A flash of light deposited the group into a new room: high stained glass windows, with a long, flowing carpet in the middle of the floor leading from one end of the room to the door. Golden Sweet collapsed to her knees, trying her best not to throw up.
“Interdimensional travel can do that,” Stratos sheepishly trotted over to help her, “You alright, or you need a moment?”
“I’m alright… Wasn’t like that before.” Golden Sweet shook her head.
“Given that the devices were all meant to transport one person, that is to be expected.” Temporal shrugged.
“Where are w-”
“Excuse me.” Another voice called out. The group turned their attention to the source of the voice. At the end of the room, a pink alicorn sat upon a modest throne. To the alicorn’s right sat a large red earth stallion. To her left, sat a younger, smaller salmon coated alicorn mare with a streaked mane. In front of the ensemble stood a dour faced, blue-grey earth mare, dressed in a suit. The two groups continued to stare at one another in awkward silence.
“…Bellona?” the salmon alicorn stood up.
“…Fantasia?” Bellona blinked, staring back at the alicorn.
The two started forward, towards each other, eventually coming face to face with one another. After more awkward silence, the two grinned and hugged.
“Not too many other ponies like you,” Fantasia chuckled.
“Good to see you again too.”
“…Would someone like to tell me what is going on?” the other Alicorn spoke out loud.
“Princess Cadance, this is the group I was speaking about,” the earth pony turned, “Golden Gem, please inform the Princess of your intentions.”
“…How do you know who we are?” Gem eyed the pony suspiciously.
“Maud Pie is part of B.A.R., the Bureau of Alternate Realities,” the Stallion interrupted, “This means that you are the children of my counterparts, correct?”
The group blinked and exchanged uncertain glances before looking back at the Stallion: under the armor and sheen was the familiar shade of red, the same gamboge mane, and the same half smile.
“…How come my dad ain’t a prince?” Rhapsody pouted.
“Child, I’m sure your father still thinks of you as his little princess,” Cadance chuckled, “Still, I would like answers.”
“…If she knows who we are, is it necessary?” Gem responded.
“Yes.” Cadance replied, “It is still a formality.”
“…Fine.” Gem rolled her eyes before politely coughing.
“Your majesty, I am Golden Gem, from Universe Nine. These are my companions.” As she spoke, she motioned for the others to step forward.
“I’m Stratos Apple from universe twenty-nine, and this is Temporal Spectrum, who’s also from my universe” Stratos bowed.
“Princess Oscura from universe six-one-six,” she bowed, “I must say that this still looks remarkably like my mother’s throne room.”
“Who’s that?” Cadance inquired.
“Queen Umbra, I believe in most other universes she is known as King Sombra,” Oscura chuckled as the friendly expression on Big Macintosh’s face vanished, “My universe is, of course, not the same as this one.”
“Golden Sweet, Universe one-two-three.” The earth mare cut off Big Macintosh’s response.
“Fantasia knows who I am, that’s good enough.” Bellona rolled her eyes.
“And the filly?” Cadance asked.
“I’m Rhapsody!” she beamed, “My mom and dad are Lyra Heartstrings and Big Macintosh, and Gem says I’m from…um…”
“Universe one-nine-seven-four.” Gem added.
“Ah, the one where they all ended up in,” Maud noted, “And before you ask, B.A.R. has nothing to do with A.R.M.O.R. or M.L.P.”
“…MLP?” Stratos echoed.
“Multiversal League of Protection,” Maud rolled her eyes, “Amateurs. They make more messes than they fix.”
“…Just how many groups devoted to protecting the multiverse are there?” Stratos wondered out loud.
“In an infinite multiverse? Infinite.” Maud cracked a slight smile, “The concerns of ARMOR and MLP have nothing to do with me, however, so I am not obligated to tell them about your presence here.”
“…Thank you?” Gem cautiously replied.
“It’s not a problem. B.A.R. is more interested in monitoring how alternate universe interact, than preserving the status quo.”
“…So, I believe it is safe to assume you have come to recruit Fantasia for your mission,” Big Macintosh stated.
“…Yes.” Gem nodded.
“We already have one princess, why not two?” Golden Sweet muttered to Temporal.
“Why Fantasia? If I remember correctly, you also had… Novamac, Midnight Bliss and Idun to rely on,” Cadance asked.
“Because Bellona always fights with Novamac.”
“It’s not my fault he makes a cute face when he get flustered,” Bellona rolled her eyes; “Midnight Star makes the same face when she get flustered.”
“Who the heck is Midnight Star anyway?” Stratos asked.
“My marefriend.”
Temporal and Stratos exchanged a quick glance, before looking over at Golden Sweet. The mare shrugged in response.
“Don’t ask me.”
“...So, uh… if you’re part of B.A.R., does that mean there are agents for A.R.M.O.R. and M.L.P. here too?” Stratos changed the subject.
“No.” Gem interrupted Maud’s response, “They’re limited to certain universes.”
“…So what about my Mr. Cake?” Golden Sweet asked.
“He’s part of A.R.M.O.R., and so is whoever is in charge of Bliss’s universe.” Gem replied, much to the others surprise
“…Wait, this isn’t universe Twenty-nine?”
“No, this is Universe Seventy-Seven,” Maud responded, “Don’t ask who numbered these things.”
“…I thought so.” Temporal shook her head, “You made things worse, you know that?”
“I did what I had to. It will buy us enough time.”
“Regardless of your actions in other worlds,” Cadance interrupted Temporal’s response, “I believe you still need something very important? Like our permission to let Fantasia go?”
“…Right.” Gem nodded, “I-”
“Will wait as I discuss things with my daughter, Maud, my husband and the other members of your group,” Cadance finished, “It is only fair to hear all the opinions.”
“…Fair enough.” Gem responded.
“So for this, I will request that Gem remains behind. The rest of you are free to wander within the castle, along with your escorts.”
“Escorts?”
“You didn’t think I would let you access everything in the castle, did you?” Cadance chuckled.
---
Rhapsody and Golden Sweet continued down the hall. Behind them, two guards ponies and an earth mare in the armor of a commander followed. Rhapsody spun around and looked at their commander.
“…So how come you’re here Miss Silver Spoon?” the filly asked as she continued to walk backwards.
“…Because Prince Macintosh asked specifically for me to be transferred from Canterlot,” the mare replied.
“But you aren’t with Miss Sweetie Belle?”
“No. She has her own friendship with Discord.” Silver Spoon shook her head, “I do not know if their relationship is anything more than friends.”
“….What about Aunty Applebloom?”
“Princess Applebloom?” Silver Spoon paused, “I know even less about her relationships. They say she met a Griffon Prince at the Equestrian Games and they are quite happy together.”
“…But griffons are weird.”
Silver Spoon chuckled at the filly’s response, “They say the same thing about us.”
“I still don’t see why we need escorts to find the bathroom.” Golden Sweet muttered, “I hardly know anypony here, it’s not like I’m going to start a war.”
“Lady Maud informed us you are from a dimension where rebels won a civil war against the Princesses.”
“Thousands of years ago,” Golden Sweet replied, “and they had Discord and the Elements of Harmony.”
“We are still unwilling to take any chances.”
“Tch.”
---
Stratos and Temporal Spectrum entered the throne room once again. The two ponies paused in front of the thrones, waiting for Cadance to speak.
“Why have the two of you joined her quest?”, the Princess finally asked.
“We have…slightly different reasons,” Stratos began, “I joined because I want to know.”
“I joined because someone needed to keep an eye on the three of them,” Temporal responded, “Especially because Golden Gem is not telling the entire truth.”
Startled by that information, Maud and Big Macintosh exchanged a quick uncertain glance, while Fantasia frowned.
“Explain.”
“She keeps emphasizing that she has a plan for everything, yet doesn’t tell us,” Temporal paused, “that’s usually not enough to be a warning, but she also admitted to us that she wasn’t completely certain about the origin universe.”
“That is expected, however,” Cadance countered, “While I have no exact figures, B.A.R. agents seem to be certain that we have only mapped a fractions of the multiverse, so it stands to reason even with A.R.M.O.R.’s help that they would be unable to know everything.”
“Except that the ponies she is gathering is also cause for suspicion.” Temporal continued, “Oscura is the daughter of one of the most powerful unicorns in the multiverses. Garden Royale was on the list of ponies she wanted, but that universe crept everyone out, so we left it. Stratos and Golden Sweet don’t really have anything special going for them,”
“Oh, thanks,” the stallion muttered.
“And then there’s Bellona.”
“I see your point”, Maud nodded in agreement, “A powerful unicorn, the Daughter of Discord, and the children of one of the element bearers. Coupled with her own status as the Daughter of one of the bearers and the possibility of recruiting an alicorn, it seems there is a heavy amount of power there.”
“That does not quite explain Stratos, yourself, and especially not Rhapsody.” Big Macintosh cut in.
“When it comes right down to it, I think she recruited me because we got along well,” Stratos replied, “Between her, myself and Apple Cinnamon, we tried to keep everypony from beating each other up. I’m assuming she figured I could do the same here.”
“And I went along because I wanted to,” Temporal smiled, “a chance to adventure through the multiverse?”
“And Rhapsody?”
“…As best we can tell, she is the daughter of the Big Macintosh and Lyra Heartstrings from the universe where we all ended up in. I think she joined Golden Gem because…” Stratos shrugged, “Because that is what children do. They do foolish things that get them in trouble.”
“And because of that,” Temporal continued on, “I elected to keep an eye on her.”
“Why hasn’t Gem attempted to return Rhapsody to her home dimension?” Big Macintosh frowned, “It seems very reckless to bring a foal into what could be a very dangerous situation.”
“She claims it’s out of fear of getting caught,” Temporal responded, “While there’s some truth to that, I think it’s more…pragmatic. As if she’s planning on using Rhapsody as a bigger part of some plan.”
“…Thank you for your input, please ask Bellona to come in next.” Cadance finished.
The two ponies bowed and quickly left the room.
“…What are you thinking?” Maud inquired.
“That out of the group, Temporal and Stratos are the most level headed.” Big Macintosh noted, “I think we can trust their assessments.”
“Well-”
Cadance’s response was cut off as a puff of pale orange smoke appeared before the group. The smoke cleared, revealing Bellona, an entire pie half way into her mouth.
“…” Bellona stared at the group as she made a heroic effort to swallow. The ponies watched as the outline of the pie travelled down her throat and vanished into her body.
“So then, what is it that you wanted to see me for?”
“We… how did you do that?” Big Macintosh dropped his composure.
“Daughter of Chaos,” Bellona rolled her eyes, “Duh.”
“Anyway…” Cadance coughed.
“I joined them because I thought it would be fun,” the hybrid grinned, “ I don’t need a better reason.”
“…Why do you think they are here, and not trying to recruit one of the other Alicorns?”
“Probably because I don’t get along with Novamac, Idun is boring, and for some reason Bliss wasn’t an option.” Bellon shrugged.
---
“…So I don’t get it,” Rhapsody cocked her head to the side as she spoke with Silver Spoon, “Aunty Applebloom is a Princess and Princess Celestia’s student. Aunty Applejack is somekinda fancy pony. Princess Twilight isn’t a princess an’ she works on a farm in Ponyville. Aunty Pinkie runs a rockfarm, Miss Fluttershy is captain of the Wonderbolts and Aunty Rarity and Rainbow Dash are musicians?”
“Correct,” Silver Spoon nodded.
“…This place is weird.”
“Some might say the same thing about your universe, Rhapsody.”
“Yeah, but it’s weird not seein’ you all lovey-dovey and touchy-feely with Aunty Sweetie Belle. Even more than seein’ dad married to Princess Cadance.” Rhapsody shook her head as Silver Spoon frowned.
“Did you just say that I was in a relationship with Sweetie Belle?”
“Uh-huh.” The filly’s head bobbed up and down.
“In our universe you ended up with Zipporwhill,” Gem shrugged.
“Lickity-Split.” Temporal and Stratos responded in unison.
“I don’t know any Silver Spoon,” Golden Sweet Replied.
Before Oscura could respond, Bellona appeared in a burst of pink smoke and frogs.
“They want you next,” the hybrid jabbed a thumb at the door.
“Very well.”
The mare stood up and trotted over to the door, briefly pausing to open it and enter. Bellona turned her attention to Silver Spoon.
“Are they telling you who their versions ended up with?” Bellona grinned, “Because in my universe it’s-”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Silver Spoon stood up and left the room.
“…Who did she marry?” Golden Sweet frowned.
“Rover.”