As Flynn and Luke walked out of Canterlot, they noticed a few things that changed quickly, like how well the roads were maintained and how silent it was. The road in and out of Canterlot seemed to have patches of stonework in some places but mainly consisted of dirt and gravel.
“So, where should we go now that we have permission to explore, Flynn?” Luke asked as he picked up a small rock. He started to toss it from hand to hand, or hand to talon in his case.
“Give me a second here,” Flynn spoke, shifting his hands in his bag. He took a few seconds to shuffle through it before he took out a map and unfolded it. “Hm..”
“We’re still on the main road to Canterlot which looks like it doesn’t get much use,” Luke said as he threw the rock at a nearby tree.
“Indeed,” Flynn simply replied, focusing most of his attention to the map. His dog followed close behind, carrying a large stick in his mouth.
“... Your dog went from a spoon to a stick. Seriously, figure out what he wants,” Luke said as he gave the dog a vexed look.
“Repede obviously wants something in his mouth to make him look cool,” Flynn replied. The dog barked and nodded in confirmation.
“Well, Repede has just proven himself smarter than almost every dog on Earth. Congratulations, you’ve bought an intelligent dog, Flynn,” Luke declared with a slight flourish.
“I’m glad I made a smart choice… Also, I just realized I seem to understand Repede. Am I going crazy?” Flynn groaned slightly, pressing his hands against his face.
“... You’re in a land filled with talking multicolored ponies and asking somebody who is partially insane if you’re becoming crazy. Oh yeah, if you haven’t noticed yet, they converted you to saying ‘everypony’,” Luke said as he poked Flynn in the forehead with his gryphon claw.
“..True. You have a point there.. Wait... Oh man, I was trying to avoid saying ‘everypony’,” Flynn groaned.
“Wonder if they managed to convert Pecila yet?” Luke asked as they rounded a curve.
“Probably. That reminds me, I hope Pecila isn’t causing too much trouble.” Flynn briefly look up to the sky, wondering what Pecila was doing. .
Pecila gazed around the forest she was in, looking rather confused. She quickly came to a conclusion.
“I’m completely lost.”
Walking towards the nearest tree, she started to scale, hoping to find her bearings. Pecila looked around, spying a small town in the distance with a rather recognizable town hall.
“Huh, didn’t know I was so close to Ponyville. Maybe I should go over there and borrow some sewing supplies.”
‘Pecila, this is your conscious speaking, don’t steal from Rarity.’
“Ah, hush. I’ll pay her back later after I get a dragon.”
She jumped out of the tree, heading in the general direction of Ponyville.
“Oh yeah, did I ever tell you about the time Pecila threw somepony over Neighagra Falls for grabbing her from behind?” Flynn asked, looking at his map.
Luke snorted and then started laughing hard.
“Yeah, the stallion just grabbed her hips from behind, trying to claim the reward that Luna had put out for her capture. It was a big mistake.” Flynn chucked, thinking back. “She elbowed him in the face and screamed at him for five minutes before throwing him in the water.”
“I can definitely understand why she threw him like that then!” Luke wheezed out as his laughter petered out.
“And all the ponies there learned why they shouldn’t try to ambush a super-powered girl with autism. But that was right before Pecila jumped into the falls as well,” Flynn said, shifting his gaze back to the path the were traveling.
“Seems legit. Though why did Luna have a reward for capture on Pecila?” Luke asked as he aimlessly gazed into the nearby forest.
“Well, it was right after the Sombra incident and Luna was a bit worried that she might have mental trauma from having to kill Sombra,” Flynn explained, thinking back. “Those were dark times for her.”
Luke simply nodded, not wanting to delve deeper into that train of thought. Soon after, he noticed something off in the woods to their left. He stopped Flynn and pointed out what appeared to be some ruins. “Any idea what that is?”
Flynn looked over to what Luke had been pointing at. He blinked in surprise to find an old, dilapidated stone house. “I’m not quite sure.”
“Well, we asked if we could leave Canterlot to explore, so here we go. I doubt there’s much left in there but hey, you never know!” Luke remarked as he floated towards the depreciated structure.
“Let’s just hope there’s nothing too murderous there,” Flynn muttered under his breath as he followed Luke with Repede in tow.
Pecila peeked into the boutique, watching as Rarity left to go, well, somewhere. She snickered quietly, opening the window and slipping in.
Grabbing a pair of scissors, she headed over to the materials. “Time to get started.”
Rarity returned home several hours later, having finished with her daily errands, only to find her work area totally trashed and her sewing machine on fire.
There was also a note in the middle of the floor, which Rarity slowly approached.
Sorry about the mess.
-Josh
Everypony in Ponyville heard Rarity’s scream of terror and rage.
“Ah, it feels so good to finally have some proper clothes~” Pecila sighed, rubbing down her new skirt. “I missed having awesome scarfs of awesomeness.”
She looked up. “Now then, I should get a map.”
She suddenly jumped in surprise, feeling the book token vibrating from within her bag. “Oooh, got a response~!”
She snatched the tome out of her bag and opened it up to some pretty fancy handwriting that made her blocky letters look like chicken scratch. And that wasn’t even the first thing that dismayed her about the response.
I don’t know who you are, but know this. You are not writing in a mere book. This is my token, a tome which can be used to contact me throughout the multiverse. I’m willing to aid those who need my help. However, considering your entry, I question your ethics. If you have such little qualms regarding the murder of innocents or the unjust, then refrain from contacting me further.
-Robin
“... Wow, first person I’ve met who didn’t get the reference,” She muttered as she took out an ink and quill. The white headed girl thought about what she was going to write before getting started.
Well, for one, my name is Pecila. Two. I totally knew knew that, I mean your voice did say something along those lines. Three, I have totally good Ethics. I’m trying to be a hero after all. Four, It was a reference to Bohemian Rhapsody! Everyone’s heard of Queen! Five, I hate killing. I have killed one pony but I have regretted it ever since then and it’s been over a thousand fucking years! Six, I pity your lost sense of humor.
-Pecila
Pecila shut the book with a huff, now overly annoyed with the only other displaced she’s had contact with, other than Flynn and Luke of course. “I wanna go over there and slap him with a fish. I’m going to do that if I head over there.”
With her new future goal in mind, she took off, looking for a river to grab a fish.
“Oh come on! I can’t even find a river!”
Luke and Flynn heard a feminine scream emanate from the forest. Flynn groaned in realization that the scream was Pecila.
“Why am I not surprise?” Flynn shook his head in as Repede gave a confused bark.
There was a stillness in the air. “(Little text)Puppy?(Text)”
Repede whimpered and quickly hid behind Flynn in fear. He started to bark at Flynn and Luke as if saying ‘Protect me! I don’t wanna be eaten!’
“... Okay, lets check the house first, THEN we can go handle Pecila, that OK with you Flynn?” Luke asked, continuing into the abandoned home..
“That’s fine with me,” Flynn answered, following Luke along with a frightened Repede.
“Puppppppyyyyyyyyyyy” The sound of trees crashing into the ground was heard.
Luke’s foot went through a floor board when he heard that “Holy crap! Also I’m stepping on something thats not part of the floor.” He removed his foot from the hole and rooted around until he found a smooth brass case. He opened it and found an old style pipe held within “Hey Flynn, found Popeye the Sailorman’s pipe!”
“Oh, that’s perfect for Repede,” Flynn said, currently looking over his shoulder in slight fear. Repede whimpered loudly.
Luke bent down and gave Repede the pipe before preparing to accept a swift death from Pecila as an unearthly silence started. Repede spat out the stick and shifted the pipe around in his mouth, currently shaking in fear that he may get hurt by Pecila.
The group heard soft knocking coming from the front of the ruins. Luke called out in as feminine as a voice as he could “Yes? Hello deary, I don’t want any visitors right now, so if you could just come back later?”
“I heard a puppy! I want to pet and cuddle the puppy!” Pecila hissed from the other side of the door.
“I’m sorry deary, there’s no puppy here. It may have been a stray on the road,” Luke called out in the same voice. He then briefly turn his attention and hissed, “This is hard and she’s insistent.”
“Fine.” her huff was heard before there was silence, only broken by the sound of Pecila walking away.
Luke looked towards Flynn with hope in his eyes. “Will we make it out alive?”
“I wanna say yes but then I would be lying,” Flynn sighed as Repede whined softly.
Luke registered this and looked up, making sure Pecila wasn’t watching them.
Pecila continued to walk away.
“What is she doing?” Flynn asked.
Luke climbed up to the broken roof via some loose bricks to look outside. “She appears to be walking away, but you never know…”
“Knowing her, this is her way of trying to trick us,” Flynn muttered.
Pecila kept walking.
“Well I’m coming back down just in case she turns around,” Luke said as he tried to climb down the wall, only to fall on an old table which broke with a loud crack.
Repede barked loudly in surprise. Flynn froze and silently prayed that Pecila didn’t hear that.
After a few seconds, there was a knock at the door. “Old pony lady, are you okay?”
“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Luke called out in his normal voice.
“Hold on!” Pecila kicked the door down.
“Oh, Luke,” Flynn groaned, placing his hand over his face.
“Ah!” She pointed at Luke. “You aren't an old pony!”
“No, I’m not!” Luke yelled as he pointed at her.
“Well that’s obvious because you look like Discord!”
“Not this crap again!” Luke called out, throwing his arms in the air.
“I know you’re not Discord because you don’t sound like Q!”
“I don’t sound like John De Lancie!”
“That’s what I just said! Is your hearing wrong or something?”
“No, I just said I don’t sound like somebody from Star Trek, specifically the voice actor. What did you think I said?” Luke demanded, getting up.
Pecila growled in irritation before tackling Luke to the ground.
“Oi!” Luke shouted as he was tackled to his back from the remains of the table.
There was a loud crack of breaking boards and ‘vworp’ sound before both Pecila and Luke vanished.
Luke fell onto a cold, stony floor with Pecila falling on top of his chest.
“Yeow!” Pecila screeched in pain.
Luke started coughing. “Godammit! My chest!”
“My butt… “
“How did that hurt you?! You fell on top of me!”
“My tail bone is very sensitive.”
“Yeah, and so is my actual tail right now… and so is my foot, I think I broke a claw off,” Luke said with a wince.
“Hey, where are we? And where’s Flynn?” Pecila asked
“I don’t know and I don’t know.”
“Now, who are you?”
“Uh, Luke. I tried using magic, I think I regret it.”
“So that’s what that noise was. Think you can do it to Flynn?”
“Do what to him?”
“Port him down here with us.”
“No, trying to do magic turned me into a Draconequus. I didn’t pull us down here… by the way, where is ‘here’?”
“Well-”
“Oh crap,” Flynn cursed. The blonde man looked in the direction he heard the two vanish and approached the area, Repede in tow. He noticed something really small sticking out of the ground. He got on his hands and knees to get a closer look.
What he didn’t expect was the ‘vworp’ sound again and the sudden change of the floor to dark bricks.
“What the f-!” Then Repede appeared on his back, giving a small bark.
“-I think we might have accidentally fallen into hell,” Pecila spoke up from nearby, “I thought Hell would be brighter.”
“It’s not warm enough to be Hell either,” Luke muttered in response.
“Did it freeze over? Oh yeah, Luke, have you made a token yet?” Pecila questioned.
“If I knew what that was, and if you weren’t sitting on my chest, I’d figure it out.” Luke said, grumbling a bit at the end.
Pecila gave a small whine, getting off him.
“Thank you,” Luke said as he stood up, dusting himself off.
“Flynn, you in here? I think Luke might make his token now.” Pecila said with a slight smile.
“Like I said, I don’t really know what that is,” Luke repeated as he bent over to pick up the claw that broke off his foot.
“Flynn, you wanna tell him?”
“I’m too busy trying to figure out what just happened,” Flynn said.
“This is what I get for seeing a run-down house in the middle of the woods and wanting to explore .” Luke said with a sigh.
Pecila giggled. “A token is one of those things that you put a little bit of your magic or whatever into and then you say stuff and then toss it and then I think other people in other universes can contact us, Like Robin!” She reached into her bag and brought out the book, opening it up to where she and Robin had been communicating.
“Oh, like these?” Luke asked, pulling Pecila’s key, Flynn’s keychain, and a few others.
“Yeah. You three all have one of these books~” Pecila hummed in happiness.
“So, I put magic or something into an object? Do ya’ think this would work?” Luke asked, holding up his broken claw.
“I thi-” She was cut off as a glowing blue cube hit her in the face. “... blargle.”
“I swear someone up there really loves hitting us with tokens,” Flynn spoke up, having thrown said token at Pecila.
“Or, you know, it could just be you with your evil smirk,” Luke pointed out with a chuckle.
“Evil smirk? How rude,” Flynn snorted as Repede leap off his back and shook himself.
At that moment, the room they had fallen into was flooded with lights, much to the dismay of the three individuals. A foreign voice in a strange language started screeching as well. Pecila covered her ears out of fear, having hated loud noises her entire life.
Luke could be seen curled up on the ground, clutching his ears with his hand and claw, groaning in pain. Repede was barking loudly, silently cursing himself for dogs having sensitive ears. Flynn simply groaned, covering his ears.
“Irkuibou aerouk! Irkuibou aerouk! Sorku'ot laet door aeudob! Tuaevt laeqo door aeudob!*”
Pecila cautiously uncovered her ears, staying silent.
Luke was still on the ground groaning, though his ears were uncovered. “Ugghhh… What even was that?”
“Probably trouble...”
Pecila looked around the room they were in, noting the dark bricks and the general lack of decorations. There was a doorway on the other side of the room.
Sovdlav dunukok, avadaudo lokualk.**
Pecila’s hair practically stood up at the voice. “Too screechy!”
Luke cringed as he stood back up. “At least you have human ears, these things amplify sound!” He exclaimed as he grabbed his long, scaled ears.
Pecila snatched Repede off the ground, hugging the dog to her chest like a safety blanket. Repede gave a low groan when Pecila hugged him. ”Puppy, make everything better.”
“S-so, Luke, y-you going t-to make your token n-now?”
“So, just imagine putting energy or your life force into an object and say some ‘heroic’ words or something?” Luke asked as he held up his claw.
“Pretty much,” Flynn answered, Pecila nodding excessively.
Luke shrugged and said the first thing that came to mind as he imagined pushing energy into the claw. The claw gave the illusion that it was on fire, though it produced no heat.
“I’m Luke Nightshade, Imperial Mage, and apparently a Draconequus. I intend to learn what I can to help the various worlds we have found ourselves upon, as well as help the myriad of humans out there. Call upon me and I will assist you to the best of my ability.”
He dropped the claw into a hole that appeared at his feet.
“Oooh~ Flamey.” Pecila put Repede down, letting the dog run back to Flynn
“Well that was an odd experience,” Luke said as he blinked a few times, recovering from making the token.
“Compared to...?” Flynn inquired.
“Ingesting Helium…”
“I’ve never been able to inhale helium,” Pecila muttered, walking towards the only doorway in the large room. Flynn followed closely behind while Luke followed them slowly.
They yelped however when three photos smacked into the displaced’ faces.
“Oh god, papercuts!”
“Sweet mother of God, my eye!”
“Why does it have to be the goddamn face!?”
All three of them already disliked this token and they hadn’t even looked at it clearly.
When they grabbed the photo, they heard the voice of the displaced.
"Time, the real final frontier. This is the token of Max Caulfield, the Master of Time. Its mission: to seek out those who would protect others and tear down tyranny; to boldly go before me so that I may be called when the time is right."
Pecila gave the photo an evil glare before she glanced back at the others. Flynn was staring at the photo with a deadpan look on his face.
“A person who can control time might be useful,” She snickered.
“I don’t really like the idea of someone being able to control a base force of the universe, or multiverse it would seem, but hey, if you say so,” Luke said with a slight grimace.
“Especially when their token is a selfie,” Flynn added.
“Oh God I hadn’t noticed that, considering the back of it hit me,” Luke shivered when he noticed that.
Pecila smirked.
“Hey photo girl! Wanna help me and my friends explore some dark underground ruins?” Pecila asked, holding up the photo despite Luke and Flynn’s complaints.