//------------------------------//
// Illusion 
// Story: Multiverse Rumble 
// by Ron Jeremy Pony 
//------------------------------//

Muliverse Rumble

Chapter 1: Illusion

(From the perspective of Niko Bellic)

The purple one has been talking for the last two hours.  She seems to care what has happened, cares about Dash, but I find this place difficult to trust.  Perhaps it is because of how I found Dash.  Strapped down to a table, scared, hurt, and threatened with death, but that wasn’t the worst of it.  She looked as if she had lost all hope.  Her eyes reminded me of the same eyes my friends had.  The look of pain and betrayal as we were fired upon was present in all of their eyes.  Darko had done that to them.
Darko, their friend, had done to them what Dash’s friend had done to her.  It was something I believed could have ruined her, but it didn’t.  I watched her recover, and I discovered the kind of woman she was.  In many ways she reminds me of Kate.  I have never told her this.  I don’t want to.  I don’t want her to think that I have purposely compared her to someone else I cared for so deeply.  But the fact remains that she reminds me of her.  Like Kate she is so strong, so determined, and…  I have never regretted helping her.

Still, I find myself looking toward the hooded person standing off in the distance.  He looks toward me every so often, but I do not care.  If he thinks that I have contempt for him then he is right.

“Mr. Bellic, Rainbow Dash said that you have some experience with fighting,” the purple one says to me.

“Yes, experience is a way of putting it,” I answer.

“Niko has fought in a variety of wars.  If I had the file here I could lay it out for you, but allow me to say that his experience will come in quite handy,” the hooded one says.

I glare at him.  The file, it is always the file that he brings up.  Everything he had information on about me, gathered into one file, and now…  Now I find that he has more information than he even began to explain.

“Tell them,” I say daring him.

“He walked through villages where he is from.  Entire villages burned to the ground because of the, ‘old and bitter’, isn’t that what you said before Mr. Bellic?  Or perhaps the direct quote is, ‘War is when the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other.’  It’s quite poetical actually,” he replies.

I feel myself seething as he talks.  Everything inside of me screams to make him pay for what he had done to me, done to Dash, to our life together, to Roman’s life, but I manage to hold back.

“Very good Mr. Bellic.  I was afraid that your anger would get the better of you.  That’s a problem you will face again.  There are going to be things we will face that will try to make us turn against each other,” he says.

“Why are we wasting time?  Let’s get this done!” the other Dash says.

I study her.  She seems like my Dash, but there is something wrong.  I can see it inside of her.  There seems to be something missing, something dark, it is like she is ruined.  My Dash looked into the abyss and didn’t let it take her, but this one…  I fear she allowed it to swallow her whole.

“We need a plan of attack,” I state.

“IF that plan includes burning villages down then I’ll ask you,” she shoots back at me.

“Hey! Back off!” my Dash says.

The other Dash looks at her.  I see the stubborn streak in my Dash, my wife in the other one.  I watch them Glare at one another, and I can tell that neither is going to back down.  The other Dash moves toward my wife and looks her directly in her eyes.
“And what happens if I don’t?  What are you going to do about it?” she asks.

“Guys, we’ve really got to try to work together,” Twilight asks from off to the side.

I can hear the nerviousness in her voice.  She knows that there is going to be a fight before this is over with and it’s not going to be a pretty one.  My Dash hasn’t flown as a pony in a while, but fighting that’s something else completely.  She had helped face down some of the worst humanity had to throw at her.  I know she can hold her own.  Actually, I feel more afraid for the other Dash.  There’s no way she would know what she is getting into by fighting my Dash.
I missed the response by my wife, but I didn’t miss the first slap.  The hoof of the other Dash striking my wife across the face, and while it might have been the first strike it wasn’t the last.  My Dash lashed out.  She struck the other Dash in the throat.  It caused her to gasp deeply, and from there my Dash worked on her kidneys.  She fell to the ground as my Dash looked down at her.

“That’s what will happen bitch,” my Dash spits at her.

“Rainbow Dash…” Twilight starts before I walk up and touch Dash’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t necessary,” I say.

“She needed to be put in her place…  I don’t know how I could have become such an uncaring bitch,” she replies.

“Darkness, it swallows everyone,” I reply.

(Rainbow Dash’s view point)

Niko is right about that not being necessary.  I didn’t have to hurt her.  I didn’t have to beat some sense into her, but she needed it, and to be honest I’m sure she still needs it..  I’m still not really sure how I could have turned out like that.  The hooded pony, or agent, whatever he is, had basically explained that we all came from different universes.  Niko’s and my universe were connected together at a single point.  That was how he was able to come through and save me before.  But this other me had been brought though by him.  He explained that by bringing another me to this world he weakened the world and was actually putting it into more danger.

Everyone began asking the same question about why he was doing this.  

“We need all of the help we can get.  Trust me I didn’t do this lightly,” he replies.

I know that I’m a great flyer, and I can do the Sonic Rainboom, but I don’t see how having two ponies who can do that would make any difference.  I hear someone clear their throat and looked up.

“Sir, you said that we need to undo this darkness right?  So, what should we do? I mean if you don’t mind my asking,” a nearly quiet Fluttershy asks.

I’m surprised to see her speaking up.  In truth it’s kind of hard to think of Fluttershy as someone who would speak up, but then I suppose that she had to do some coming out of her shell while I was gone.  I watch as she respectfully gives him time to compose himself and answer her.  Finally after a sigh he turns toward all of us.

“There are a lot of things that we need to do.  More than any of you even realize right now, but the first is to complete the elements of harmony,” he answers.

“Yeah, that’s going to be kind of impossible.  I mean you know about Pinkie Pie right?” I ask.

“I know about the clone, yes,” he answers.

“Clone, what clone?!” I ask.

Something glows for a second and I realize that he is a unicorn.  It makes sense.  That was how he kept up with me and Niko the entire time.  A file comes out from a saddlebag hanging on the wall and floats over.  It lands and opens to reveal a dark looking picture.  He steps forward and clears his throat.

“I’m sure you all remember the Mirror Pond,” he says.

I remember thousands of Pinkie Pies.  Thousands of them all bouncing and happy, and the thought sends a shiver down my spine.
“Yeah, I remember,” I reply.

He lifts a picture and hands it to me.  I look at it and see a figure tied to a bed.  It’s a face that I know, a face I believed and still believe tried to kill me, but I can see that I’m wrong.  There is Pinkie Pie, and she looks as if she’s been beaten.  It’s not the worst of it.  She’s human.  It means that she’s in Niko’s world.  He takes the picture back and places it back into his file.

“I’ve already contacted Jacob and another associate of mine.  They should’ve of retrieved her by now, and she should be safe.  If everything went well we should be able to retrieve her at any time,” he says.  

“You knew, You knew that she didn’t do it, but you let me think it this entire time?!  You knew that she was in Liberty City and you didn’t let us know?!  All of those jobs we did for you, all of that time we nearly died and you didn’t let us know?!” I scream at him.
He takes it and then walks toward me. I feel something force me to sit down before he sits across from me.  For the first time his hood comes back and I see a white unicorn stallion who looks so much older than I would have ever imagined he would be.  He takes a breath and clears his throat.

“I couldn’t let you know.  I wasn’t sure how you would react, and I couldn’t chance that you would kill her.  What her clone had done to you warranted any kind of revenge you wished to deliver.  I didn’t want you to think that this was the same Pinkie,” he says.
“What happened to her?” I ask.

“Someone had taken her over before the clone began its work.  I don’t know who, but I know that they had things done to her.  Niko and his friends most likely have an idea of what happened,” he answers.

I look at Niko who shakes his head.

“What?” I ask.

“She’s a looker Dash.  Girls like that who wind up in Liberty City without anyone to help them or stand up for them…  It doesn’t end up good,” Packie says.

“They get turned out on the street,” Dwayne answers.

I look at him and he shakes his head.

“I don’t like it, but it happens.  Whatever she was like, I can’t promise she will still be like that,” he says.

“That’s why Twilight will have to perform the memory spell she used in the discord event,” the white stallion says.