the boy had a dark noh aura."
Natalie looked up from her phone. "Oh, you saw that kid too? his clothes were all torn up, so i told him to try going to Rarity's."
"Well that explains why he was so fancy when I saw him at home... he wandered off into the everfree." he replied.
She looked back down. "Well, Regret is out there, so we don't have to worry."
Twilight smiled. "Speaking of which, Applebloom and her friends still follow him everywhere. they seem to really like him, I've seen them pretending to fight myths in the park trying to imitate him." She giggled at the memory.
"I don't think Regret is someone they should be imitating." Natalie said, laughing.
She finally finished with her report and looked to Toby. "Hey, kid." He looked at her curiously. "You wanna check out my phone?"
He jumped. "Really?" he asked.
"Sure,who knows, maybe I can get you one if you want."
"Woah, that would be awesome!" He sat down beside her.
"Alright," she said, "this phone doesn't only let me communicate through dimensions, but with enough energy, it can transport me to another world, that's only for emergencies though, as the recharge time is fifteen hours, along with trying to get more energy to activate it again."
Toby tilted his head to the side. "What kind of emergency would need you to go to another world?"
Natalie got serious for a second. "Well, what if I'm here on my mission, and randomly, a two hundred foot tall myth with godlike power smashes through earth? I have to go there and help, don't I?"
Toby nodded. Then Twilight spoke again. "Wow, traveling through worlds... the only one i can think of that can do that is Discord..." Twilight was looking at the phone with new curiosity, after all, if it could do that, it must have many other features worthy of study.
Natalie gave her a grim frown. "It doesn't work perfectly, not anymore at least. Since myths are constantly breaking the barriers between worlds, dimensional travel by these phones becomes slowly less predictable, sometimes sending us to a world far from our destination."
Toby tensed up. "Breaking the barriers...isn't going to do anything insane, is it?" he asked, scared of the answer.
"No...the barriers repair themselves, they just get less respondent to the phone's dimension traveling functions until they are fully restored."
Toby let out a sigh of relief. Then, Natalie had an idea. "Hey... how about we go back to earth? just you and me? I could show you around headquarters. It's alright, seeing as your from a land of magical talking ponies, i doubt anyone would second guess you, and we would only be gone a couple of hours."
Toby thought for a moment. "I'll have to ask mamma, I trust you Psy, but I don't think mamma would be happy if the warp went wrong and we ended up in the frozen tundra or something..."
Natalie nodded. "Well, you go ask her, I need to go back to headquarters anyway to request some extra supplies, I think we're a little unprepared here...with ponies apparently not being able to fight anything above E level...so i'll wait for you for about a half hour, then if your not here, I'm going alone." Toby nodded and ran out the door. He really wanted to go see the mythbuster's home. Just how different from his was it? He remembered seeing some weird shadowy creatures over the coarse of his life on earth, but he just overlooked it as shading of normal animals, but now, he had a whole new perspective. Twilight looked at Natalie with concern. "Are you serious?" she asks.
Natalie smiles warmly. "Yeah, it could be lots of fun to show him around, maybe they'll make him an honorary mythbuster, so he has access to a dimensional phone, and other equipment, plus he wants to help us out, so why not let him?"
Twilight gave her an intense stare. "You have no idea what he went through on earth..."
"No, but i guess if he's uncomfortable, I can just ask about it."
Twilight shook her head. "He might get upset at the memories if he talks about it,so if you do ask him...make it really gentle."
Natalie looked her in the eye. "I am nothing but gentle when it comes to someones past, and trust me, whatever his tragedy is, me and the others can feel his pain, you might not know it," she looked to the ground, a tear forming in her eye, however she had a forced smile barely visible."but me and the others have some pretty grim stories too..." She gave a feint giggle. Twilight looked at her with a saddened expression. Natalie noticed the look and shook her head to get rid of the bad thoughts."Nevermind, it's not important."
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Meanwhile At The Carousel Boutique
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"I'm really enjoying our time together, Rarity." Fluttershy said as she sat across from her friend at a small table.
"Oh, darling, the feeling is mutual. I can't remember the last time I've had a peaceful day as this, with no monsters to ruin it." Just then, They heard the bell ring. "Oh, who could that be?" Rarity got up and walked towards the entrance.
"Hello auntie Rarity." Toby said as he walked up and gave her a hug.
"Hello sweetie, do you need something?" she asked.
"Actually, I need to speak with mamma real quick."
"Alright then, she is just over there." She led him over to where Fluttershy was sitting.
"Hello mamma, I was wondering... If i could go with Psylocke to her home? she offered to give me a tour of the mythbuster base." he smiled at her with pleading eyes.
Both Fluttershy and Rarity were speechless. He spoke again. "It would only be for a day!"
Fluttershy spoke up. "Well... If you're going with Psylocke, then i guess it's okay...but it's only for a day, right?"
"Yes mamma, I promise." he said, holding his hand above his heart.
"Alright then..." she said, still a little bit worried, but she was reassured knowing that Psylocke would protect him.
Rarity smiled at Toby brightly. "Well, if he's going to the mythbuster base, he had better stay away from any dangerous weapons. We've seen what power they have in those tiny things."
Toby nodded. "I'll be very careful auntie." He jumped with joy as he rushed out back to the library.
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Once Again At The Library
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At least twenty minutes had passed and Twilight couldn't get what Psylocke had said out of her head. "So... you said you guys had grim pasts...is that why Regret is so grouchy?" she asked.
Natalie looked up at her. "I don't know, he seems to switch between being annoyingly cheerful and being miserable. we have no idea what his problem is, he doesn't appear to have multiple personality disorder or anything..." just then Toby came in through the door.
"Mamma said yes!" he cheered.
Natalie shot out of her daze as she looked at him. "Great! we can leave right after we go over a few rules." she said. Toby nodded.
"First, you have to wear this at all times." she handed him a digital watch with many buttons on the sides." It's a communicator. it has other functions too, but that is the only one you should pay attention to." He put it on. It was very comfortable.
"Wow, i'm so exited!" He cheered.Natalie started to push buttons on her phone. Then a light shined from the camera lens and fire across the room onto the wall, spreading into a portal. "Well, there we go, the portal to the mythbuster base." Toby looked through the portal to see an extremely large building surrounded by a field with trees scattered around, it was at the center of a large city.
the building was rectangular with a glass dome at the center of the roof, and the whole building was a chrome silver color.
Toby was speechless. He slowly walked towards the portal in awe, only to realize too late, that he had just crossed over.
Natalie laughed a bit. "Don't worry Twi, I'll make sure he stays out of trouble." she said.
"Alright. but don't stay gone too long, you never know when Fluttershy will freak out with worry."
Natalie then followed Toby through the portal.
"Alright kid," she said. "stay close to me, okay?" she held out her hand.
"Alright." he replied, and took hold of her hand. They walked into the front door of the large compound and head to the receptionist.
Natalie signed a paper on the desk. "This is Toby, he's my guest here today, could i have a guest pass for him?"
The woman behind the counter handed her a tag with Toby's name already on it. "There you go."
They walked around for a while, Natalie showing Toby the break room, the weight room, the classrooms, the locker rooms, and the training simulators, all had chrome based shining bright colors, however the room design looked like ordinary school rooms with some office building features thrown in. After two hours had passed site-seeing, they began to walk towards the break room for lunch. they where about to enter when Natalie looked to her right to see a boy similar to Toby walking towards them. "Oh shit!" she said, realization striking her. She pushed Toby into the break room and followed suite, closing the door behind them. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing, nothing at all...i'm just hungry..." she lied. *Crap, i totally forgot this compound was the one with the time machine...* she thought. *we never see the thing anyway...why didn't i recognize Toby the second i saw him!? The Toby we know has been with us for years!* She seated Toby nearby and went for the food, she returned with trays of food for each of them, but stopped in her tracks.
The two Tobys were in a conversation. *Oh no...* she panicked in her mind. she walked over and gave Toby his tray, and trying to keep calm, she sat down next to the second Toby. "Hey Psy, this guys name is Tobi, with an i, though i guess it'll still be hard to tell us apart without addressing us through writing, haha." They both chuckled a bit. Natalie nudged Tobi.
"What are you doing? messing with an alternate version of yourself could mess him up, how would he react if he knew you were him!?" Tobi just leaned back and whispered his reply.
"c'mon, there are only, like, four timelines that connect to each other, its not a big deal, besides, he doesn't know, and I don't plan on telling him...unless i have a reason to." He looked to the door and his eyes widened a little. "Gotta go..." he said as he dashed away. Toby laughed. "What got him so jumpy?" Just then three large men with futuristic battle suits walked up to Toby.
"Tobi Mason?" the one in front asked.
"Yes..."
"You missed training this morning, you're required to go through the procedure or you won't be allowed to go on any missions untill the next evaluation."
Toby gave a confused look. "Wha..."
"Come with us please." they grabbed him and took him away.
Natalie shook her head. "This won't end well..."
Before he knew it, Toby was inside a large gymnasium of sorts. They led him to a garage door in the wall which opened to reveal a weapon storage room. "Here is your usual." The man tossed Toby a guitar with a small piano under the strings.
He was still incredibly confused as to what was going on. Toby was pushed into the Gym as all doors closed around him and the humming of various vents could be heard around him. "We know you've been off duty the last few weeks, so we'll start small to get you back up to speed, we're starting with E class." Toby froze in fear as realization finally struck him. He wanted to shout at them, he wanted to tell them they had the wrong boy, but it had already begun. Five myths, wolves, ran towards him. He instinctively jumped out of the way and performed a roll, getting back to his feet. he hoped with all his heart that what he was about to do would work. He flipped the switch on his guitar, and magically, runes began to glow on the keys and around the strings. He played some music with the piano half which caused the tip to glow. He held the guitar like a rifle and aimed the head at a wolf, and with pure will, he was able to make the guitar fire a magical bullet at the target, destroying it. "Whoa, that was cool..." he said to himself. Another wolf jumped at him, but he stood his ground and swung his guitar like a bat, smashing the wolf square in the head and defeating it. Normally, he would have been scared stiff, trembling and calling for help, but for some reason, he felt so much braver, so much stronger, when he held this strange guitar. He ran towards the last 3 wolves who had stuck together waiting for a chance to strike. Toby jumped up bringing his guitar crashing down on the one to the left, immediately after the impact he swung again, smashing the middle wolf, after that, he flipped the guitar back to gun position and fired his musical missiles at the last one. He then heard a voice from the intercom. "Okay, that's enough, you passed today's evaluation." The door opened and Toby walked back to the break room to find Psylocke.
Luckily for him, he passed her on the way. "Hey Toby! you okay?" she called to him. she was sitting on a bench in the lobby, next to Tobi, who had apparently been talking with her for a while. He walked up to them slowly, a dark and angry look in his eye.
"Perfect!" he jumped up and smiled largely. "I beat up some myths with a guitar! and look, they let me keep it!" he took it off of his back and showed it to them.Natalie smiled at him. "Oh, lucky you! it suits you perfectly! I don't think they'll let you keep it once they find out your not actually one of us though..." Toby frowned at this.
Tobi took out a piece of paper and handed it to Toby. his eyes widened.
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NEW SUBJECT
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Subject #5
Birth Name: Toby Mason
Age: 9
Code Name: Crescendo
Class: Musician of Harmony
Weapon of choice: Guitar Keyboard with runes engraved into the keys, in standard mode, works as and ordinary instrument, in weapon mode, pressing keys activates different attack modes.
MythBuster Clearance level: D-
Appearance: Short brown hair, normally wears a bright right tailcoat and dress pants, both have a velvety texture, yet are tough as iron. wears glasses and dress shoes with rune jets in the heels.Special locket from his mother is on him at all times.
Special talent: Very kind, easily makes allies out of pretty much anyone he meets, can call on support from various allies around him, be they animals or people.
Solid Heart Activation: Sonic Catyclism - Creates various effects which differ depending on the mood of the user, ranging from a small fireball to summoning an army of demons.
Description: Joined at the age of seven, claims to have made a wish to have a new home, and a few hours after, a myth attacked his home, and was defeated by a mythbuster who was passing by. The boy showed interest in keeping the innocent safe and was asked to go through a test of willpower and passed with flying colors. He was taken into the care of Captain Theodore Gevrenn, the subject who had saved him that night, when the boys father was deemed unfit to care for him.
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Toby looked at his counterpart with surprise and confusion. Tobi spoke up. "Don't worry, it's my old one, the idiots messed up the data, the age is current, but the info is old, my current one is way different, so they shouldn't be able to tell. Also, here." He took out a dimension cube and materialized some clothes into Toby's arms, they were the same as the ones described in the report. "Your welcome." He turned and left swiftly. Natalie, eager to forget what just happened, stood up and took Toby's hand.
"Alright... We should be heading back now..." They where at the teleporter in a matter of minutes.
Toby looked at her. "How am i supposed to explain all this stuff i'm bringing back?" thoughts of his promise to Fluttershy flooded his mind. "We'll figure something out, i'm sure..." Natalie rubbed his hair and they went back through the portal to Equestria.