"So... how do we save the universe, Mr. Wanderer?" Applebloom had walked up to Wanderer on the balcony, as he stared into the endless void that is now Cantorlot.
"We're supposed to defeat the villain behind it, but..." Wanderer hopelessly started, "I haven't seen the guy or gal who wants to do it, err... rather... I haven't figured it out..."
"Do you need help investigating it?" Applebloom asked politely, "Ah know ah've already tried to get my investigator cutie mark, but if you need help with something, just tell somepony."
"Hmm... now that you've offered, I'm almost inclined to give you something to do..." Wanderer pondered a moment. He looked Applebloom over and looked out across the city in a sightless gaze.
The rest of the crusaders came in a second later, carrying news, "Um... Twilight came today." Sweetie Belle sighed.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Wanderer asked.
"She came up to the door and asked for you to come immediately, or else we'd get hurt." Scootaloo continued for Sweetie Belle.
"Alright, then let's honor her demand! Stay inside kiddies!" Wanderer simply responded with no concern for safety on his face.
"W-What!? But..." Scootaloo tried to object, "Twilight had this menacing look in her eyes! It was nuts, I thought we were dead on the spot!"
"There are moments when answering a parley is best for your health. Besides, she shouldn't even have a thought going through her mind at the moment, so I'll be fine!"
"That doesn't make any sense!" Sweetie Belle pointed out angrily.
"You're just kids, of course it doesn't make sense!" Wanderer chided, "Just stay here and be quiet... Safer that way."
The CMC didn't make any further attempt to stop Wanderer. So he walked downstairs from the balcony and went towards the front gate. He stopped and saw not the lavender princess everypony knew as the best magic-user, but as the annoying obsess-over-details mare, with wings.
"You look tired... and a little messy, could I help you?" Wanderer asked nonchalantly.
"No... keep your grubby fingers off me!" Twilight angrily exclaimed, "You know how to reverse curses don't you? Then reverse the one on me!"
"Hmm........." Wanderer toyed with her and made his pause very long, then got serious again when she growled, "Okay, I'll tell you right now... you're infected with a curse that enhances one trait that you try to suppress-"
"So what!? You can still fix me, right?" Twilight demanded, "C'mon hurry up and lay the card on me!"
"Can't." Wanderer mischievously replied, "You did something bad, it's not in my interest to balance the universe. In fact, I bet you were a bad, bad princess!" he poked her nose mischievously and walked away smiling, "Good day to you, ma'am!"
"Stop! You will help me!" Twilight screamed, "It's your job to!"
"Begging won't help!" Wanderer declared as he climbed the stairs back to the balcony room. As he enters the room, he puts a finger to his lips and motions for the CMC to hide under the bed he dragged up there.
As soon as he gets to the balcony, Twilight comes up out of nowhere and yells directly into his face, "The Wanderer is supposed to save the world not leave everyone to die!"
Her eyes were radiating with violent energy, or just glowing white in god mode. She looked prepared to lay a smack down!
Wanderer looked deep into her eyes and saw what he was up against, "Good... you passed your test!"
HUH!?
"What!? What are you talking about!?" Twilight responded, "What test!?"
"Don't you love pop quizzes?" Wanderer asked maliciously, "Especially the ones that are by complete surprise?"
"I-I don't understand..." Twilight commented.
"Well... let me explain how I got you to cure yourself." Wanderer smiled with the results, "I suppose that since you're an alicorn, you can sense presences... but when you came to me, you didn't leave a trail of bodies, so I assumed you knew what was going on, and I was right! You knew what was going on, but some of the curse still radiated inside you, so I had to do one thing... get you to stand/fly near other ponies."
"S-So... you told the CMC to hide under the bed to try and avoid my attention." Twilight concluded, "Clever... but what if you were wrong about me?"
"It's a gamble I could take... I was going to purify you either way." Wanderer pointed out, "I just wanted to cut the whole 'this is a dream and you're cursed!' shtick, because... honestly that's boring!"
"Do you have any consideration for others!?" Twilight yelled into Wanderer face, "If you were wrong, I would have killed the three crusaders!"
"Do you realize what I have to do every time your goddess screws up protecting her world!?" Wanderer rebutted, "I have lost count of how many people I've killed at around 50, in this universe at least..."
"What?" Twilight's rage turned immediately to confusion, "You've killed that many humans?"
"That many, and more..." Wanderer stared sternly, "What do you think I do every time this happens? Get a cup o' tea, sit down with the universe destroyer and tell not to pull the trigger? They always fight back, and I don't have a way to persuade them otherwise!"
"So you're saying this is Celestia's fault?" Twilight considered her answer for a moment, "Because she let something in that wasn't supposed to come in?"
"You figured that out, so why aren't you the one in her place?" Wanderer confirmed her answer subtly.
"Because I don't have any experience in that kind of thing! Anyways..." Twilight paused as the CMC climbed out from under the bed, "Do you know who's doing this?"
"Of course... it's my brother, Dekari..." Wanderer answered gloomily, "Let me handle him, alright?"
"But..." Twilight attempted to persuade Wanderer into allowing her to help, "I can fix his curse... that's what he has isn't it?"
"One: you're not powerful enough, besides this is personal..." Wanderer pointed out, "Only Celestia could do this, and she's long gone. And two: How did you know about the curse?"
"Huh!? Um... well..." Twilight sweated a little, "I don't know, um... it seems obvious by his actions!"
Wanderer looked doubtful, but didn't continue to press, "Look he's coming tonight, so don't get in the way... I need to do this... alone." he tapped on his chest with his finger, "I'll be connected by heart, so I have the perfect plan for when he comes."
Twilight looked at him doubtful this time, and chose to press, "How do you think this will work?"
"Look at who's still alive right now..." Wanderer pointed at the CMC, "They'd be dead like you said, but they're going to stay around after all this is over. That's my gambling ability at work, so trust me, alright?"
Twilight still looked doubtful, but gave up trying to talk sense into him.
Wanderer smiled and closed his eyes coyly, "This'll all be over soon, cheer up!"
Twilight and the CMC looked at each other confused, but didn't ask anything else.
"Oh, and I need one favor of you Twilight..." Wanderer scratched behind his head, "Err... scratch that, I need two favors... maybe you could think of them as three favors. Get the CMC back home, tell the humans to come into here, and give these to the ponies that need them."
Wanderer pulls out Fluttershy's notebook and the changeling flower, then forces them into Twilight's saddle bags.
"What? I-I haven't agreed to anything yet!" Twilight objected to the favors.
"Alright... alright, fine." Wanderer looked away shyly, "I'll tell you one thing about myself if you just deliver that stuff to Fluttershy and the Doctor, and do the other things..."
"Finally!" Twilight sighed in relief, "Alright, I want to know about your original world!"
"Panama's dead!" Wanderer exclaimed angrily, then exhaled curtly, "My world is gone so ask something else!"
"Alright then," Twilight pondered for a moment what her next question would be, then decided on: "Do you remember anything about yourself?"
"I might've been a thief," Wanderer muttered, "However bad at the job I was. Okay, now I want you to do one more thing before you storm this place with your army..."
Back at the Ponyville City Hall.
The hall is filled with both angry humans and agitated ponies, none of them were stopping in their vocal angry mob pattern towards Mayor Mare.
"Hey! What's going on!?"
"We're supposed to go into that city, but something's delaying you idiot ponies!?"
"We didn't ask to have a force field thrown around the castle!"
Though Mayor Mare wasn't really arguing with them... she kept banging her gavel trying to get order, but kept making noise that fell upon deaf ears.
Derpy walks through the front door reluctantly with the remainder of the mane six leading her. "Why's everybody fighting? It just seems like the humans want a fight!"
"Unfortunately, they may force us to give them what they want..." Applejack replied pitifully, then she raised her voice to the humans and ponies, "Hey! All of ya'll stop fighting for a second!"
They all pay her no mind as they kept bickering at a nonstop rate.
"See? They don't listen to a single word you say." Applejack continued, "I really wish we could help get to Wanderer, I do... but none of these gosh darn humans want to stop bickering for a second to listen to us."
"Isn't there a way to get them to see the force field?" Derpy asked.
"I'd love to get them to see it, but I don't think they'll stop arguing for a stroll to Cantorlot just to see the force field..." Rainbow Dash pointed out.
"Wait... that's perfect!" Derpy gestured at the humans, "If we could get them to the gates of Cantorlot, then we could prove to them that we aren't lying!"
"Like I said, they're not stopping for a while." Rainbow Dash repeated her point, "How are you going to get them to stop arguing?"
"Um... name-calling and a few insults." Fluttershy responded. When everypony turned to look at her she continued, "Why not? They catch our attention with those tactics."
"Yeah, but..." Applejack began, "I guess we could do those things... but I just don't see anypony here doing those things."
Suddenly the front door to the main hall slams open to show Twilight and the CMC standing there. Everyone quieted down as Twilight walked between the groups and took Mayor Mare's place.
"So I bet you're here to tell us to stop fighting because of some bull crap excuse that your precious city is in a force field." one of the humans cried out angrily.
"Actually I came to do three things," Twilight replied, "First, to tell you all how dumb you sound arguing... do you really think the attempt to get back in is going to come faster if you yell at the ponies who want your help in the first place? Second, surprisingly... the force field will be breakable in by at least tomorrow. Get ready by then..."
The angry humans walked away being sated of their appetite for knowledge. Some stop to give angry glances Twilight's way... then leave after a single grunt.
"Three," Twilight continued, "From Wanderer, a changeling plant for the Doctor and a notebook for Fluttershy."
"Well... I guess something stopped him for a while." the Doctor muttered to himself, "Perhaps I can still do what he could do now with the plant."
"Y-Yayy!" Fluttershy cheered.
"Alright, everypony... let's get prepared for tomorrow morning! It's going to be a long journey like last time!" Twilight cried across the masses of ponies and what remaining humans there were.
Everypony cheered with hope filling the air... they all felt the same way... they could do this!
................
However... maybe they couldn't... could they really end the war? Or are they just blindly following a foolish command from the ever-so-foolish Wanderer of universes? Did they even think about how they were going to fight against the void filled humans?
Oh well, I guess we'll figure it out later... for now, they should rest up for the task set before them.
The next day!
The ponies are marching off toward the city of Cantorlot prouder than ever, obviously feeling able to set upon the task ahead of them. Everypony and human strode towards the city with a passion that could overthrow tyrants for years!
After setting up the magic amplifier, the unicorns and Twilight quickly charge up the magic for a huge fireball. Everypony stood ready to fight the horde of humans possibly on the other side of the gate.
However... there was nothing on the streets as they marched through the gates.
"Where is everyone?" Rainbow Dash looked around frantically, "I hope there isn't an ambush..."
"I don't think there are anymore humans here..." Twilight realized.
OUTTA MY WAY!!!
Wanderer's shout cut clean through the air like an arrow to its target. He sped down the street towards Ponyville's army, while holding his bow.
Everypony prepared to attack him as soon as he got into range, but couldn't hit him as he jumped over the entire crowd off one pony's shield. Even the pegasi leading air-defense were too stunned to hit him.
He fell down onto the ground with a thud and kept running towards Ponyville.
"What's he doing?" Twilight asked confused, "I thought we were all fighting together..." her eyes darted towards the palace.
"Maybe he forgot something at Ponyville..." Fluttershy reasoned, "He was waiting until the gate was open to run over to Ponyville."
"I don't know... something seems... off..." Applejack echoed Twilight's thoughts, "You want to go give chase to Wanderer, Twi?"
"Of course not, Fluttershy's probably right..." Twilight shrugged it off, "Let's head towards the palace!"
Everypony marched on through the Celestia-forsaken city that used to be Cantorlot.
.............
"Hmph..." a voice echoed annoyed, "He's still an idiot..."
"Alright... there it is!" Twilight exclaimed at arriving at the palace gates, "Alight everypony, I want a large percentage of you to stay out here, girls follow me, the rest of you can follow us."
About six ponies and one female human of the large group followed the mane si-...five in through the large front doors.
The main hall was completely abandoned except for the things that made it a main hall, those being the doorways into empty, messy rooms.
Regretting ever coming here, Twilight kept on the move slowly approaching the throne room door.
She reluctantly opened the door and got surprised by probably the scariest thing ever...
"This is your singing telegram, I hope it finds you well!" Pinkie started singing, "Wanderer's away, but I can tell you're early! Now come on in and enjoy... the... PARTY!"
Everypony was somewhat... disappointed to see that that's what was there to greet them.
Behind Pinkie, Dark Gambit was uncomfortably standing next to a table of snacks...... yeah, I know, this is strange.
"Pinkie, what's going on?" Twilight asked still uncomfortable.
"Well, we just defeated Dekari, got him to help put up decorations, and Wanderer's gone off to do something crazy again!" Pinkie summed it all up in one breath. She pulls out a cupcake, "Cupcake?"
"No thanks..." Twilight declined, "What do you mean by you've got Dekari helping you put up decorations?"
"Oh... wait, no!" Pinkie suddenly changed her mind, "I got him to shoot off some fireworks!" she eyed the clock impatiently, "*sigh* He's doing a bad job at it..." she sulked.
Twilight, with a grimacing smile asked: "Well... maybe I should go upstairs and help-"
*Bang!* *Screech!*
"Oh, he figured it out!" Pinkie suddenly brightened up, "I guess you don't need to help him out after all Twilight!"
"I still need to talk to him, though..." Twilight responded, "Could I please excuse myself?"
"Well, sure you can! Don't irritate him though, he literally punches holes through walls!" Pinkie warned, "You should see the one in the garden..."
"Yeah... I think I get it..." Twilight replied tiredly, "I'll be back in a second."
Twilight quickly galloped up the stairs to the princess's dorm, and found not only Dekari, but also Rysuke... doing some pecking thing to Dekari...
Rysuke screeched in surprise.
"So your name's Twilight?" Dekari spoke in a drearily tired voice, and looked at Rysuke confused, "I don't know what I'm doing here either... could you tell me if you know something about me?"
"Um... I think he was talking about me..." Twilight pointed out.
"Oh... you're Twilight?" Dekari slowly caught up, "I was just asking birdbrain here what his name was, you must have surprised him."
"So... do you remember anything?" Twilight asked confused, "I heard you were the one who set this city in a force field..."
"I did what now?" Dekari replied confused, "Sorry, I only seem to remember what happened this morning... I ate breakfast with the nice ponies here, then started setting some fireworks up."
"Really? You only remember that much?" Twilight asked confused, "But... you were spotted by a certain group..."
"I must have been someone bad until I lost my memories then..." Dekari looked downtrodden.
Rysuke flapped his wings and screeched angrily at Dekari.
"I'm not sure the mind of a hawk is trustworthy, do you?" Dekari asked Twilight out of nowhere.
"Huh!? Well..." Twilight tried to regain her composure, "My friend can speak to animals too, and has gotten a lot of good advice."
"Really...?" Dekari looked at Rysuke for a quick minute, then got on his feet and started walking towards the exit to the room, "I'll start by finding Wanderer then... I'll see you later feathery friend!" he then dashes out of the room.
Rysuke, looking downtrodden, coos sadly.
"I... think I feel the same way, Rysuke..." Twilight tried to interpret Rysuke's coo, and she probably got it wrong.
It seems that Dekari has forgotten what had happened just a few short days ago... but how did he forget something so unforgettable? Perhaps there's something we're missing in this equation...
And what's going on with Wanderer? He seems to be gambling more than the last few chapters... now he's running away from the very place that he had gone to in the first place for his brother? What's going on... maybe we'll figure out in the next chapter...
Would you like to-
NOW HANG ON A MINUTE!
Wanderer objected strongly to Mr. saver!
"No saves! We're going all barred this time! I do not want to save!" he yelled angrily.
But this is my job... it's not like I get the special treatment being the main character!
"Yeah, well tough crumb cakes!" Wanderer yelled, "I tell you over and over that I don't want this game to be saved and you do it anyway! Why!? Why do you do this the protagonist!?"
Well... I... Fine...
Wanderer sighs with relief, "Good... I see we can finally see eye to-"
Progress now saved! Thank you for saving!
"Oh, you son of a-"