//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The meeting // Story: Wielder of the Orb: Of Magic and Ponies // by TheMajorTechie //------------------------------// Later that day, Sammy received a letter from Princess Twilight Sparkle, who he decided was most likely the local ruler, considering the title "princess" and all. He rounded up his friends, who were still trying to get used to their new bodies, and asked for directions to a good meeting site. Nurse Redheart was cleaning up the mattresses when Sammy and his friends ran back into the room. Nurse Redheart! Do you uh... know where we should go to meet the princess? Nurse Redheart looked up from making the bedsheets. Well, Twilight usually does her business from her castle, and it's pretty big, so you shouldn't miss it. The group went back outside, and began wandering around, asking for directions from various ponies until they finally arrived at Twilight's castle. Zoey gazed up at the enormous building. Woah. Sammy hurried his friends in, following after them. Right as they stepped inside, a lavender alicorn teleported in front of them. Sammy jumped back in surprise. Gah! Who are you... uh... what are you? Zoey peeked out from behind Sammy. She looks like a unicorn-pegasus crossbreed. Oh! A pegacorn! Caleb and Brodie both stared at Zoey, while Twilight began explaining the different types of ponies in Equestria. You see, I was originally just a unicorn like you and Zoey are right now. But after I reached a certain level, the two reigning princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, (but mainly Celestia) pretty much... well, they pretty much just turned me into an "alicorn" just because I finished a very old spell. Anyways, you wanted to talk to me about something? Sammy nodded, and fell flat on his face. Sorry, I'm not used to being on all fours. Where I come from, we're all human. Twilight looked down at Sammy, who got back up. Wait, you say that you're human where you come from? I use this portal that I have in my castle that leads to the human world! Sammy stared, slack-jawed, at Twilight, until Twilight suddenly snapped out of her blabbering about the "Human World" that she often travels to. Wait, what was I saying? Pinkie Pie suddenly burst through a wall of solid crystal, answering Twilight's question. You were just barely talking about how you have a crush on the Flash Sentry from the Human World you've been talking about. Speaking of which, our world's Flash Sentry is standing right over there guarding the door, and he just heard ALL OF WHAT YOU JUST SAID. Twilight shut her mouth, shoved Pinkie back into the wall, and led Sammy and his friends into the meeting room, where she could have some more privacy. Aaaaaannnnnnnnyyyyyyyyywwwwwwaaaaaayyyyyyssssssssssss... So, you said that you had something to talk to me about related to magic? Sammy nodded, and took out the orb from his saddlebag with his hooves. Twilight watched for a few minutes as he fumbled to keep his grip on the slick translucent orb. You know Sammy, you can just use your horn to levitate that orb thingy of yours up... Sammy looked at Twilight. How? Don't forget, I was originally a human. After a few minutes of simple levitation training, they got back to business. Sammy was the first to talk after they all sat down. So Princess -- Twilight. You can just call me Twilight. I'm not used to being called a princess yet. Ok, so Twilight, we came here to inform you that due to unforeseen consequences, we have uh... accidentally put your dimension in great danger... Twilight sat motionless. Sammy continued speaking. So, when I first found this orb in our own reality, I didn't really think much more of it than just a toy that allowed me to do anything I wanted within reason. But then, after a bunch of crazy stuff began happening, I took my friends with me and jumped into a different universe, where most things were practically the exact opposite of how they were where I came from. After we befriended the local rulers there, this guy named Anicetus was able to track us down from our own universe somehow, and began tearing apart the universe that we had escaped into. Currently, that universe has become merged with it's apparent counterpart "zombie dimension", where we became trapped in this HUGE crowd of undead. Since we only recently teleported there, we ended up burning up the orb's power from doing a random teleport to a different universe to the point where right now, it's completely powerless. It can't even charge itself up. On the bright side, if "Anicetus" ever gets his dirty hands on that thing, he wouldn't be able to do much with it, even if he does manage to corrupt it with his so-called "dark magic" that he draws from the dark counterpart to this orb. All I really want to know is that since you seem to know magic pretty well, I want you to try to shelter us for now while we find a way to charge the orb back up and escape before Anicetus gets here and tears apart your universe. That guy packs a serious punch, you know. But the bright side is that since his dark orb is a nearly 1:1 counterpart to this one, when he did that search spell or whatever he did to find us, combined that with his direct teleport, he also ended up burning out his orb, too. Twilight's face was frozen in fear. Wow, uh, I didn't know that it was even possible to do that. It took several years of effort just to create the mirror portal in the other room that I use, but to be jumping across multiple universes just like that... ugh, my head hurts now. Can you just leave for now and let me try to make sense of what you just said? You can stay here in one of the guest rooms for now, if you want.