A Gamer In Equestria

by The Dark Brony


Chapter 18 - Wait what?

As we go outside Scootaloo began to jump onto her scooter as i drop my skateboard onto the ground and say “You ready?”

To this she just smiles and says “I was born ready, just try to keep up”

We both then jump on our rides and begin to speed off. I smile as I finally understand why people loved this so much, The thrill, the freedom, the excitement, if felt so new to me but yet so exciting at the same time.

We then came up to the bridge a bit away from our home and I smiled, pushed off from the ground and began to grind across the wall of the bridge, then as I get ready to exit the grind I then jumped of the wall and grabbed the inside of the board with my left hand, then just before I landed I released my hand and prepared to land.

Once I landed Scootaloo came up next to me and said “Stop showing off” she then smirked and said “that's my job” she then sped up and launched herself towards a makeshift ramp and launched off it as she span her scooter in a three hundred and sixty degree circle around her body.

I then smiled and came up beside her and shouted “not bad.” I then bent down father and said “But not good enough” I then went twice as fast as before towards a ramp a similar height to the one Scootaloo jumped moments before. once I reached it I bent as far down as I could and then pushed off the ramp into the air. I then grabbed the board from below me and brought it up from under my feet and threw it out to the right side of my body so my arms were spread spread out straight to the side of me, I then brought the board back below my feet just before I landed and once again regained my balance as i landed.  

Once I regained my balance Scootaloo came up next to me and said “Now that’s just showing off” she then says “You win”

I then smile and say “your not bad yourself Scoot’s” I then see the schoolhouse in the distance and say “One last race. First one to the schoolhouse wins”

She then smiles and says “You're on”

I then say “OK, We start on the count of three. three, two, one, go!” with that I push off with my foot as I quickly gain some distance ahead of Scootaloo. I then bend my body down further and increase my speed more. I the take a quick look behind me to see that Scootaloo is gaining on me, I then realise what she is doing and smile “using a slipstream to gain speed are we, lets see if you can keep going with this” I then begin to rapidly swerve for many reason the main one being to avoid the unsuspecting ponies in front of me.

Seconds later I look behind me to see that Ii can’t see Scootaloo in front of me, I then start to feel worried until I turn around to see that she was ahead of me and I think “how?”

I then realise how close we were to the Schoolhouse and I quickly span the board sideways which caused me to quickly jolt to a stop just in front and the gates to the school I then smash my foot on the back of the board and just as before I grab it on the way off the ground. I then look at her and say “well done I thought I had you there.”

She then smiles and says “I thought you had me for while as well”

I then smile as we both begin to walk towards the school gates and as we walk through the gates I feel something strange happening.

I then see Miss Cheerilee in front of us as she stares at me as if I just blew up the school she then says “You really should have pick Scootaloo up last week”

I then look at her say “sorry about that something came up”

She then looks at me in confusion and asks “what possibly could cause you to leave your daughter at school?”

My chest then begins to glow as I look reach towards my token and say “The same thing as right now” I then spin my guitar around and turn it into my sword then proceed to move my amulet from my neck and create a break in the void I then shout “see you tonight Scoots” as I run through the portal.

Meanwhile

long out into the depths of space and time, an alternate universe, a group of young fillies and colts were gathered around a large campfire, listening intently to their story teller. The oldest of this group was a beautiful mare named Cheerilee, who smirked at the cowering children.

“And they were never heard from again...” Finished a brown colt. Just as he did, a blue earth pony filly jumped out of nowhere and yelled, causing everypony around them to scream and scurry around.

The colt and filly laughed, and Cheerilee sighed with mild amusement. “Okay Button, Archer, that’s enough.”

The other fillies and colts came out of their hiding places, glaring at the two pranksters.

“Tha wathin’t nith!” A white and red filly with a lisp said.

“Yeah! I nearly went to get Miss Sparkle!” Said a tall and thin orange colt who was cowering behind his teacher.

Cheerilee giggled slightly. “Okay everypony, I think these two had their fun.” She said as she gathered her class.

Button chuckled. “Sorry guys!”

“We just wanted to have fun…” Archer finished.

“It’s okay. But next time, don’t scar anypony while we’re out here. Who knows if any raiders are around here.” Cheerilee said. She and the foals were traveling home with their leaders Time Spinner, Twilight Sparkle, and Jubilee.

Looking at the grim sky, Cheerilee noted the moons position, “Oh my! It’s bed time!”

The foals all groaned, but went to their tents. Cheerilee kept a close eye on Button and Archer though, they’d been a bit more… Adventurous, lately.

But other than that, the purple mare was happy. She checked her pipbuck’s screen, and decided to hit the hay herself.

When she was in her tent with the more frightened children, Button, Archer, and another filly named Cotton Cloud snuck out of their tent.

“C’mon!” Whispered Button, “It’s this way!”

The three foals started heading east of the camp, determination written on their features.

Three minutes later, they arrived at an old crumbling barn house guarded by raiders. Button smirked.

“Told you I saw the Apple Family barn! I guess you owe me five bottle caps!” Archer said, smirking at Cotton, who rolled her eyes and gave the earth pony what she desired.

“I don’t care about that! You heard Mr. Spinner, he said this is one of the places that receives ‘tokens’. I wanna know more about that!” Button said as he began trotting towards the barn.

“Wait!” Cotton warned, “You’ll be killed! Or worse! You know what they did to Sweetie Bell!”

Button’s face turned into a scowl, “Yeah… But I gotta know! I’ll be careful, ok! If something happens go back to the camp,”

The filles looked nervous, but nodded nonetheless. Button turned again, and ran around the perimeter. When he was at the perfect spot that none of the raiders would see him coming, he made a dash for it.

When he reached the ruins, he found a hole in the rotten wood that would allow him entry. He slipped through it, making little to no sound whatsoever. His jaw dropped at the sight before him. A necklace in the middle of the barn shaped as a sword with the Celestial Infantry symbol on it. Button was in wonder on how it was of anything of use. As he approached the necklace, he picked it up.

“Hey! What are you doing here!?” Button heard some pony shout from behind, Button turned his head to face the raider, only to see him poke his head outside and yell. “Intruder! We have an intruder!”

Button’s eyes widened, he threw the necklaces over his head and made a run for it. The little brown colt heard loud bangs, followed by fiery bullets wiping pass his field of vision. Button yelped as a small slug scraped across his flank.

Seconds later button was blinded as a bright white light flashed in front of him and a large bipedal creature appeared before him. As Button looked closer he saw that in it’s hand was a much larger and sharper version of the amulet.

He then looked at Button then turned back around and says “Oh you think your so hard hurting a young foal. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

The raider then smirked and just shot at the creature, who just smiled as he placed his strange appendage out in front of him and caught each bullet, then opened them and each bullet just fell to the ground.

He then sighs and says, “Are you serious? That’s the best you can do?” He then closes his eyes as two guns appear in his hand and he says “You can leave if you like”

The raider yelped and three ran away, leaving two behind. One lifted his shotgun and tried firing, while the other threw a grenade.

The creature then sighed as he shot the grenade in midair causing the raider to fly backwards, he then just swiped his hand across and the bullets trajectory changed and instead of going towards him it instead went into the first raiders knee and he collapsed to the floor. He then walked over to him and says “You're done” he then picks him up off the floor and headbuts him leaving him unconsious.

Seconds later he turns back to Button and asks “You OK kid?”

Button stared at the creature with his mouth agape, then, “That was awesome! I didn’t know token’s could do that!”

The creature then looks at Button and asks “Do what?”

“Summon another human!” He said, “I gotta tell the others!”

The creature then says “do you want a lift to wherever you're going. There could be more of them and you don’t look OK”

Button smiled, “Sure! I’ve got two friends that are probably waiting for me!”

The creature then smiles and says “Ok then” he then kneels down, gestures to his back then says  “Jump on.”

Button nodded and jumped on. “I’m Button Mash!”

The creature then looks at Button then says “Craig, glad to meet you.”

The two left the ruins of the old barn and were met by Archer and Cotton.

“Button! Wha-” Cotton paused.

“Cool!” Yelled Archer, “Another human!”

Craig then helps Button off his back and then says “Hi how are you two?”

Cotton looked dumbfounded, but Archer just smiled, “Great!”

Button stepped forward, “He saved me from the raiders! I think he’s one of those ‘Displaced’ Mr. Spinner talks about!”

Craig then looks at Button and says “Mr. Spinner? Is he this realities Displaced?”

Archer scratches her head, “Sorta… But miss Jubilee is totally one! Both of them are at the camp! Wanna go there?”

He then smiles and says “Guess I should make sure you get back safely.”

The foals ‘yay’, and start heading the way they came from.

Cotton stayed close to Craig, “Be careful of Mr. Spinner… We all love him, but he’s one fry short of a happy meal, if you get my drift… And don’t mention family in front of him…”

Craig then looks to the ground as he begins to whisper “I won’t” he then looks to have almost tears in his eyes as he continues to walk forwards.

When Craig and the others reached the camp, they heard panacy shouts and bored groans. When they could see the scene fully, Craig saw two humans, one male, and the other female. The female was hugging Cheerilee, while the male was sat to the side talking to Twilight Sparkle.

“They’ll be back Cheerilee! And if they don’t, I can sense the danger they’re in… Which is nothing, so quit whining.” The male said over his shoulder. He had pale skin and white hair, a white trench coat, sharp teeth, and a missing eye. The female wore a yellow trench coat and looked like Jubilee from X-Men.

“What he means is we’ll get out there, and they’re fine-”

“They’re back!” A short and chubby colt yelled.

Seconds later Craig, Button, Cotton and Archer all walked into the camp and up towards everyone. Craig then says “I’d have someone check Button over, he got scraped by a bullet, he should be fine but just to be on the safe side.”

Cheerilee quickly picked up the brown colt and ran him to a tent nearby, scolding him all the way as the other two followed.

The pale one eyed man chuckled, “Well… Anyway, thanks for saving Button I guess…”

The girl face palmed, “Silver’s gonna have a ball with this…” She shook her head and held out her hand, “I’m Jubilee.

Craig then put his hand towards her and says “Craig, It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Yeah, yeah… And I’m Time Spinner.” Said man shoved his hands in his pockets, “Wanna drink?”

Craig then shakes his head, then says “No thanks I don’t drink but thanks for the offer.”

Time Spinner shrugged, “I didn’t mean alcohol. Being an interdimensional traveler means I can get any drink imaginable. I could get beer that tastes like wine, or water that tastes like milk.”

Craig then smiles and says “I have my own but thanks” he then clicks his finger and a glass of lemonade appears in his hand. He then says “Thanks buddy”

Time gestures with his head to the biggest tent, “I’d like to discuss something with you while you’re here… If you don’t mind.”

Craig then looks at him and says “No problem” with that they all begin to walk towards the tent.

The inside was lit with a single candle, and a single sleeping bag. Jubilee slithered her way inside the tent, and Time chuckled nervously, “This looks a bit weird… But anyways, I think you know what we are.” He gestured to himself and Jubilee, “She’s a Displaced, and I’m her Displaced Displacer.”

Craig then rubs his head and says “Displacer, Displacer?” he then clicks his fingers and says “Oh you're one of the Merchants”

“Guilty as charged,” Time said with a smirk, “I was testing my powers and accidentally brought her to the universe I was stationed in. She doesn’t hate me like most Displaced. I can’t say that for all the people I Displaced. Some want to kill me, one wants to steal my power, another tried to send them back, the list goes on. Not too long, but long enough for me not getting too into it.”

Jubilee giggled, “Yeah, those guys are left in the dark for a reason.”

“I guess they must be pretty stupid to attack a displacer”

Time laughed a bit, “It’s actually not that unheard of! Haven’t you ever wanted to kill the man or woman who sent you to Equestria? Most have lived so long that they’re families are dead. Some think I’ve ruined their lives, and others went insane with the power I gave them. Give a guy Sith powers and he goes dark, give another the body of a klyntar and they kill everyone, or turn a crazy group of teens into nearly invincible ponies and they start begging.”

Craig then stutter out “wait did you say Klyntar? Is it Jeffery you're talking about?”

“Nah! Lee Connors. Turned him into Venom.”

He then says “Oh yeah he spawned all of the copies of the others, didn’t he give Hybrid to Jeffery?”

Time shrugged, “Pretty much.”

“Well I guess I better meet him and tell him that Hybrid has spawned as well?”

“What!?” Time nearly spat water he was trying to drink, “Hybrid spawned!?”

“Yeah, he gave the spawn to me” Seconds later a second blue skin crawled over Craig's body giving a similar appearance to Venom except in a deep blue colour.

“Uh… Man Lee’s gonna freak…” Jubilee sighed, “First Clover, then the cracks, the War, and now he’s a grandpa… Are nineteen year olds cut out for this?”

“No, they aren’t.” Time mumbled.

“You say that but who’s the one who pulled a nineteen year old away from his family. Before you say that but I’m only eighteen and I’ve got a daughter back home.”

Time glared at Craig, “I had three daughters, two sisters, and a fiancee. Don’t you ever talk about family as if I’ve never had one. It was either losing his family, or his life.” The Displacer’s eyeless socket started glowing red.

Craig then began to back away and says “Sorry, but your not the only one who lost everything, I had a massive family and it’s all new to me, being alone. But I have found the one who made me suffer and dealt with him.”

Time’s glare intensified, “Oh save the sob story. I’ve heard it a thousand times before…”

Craig's hair then began to raise slightly and said “but have you ever made your displaced suffer for thirteen year before their arrival. I had it so much worse I was tortured by fucking Discord all that time without know anything so don’t lecture me talking about not knowing fucking anything about family!”

Time rubbed his eye, “Ugh… Did I say that? No. I just said ‘I’ve heard this sob story before’. I’ve been around the block a couple times to know that life ain’t peachy. I have my own sob story that would make you cringe.”

Craig then sighed and said “family. it’s the one of the two things that kept me going all that time, but even now still I understand what you mean. I know I spoke out of turn there and I’m sorry I can’t stand hearing about people losing everything, because that was all I had. I’m sorry an insult to my family is one of my three triggers. I guess I lost it.”  

“No duh… Don’t go around thinking you’re the only one that’s gone through anything you have gone through. We live in a multiverse that, most likely, there’s something worse than what one person went through. Look at Lee. He was a nice guy who had a sister, and a great life even though he was blind. I took him and his sister away, and he started going mad. But he wasn’t the worst, a man named Whitney was turned into a sith, and lost everything and is now ruling a country after destroying everything that could have saved him.” Time grumbled, “But that’s not what I was trying to get at… These men I just told you about are fighting.”

“Wait, what? You mean they're at war.”

“When did I say that?” Time asked, “Have you heard about this?”

“No I just put two and two together jubilee mention Lee then the War I just filled in the cracks.”

“That’s a lot of cracks…” Jubilee said.

Time growled, “I get it! Let’s just continue! Yes, Lee and Whitney, or Folteren, are in a war, and both sides are recruiting Displaced to their cause. Folteren because Lee injured his daughter, and Lee because Folteren retaliated and injured Lee’s Twilight. Either side you pick will give you a reward, and no matter what happens, you can come and go as you please, while also staying alive… It’s pretty much to the pain, and once you ‘die’ you return home for a week until I allow you back in.”

“I’ll be on Lee’s team!” Said Jubilee, “And Sylar’s gonna be on Folteren’s!”

Craig then looks at Jubilee in confusion and says “Sylar? who’s that?”

“Oh, he’s another Displaced like me, but he’s power hungry and evil. He kills you by opening your head and looking at your brain! He got everypony’s power from an entire universe!” Jubilee replied, “He also doesn't like Lyra…”

“He really hates Lyra…” Time added.

“Oh man looks like Lee needs all the help he can get.”

“Both sides are evenly matched! Well, Lee has Metroplex… So…” Jubilee giggled a bit.

“So what?” asked Craig

“Choose your side. I’m guessing Lee.” Time guessed.

“Yeah, who’d want to break up a family”

Time grumbled, “So, anything you need?”

“Not another airship! I’m still working on the new one!” Jubilee cried.

“Thank you for the offer but all I need is to see my new teammates if i’m fighting a war I need to see believe in who I can trust, I won’t be able to do that without knowing them prior to fighting.”

Time smiled, “Hmm… Well, you know Jubilee. She’s an ex superhero. There’s the Powerpuff Girls, Jason Hugh, James Del Light, Lance Walker, and a few more. Im still in the recruiting phase, and I still need to prepare the battlefield. I told you about Metroplex, and you’ll meet everyone else later…”

“Thank you, it helps to know who you can trust”

“Trust who I say to trust. Anyone who picks their team has to stay on it. Once you decide one or the other, you can’t go back.” Time said.

“I know how this is but this life I can see around me is a life that I want to protect and if this is Jubilee's reality I want to protect it. I want to protect those three foals I met. If I can’t do that what sort of knight would I be?”

“An evil knight,” Joked Time, “But I see your point.”

“I am pretty sure that if this goes south people and ponies will suffer I can't let that happen I don’t care how much harm I have to put myself in, once I have a goal, I will fight for it.”

Time snickered, “Damn… You humans are a lot alike. Once you put them on a task, they’ll never quit, even after death.”

Craig then crosses his arms and says “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”

“Never said you would. But, plans don’t always work out how you intend. I’ve had Displaced that were very powerful, yet they grew too confident in themselves. Be careful, or you’ll end up like Jubilee…” Time’s voice sounded hollow, “An echo… Anything else you need?”

“Echo, Echo Displaced, why does that sound familiar?”

“An Echo Displaced is a revived Displaced. I created it. As long as I live, they do. She’s been dead for a year.” Time said. “I don’t think you’d know about it. There are only a couple. Derpigun, Lumen, and Jubilee are pretty much all of ‘em.”

“Fair enough” Craig then turns towards Jubilee and says “I’m sorry, I’m sorry that you are almost just faint copy of what you used to be.”

“Agh, it ain’t that bad… Kinda…” She said half heartedly.

Time smirked and chuckled, “It isn’t what I’d call a good situation, but we both deal…” The Displacer winced and rubbed his only remaining eye. “Damn it! Ugh, oh well… James’ spell wore off…”

“It was only temporary.” Jubilee countered.

Craig then sighed and asked “what’s wrong?”

Jubilee sighed, “Time visited James Del Light, and he used a cure spell to heal Time’s eye. He can’t sleep, and it made his eye permanently bloodshot.”

“And like Jube said, it wasn’t gonna last long anyway. When you live as long as I have, you get used to the pain, but when it’s gone you start to lose that tolerance.” Time shook his head, “At the rate it was going, I thought I’d get another year…”

Craig then kneeled down next to him and said “Let me give you even longer”

Time looked at Craig, showing his bloodshot grey eye. “Do your best.”

Craig then closes his eyes and places one hand over Time’s eye. He then took one deep breath and his hand began to glow in a bright yellow light. He then says “stay calm whilst I do this or it could hurt you more”

Seconds later a cold chill passed through the tent as the space around everyone grew colder by the second “OK almost there just give me twenty more seconds” He then begins to move his hand in a circular motion and as he slowly removed it from above the eye to find that it was completely back to normal.

Craig then asks “How do you feel?”

Time felt around his eye, “Better. Better than I have been in a long time…”

Jubilee clapped her hands together, “Well I’m tired! Not all of us don’t sleep.” She scooted her way to the sleeping bag and dug herself into it. Time stood up and left the tent, beckoning Craig to follow.

To this Craig just nodded and said “Have a nice night Jubilee.” with that he began to walk out of the tent.

Once out, Time started the trek to the barn, still beckoning. “C’mon, I wanna show you something.”

Craig then began to rush after Time and once he reached the barn stopped and said “what is it you want to show me?”

“This,” Time placed his hand on the floor, creating a crystal like image of the mane six playing with two fillies. “This was my life… I was a Displaced like you… Displaced as my Displacer, how original…”

Craig then looked at him and asked “what happened to make everything change?

“A bunch of things… Where do I begin…? How about being forced to kill my sisters? Or when a terrorist killed my daughter because he was bored? Or how about when I was banished from the universe, leaving my fiancee to mourn me, another of my daughters, Jubilee and one of her friends? Or even all the fucked up worlds I visited? It could be any of those…” Time mused, “I guess it was all of the above… That’s my sob story.”

Craig then placed his hand on Time’s shoulder and said “I’m sorry about everything, the way I acted and treated you earlier and what happened to you.”

“S’okay. I didn’t tell you that story for pity, I lost my conviction to fix everything a long time ago. I told you that story because I want you to help me get revenge on the bastard who banished me. His brother, Killjoy will be in the war. I need to kill him so I can get closer to him.” Time smirked darkly. “Think you can do it?”

“When the time comes give me an image of the target and he won’t even know what hit him”

Time opened a wormhole, “Good to know I can count on ya. I’ll await our next meeting…”

“Same here” Just before he disappeared he moved one of his hand to his head and saluted Time seconds later he then disappeared into the wormhole.