It took me a minute to realize what had happened. The music was coming from the general area of my shoulderblades, but it stopped after a few seconds.
"Hey, uh..." said the figure before me, "you alright? And what was that bit of music about just now? It was kinda... catchy." I just stared at him with a look of confusion on my face. "Seriously, kid, you OK? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Not sure about a ghost," I replied, "but I think I've definitely just seen a skeleton in a hoodie."
"I believe he's fine, Sans," interjected Kapura, "he probably recognizes you."
"Oh, hey Kapura," said the skeleton, "long time no see, old friend!"
"To be honest," I said, still dumbfounded, "I DO recognize him."
Truth was, I honestly did recognize him. He was a character in a game called "Undertale" that kind of took YouTube by storm in late 2015/early 2016. He was about three or four foot tall, and yes, he was also a walking, talking skeleton. He loved making puns of any type, though preferably bone- or skeleton-related ones, often to the annoyance of his brother, Papyrus. His voice... Well, it was similar in pitch and timber to that of the character of Rocky Balboa, but less gruff and less slurred.
More like your favorite chubby uncle from Brooklyn who loved cracking jokes. Theoretically, I mean, since I don't have one of those, but, yeah, you probably know what I'm talking about from TV. Just for reference, his younger (and much taller,) brother, Papyrus, had a voice that sounded a lot like Skeletor from He-Man: high pitched, slightly nasal, and he had this tendency to say "Nyeh heh heh!" a lot.
They both used to live together in an underground town called "Snowdin," before... Um, a long series of events freed them and the rest of the folks trapped underground.
As to what he was doing HERE, I had no idea. So, I asked...
"Hey, Sans, what exactly are you doing on this world? And how the hell do you know Kapura?"
"Well, here recently, our equipment's been going a bit haywire. We've been detecting a lot of timeline anomalies local to my homeworld, which we eventually figured out."
"Yeah, I know what THAT was about," I said, bemusedly.
"Right, I thought as much. But then, here recently, we noticed there was this massive jump on this world's timeline, the second in such a short timeframe, and, well, I knew Kapura was still here about the time when it happened, so I came to check up on him. Of course, there are bound to be a few differences, the specifics of which I am mostly not at liberty to say. Though I will tell ya this: before the last one, YOU weren't here. At all."
I blinked. "You sure? 'Cause, there's this kinda shield thingy over my base..."
Sans shook his head. "Nah, man, that's new too. We could definitely detect it's presence on this timeline, as well as yours within the shield. I'm pretty sure yer not the cause of this, though, merely a 'symptom,' as it were."
"Well," I said, concerned, "I'm not sure whether I should be glad it's not my fault, or disappointed and bitter that I'm just an unintended side-effect." I was scowling at this point, and kicked a loose stone. It sailed over the heads of the Matoran around us, bounced off the top of the chute, and landed on the other side, startling someone.
"Hey, don't worry too hard, man," said Sans.
"Fucking alpha timelines," I muttered darkly. I felt a bit of an existential crisis coming on.
Sans looked taken aback. "W--what... did ya just say?" The little white sparks floating in his otherwise empty eye sockets (which seemed to serve as his eyes,) changed. The one on his right had vanished entirely, whereas his left had blossomed into a small ball of slowly-burning blue flame that flickered yellow on occasion, with a black spot hovering in the middle.
"Alpha timelines," I repeated, "it's a concept I'm well familiar with, thanks to a certain webcomic. Let's stop talking about them though, I'm getting a headache."
"Alright," he said, and I leaned against a nearby I-beam, which was supporting the ceiling, embedded in both the floor and ceiling to keep it from moving. I was beginning to succumb to the crisis again, with new theories about the world... Er, worlds... rushing through my head. I was in a place inhabited by beings which only existed in stories back home. Had this place's existence resonated in some way with my homeworld, embedding itself in our subconscious?
Or were the folks who originally wrote the stories able to somehow peer into this world on an active basis, merely jot down what they saw, and pass it off as a script, or a pitch for another wave of toys? And what about all the other stories we told ourselves, like the Halo universe? Perhaps, maybe, it was just freak chance? Or the stories we mad somehow became real after being told, through the sheer power of our belief? I mean, I'd heard the mind is a powerful thing.
Supposedly, if you got a decent sized stadium full of people, and had them all focus as hard as they could on a tree planted somewhere on the field in the middle, it would burst into flame. But it would never really happen, because humans, by nature, can't stay work together lime that. They wouldn't take it seriously...
"Whaddaya think, Caldoric?"
"Hmm?" I said, snapping back to reality. "Sorry, I missed that, what?"
"See," said Nurhii, "I TOLD you he was dozing off. He must be tired after fighting off all those baddies earlier."
"Yeah," I replied, sliding down the beam into a sitting position, "I admit, I'm tired. DOG tired," I gave Sans a LOOK, since he'd had the type of expression on his face that meant he was winding up a bad pun, "not BONE tired, not BONE weary, nothing bone related in any way."
I got a saddened look in return. "Aw, yer less fun than Papyrus."
"Only when I'm tired, man. Besides, I had fun once. I didn't like it, though, so I stopped."
He blinked for a moment, then gave me a "did you really just say that?" look.
Of course, at that point, I saw a disgruntled-looking Matoran that I couldn't identify ducking under the chute, holding a familiar stone, and sporting a large, fresh looking scratch on his mask.
"Aaaand, I think that's our cue to leave," I said, getting up and nonchalantly making my way to the chute, as the others followed me. "This goes to... I can't believe I'm saying this... to Ponyville, right?"
"Yep," said Nurhii, handing me a watch-like object. "You can contact me on that, if you need. Feel free to drop in sometime, say hi. Maybe I can teach you something about mask-making, if you're interested."
"Alright, sounds good, little fire-spitter," I said, placing my hand on top of his head and rubbing it in a good-natured manner, "see ya soon, I hope."
And with that, Sans, Kapura and I jumped in. Of course, I'd never been in a chute before, and so was not expecting the sudden lurch of speed. I was holding my breath for a while, before Kapura noticed.
"No need to hold your breath, Caldoric," he said, slightly muffled, immediately causing me to prove his point. I exhaled in surprise, and promptly got what felt like a lungful of the protodermis around us. Don't ask me how, but somehow it was able to carry oxygen just as well as regular air. It felt weird as hell "breathing" the stuff, but hey, it worked. I was breathing a bit faster than normal, too, because I was technically underwater, which I normally wasn't comfortable with.
I'm not a strong swimmer, y'see, so... yeah, I'm a tad afraid of drowning, of sinking down into the crushing black depths, with no hope of help or return... I shook my head to clear the thoughts away. I took the time to begin reading the books I'd gotten on magic. For the most part, I focused on manipulative magic, which was basically a fancy way of saying "telekinesis." Yes, I already had a Mask for that, but it never hurts to have some redundancies and backups. I practiced on the various containers and bits of cargo floating alongside us, pushing and pulling, spinning, causing them to orbit, etc.
Once I felt I'd gotten a decent start on that, I began taking a look at offensive and defensive magics, such as bursts and blasts, shields and deflections. The defensive stuff was relatively easy to pick up, moreso than the telekinesis, especially with Sans using his own version of telekinesis to move the cargo in my direction. I personally knew that he could be quite formidable with his powers when aroused, as evidenced by his final battle scene in Undertale, should the player choose to take the genocide route. As such, I knew that I could always at least try to fall back to the same tactic in a pinch.
I only had enough time to begin on the theory of offensive magic, before we came to the final stop on the chute line. It WAS still under construction, after all. Nevertheless, we'd gotten about ⅔ to ¾ of the way to the town in question in a much shorter amount of time than we would have by train. Not to diss the trains, of course, because they were pretty fast. The preexisting lines had been upgraded drastically over the last few years, I heard...
Hmm... I'd need to buff up on the history of this place, it seems, and the best way to do that would be... I shuddered a bit. The "best" way would be to watch the show, up till around the point where things here began seriously deviating. According to some of the notes Celestia had left with the books, that would be about the end of the fourth season, when some guy calling himself "Tirek" returned and made his presence known. As we walked, being led by Sans to one of his local "shortcuts," I began considering my options.
I wasn't exactly planning on doing anything here in the immediate future, so perhaps I could sorta listen to the show like an audiobook back ho-- at my base (damn, I needed to stop doing that,) whilst I continued my exploration into the world of magic.
"Here we are," Sans announced, gesturing to a small shack.
"Looks a bit small," said Kapura, "how well does it fly?"
"It doesn't," I said, "right Sans?"
"I 'wooden' know," he said, turning to smile coyly at us, and I facepalmed. "The place ain't mine, it's just a means to an end. And no, we're not going inside."
This last was due to the concerned glance I'd given him. He led us around back, then had us each hold one of his hands. On his count of three, we stepped round the corner, and the scenery changed, plain and simple.
"Ok," I said, intensely curious now I'd actually seen it done, and partially to block out the sounds of Kapura being violently ill, "how EXACTLY do you do that?"
"I just kinda look fer areas where the distance between places seems...THINNER, y'know?"
"What, like a... a soft spot in the fabric of space-time?"
"Yeh, that works. It's easier near certain boundaries fer me. Edges, stuff like that."
"That sounds familiar..." I said, thinking of something from a book I'd once read, "hang on, let me find something real quick."
A quick search on the web brought me to the particular passage I was looking for:
“ "We look to ... the edges," said Mistress Weatherwax. "There's a lot of edges, more than people know. Between life and death, this world and the next, night and day, right and wrong ... an' they need watchin'. We watch 'em, we guard the sum of things. And we never ask for any reward. That's important." ” Sans found it rather interesting.
"That was from an author named Terry Pratchett, once upon a time." I said. "Good man, he was. Great writer, too, one of my favorites." As you could probably tell by now, stranger, I was fond of reading. I enjoyed curling up with a good book, be it fiction, or (occasionally,) factual, allowing me to learn new things, like the books I now had on me...
I shook my head. That was Third Thoughts for you. First Thoughts are the kind that you have most everyday. Second Thoughts, and I mean REAL Second Thoughts, are the ones where you're thinking about your First Thoughts. People who like to think about things a lot tend to enjoy these. Third Thoughts, however, are the ones that go off on their own and think about the world around you, often without your consent or notice. When a huge rock is going to land on your head, they're the thoughts that think: "Is that an igneous rock, such as granite, or is it sandstone?" They're rare in most cases, though not so much in folks with attention-based "problems," it seems (I see my attention "issues" as a mixed blessing.)
As all this went through my head, I took a closer look around the corner of the building. It definitely wasn't the same as the one we'd started behind. We were near the edge of a slightly war-torn town, looking in at the central... I don't know what it was, frankly. A plaza? Town square? Whatever it was, it has a fountain, and while not being crowded, there were definitely Equestrians everywhere. And, to top it all off, the marker depicting my hidden base's location was on the side of town directly opposite our location.
I saw a unicorn using his magic off to one side, stacking some pretty good sized crates on the back of a cart, which was hitched to a normal-looking pony. This gave me an idea. Grabbing one of the lower-denomenation "Bits" I had, I placed it between thumb and forefinger, and raised it to about the level of my ear. I explained to Sans and Kapura what I was planning, as I aimed with my elbow. Right as I was about to snap my fingers, thereby putting the plan in motion, I was startled by a voice that sorta grated on the nerves ever so slightly.
"What'cha doin?"
I jumped ever so slightly as I snapped, sending the offending Bit on its merry way.
"Oh, noth--" I began, as I turned to see who had spoken, but stopped immediately upon seeing that the speaker was, in fact, a sky-blue pegasus with a flyaway mane and tail that looked like they'd just been in a dye factory explosion. She was also laying on her belly on top of a small cloud, just about head height. My eyes widened dramatically. "Ehhhhhh.... Goodbye!" I finished hastily, grabbing my companions 'round their waists and turning around.
I was just in time to see the Bit I'd launched hit the stallion hitched to the cart right above his left eye, causing him to rear up as the unicorn was placing the last crate on the absurdly tall pile. The whole thing came crashing down on both of them, which attracted the attention of all the nearby residents, who ran over to help. I took this opportunity to summon my mask of speed and book it for the forest.
"Hey!" I heard the pegasus yell, her voice dopplering extremely as I sped away, and I could only assume she'd give chase here shortly. True to chase logic, a pair of unicorns carrying a large mirror had moved across our path. I didn't hesitate to just smash through it, headfirst, and land in a roll before taking off again. Sans and Kapura were fine after the roll, so no worries there. Had I not been flipping completely the hell out, I probably would have been thinking something along the lines of "Everybody outta the goddamn way! I got arms full o' friends, feet full o' runnin, a pegasus full o' angry, and a goddamn partridge in a freakin pear tree!" Instead, I was thinking more along the lines of: "SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!"
I quickly came to, and passed, a small cottage on the way, startling countless small to medium sized creatures and a pastel yellow pegasus as I passed, (possibly giving the latter a heart attack.)
"Sorry!" I called back, not sure if she would hear my apology. We were soon back at the base, and I dropped my two passengers by the front door before turning back around. I was just in time to see the blue pegasus rebound off the shield, face first, landing on the ground heavily. Soon after, the yellow one I'd startled flew into the clearing at a much slower speed, and landed carefully next to her friend.
"Oh, Rainbow Dash, are you OK?" She asked. Her voice was soft, and quiet. She was the shy type, who didn't speak much to those outside of a close-knit circle of friends.
The blue pegasus, who I'd suspected the identity of when I first saw her, sat up. "Yeah," she said, "I'm fine, Fluttershy."
"What happened?"
"I... can't remember. I was chasing... something, and then suddenly I'm here on the ground, and you're asking me if I'm fine."
"We should go talk to Twilight, and see what she thinks we should do about this." She hesitated. "I-if it's OK with you, that is."
"Yeah, but if I see whatever it was again, I'm going to beat it to a fucking pulp. Now let's get the hell outta these creepy woods before we get attacked by Timberwolves or something."
I was a bit shell shocked at that. I'd never expected those words to come out of the mouth of someone from this world, but then again, they'd had humans influencing their culture for a while now, so...
The two of them left in the general direction of their homes, and I turned back to the others, looking a bit concerned.
"Hey, uh, kid?" asked Sans, "I don't think we should stick around here for long."
"Yeah," I replied, "safe as this here base of mine is, they're bound to send out a 'search party' to find us once those two get back, and I don't want to be stuck here whilst they search."
"Can't stop what you can't catch," said Kapura, simply, "and you can't outrun what's already here."
"Pretty much, Kapura," I answered, a little shaken. Those were two lines from my favorite webcomic, said by two totally different characters... who were at odds with each other, and destined to fight each other, now that I think about it. New theories began swirling in my mind, but I had to push them aside.
I went to open the door, but stopped, with my hand on the grip, as I noticed a couple things. It was pitch black inside, and I knew I'd left torches burning inside. And I mean Minecraft-style torches, the kind that never go out on their own. That wasn't too much of a problem, seeing as there were some mods out there that gave the game some more "realistic" physics, but I never liked the kind that made torches burn out.
The second thing I discerned was some movement inside, and a slight susurration (a soft sound, as of whispering, rustling, or murmuring; it's a good word, makes one think of mysteries, and secrets whispered behind closed doors.) After a moment, a face that was similarly structured to that of the nearby ponies, and yet unlike I'd ever seen before, came into the light let through by the door's window.
It had wide, alien eyes, which were a solid, pale milky blue throughout. It's skin was shockingly black, with a strange sheen to it. It had a curved horn poking up from its head, small, funnel-shaped ears, and had something that looked similar to a spinosaurus' sail, only miniaturized, in place of where the pony-types hereabouts had a mane, not to mention two wicked-looking fangs sticking down out of its mouth. Its eyes narrowed upon seeing me, before it turned its head and let out a spine-chilling, warbling, screechy clicking sound. The susurrus immediately became an angry droning, and I turned and ran, grabbing my companions as I did so.
I had NO clue what that thing had been, but I wasn't about to stick around and find out. "Sans, get us out here!" I said, as I heard the door splinter and explode behind us.
"I can't, not like this!" He exclaimed, looking behind us.
I turned to Kapura, who was muttering something about balance, about to ask him the same question I'd asked Sans, when the world around us vanished for the merest moment, and we were suddenly falling in a heap in a new location. As it turned out, we were in somebody's living room, and not on the ground floor, if the windows were anything to judge by. More specifically, on a (now broken) coffee table. What little skyline I could see through said windows suggested we were once again in New Altero. No other place had such unique buildings.
Just then, someone came storming up the stairs, and we soon saw that said figure was...
"Nurhii?!" I exclaimed in surprise.
"Caldoric?" He replied. "H-how...?"
"Courage is the soul of movement," mumbled Kapura. "You must have courage, or you will be frozen. Fear stops all. Courage defeats fear. Balance."
"Wait, you... You did that?" I asked, incredulously.
"Yep," said Sans, getting to his feet. "He's the best there is. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but... He's the one who taught me about those 'shortcuts' I use. I shoulda told ya this earlier, but I kinda got sidetracked with the timeline questions. Sorry."
"Eh, no prob," I said, waving my hand a couple times. Then a thought struck me. "I'm gonna need him to teach me as well, sometime. Um, speaking of which, if he taught you that, then why'd he get sick when you moved us?"
"I'm more concerned with the fact that the lot of you just appeared in my house with no warning," interrupted Nurhii, who'd been waiting impatiently till this point for an explanation. "I mean, I did say 'drop in sometime,' I'll give you that, but I didn't mean it literally! And not this soon after you left!"
"Dunno," I said, wryly, "seems like we're having a 'smashing' good time to me." I eyeballed what little I could see of the table beneath us.
"Heh, nice one," said Sans, chuckling.
"Yeah, this sure was a bone-headed move on our part, eh?" I replied, feigning innocence. Sans covered his mouth, snickering mildly. "OK, OK, all jokes aside, we're sorry for just appearing unexpectedly like this." We all got up off the table, and I took a moment to fix it. "Would you guys believe that this isn't the first time I've dropped on someone's table like this?"
At their curious looks, I explained the incident in the castle, when I'd met the princesses.
"Enough of that," I said, when I was done, "we should get going soon, but first I'll need a shower or something."
"Um, why?" Asked Nurhii.
"Well, for one, I haven't had a proper one since I got here, which poses problems of its own. And second, we got scared by a massive pack of creatures before we came here, and the human body does weird things when startled unexpectedly."
He got the hint, and directed me to the bathroom. Upon entering, I found a variety of different machines, designated the cleansing of armor or clothing, in addition to a conventional shower.
Making sure to lock the door beforehand, I stripped, tossed my armor and clothes in their respective machines, and hopped in the shower. It felt good to have the water cascading over me, caressing and soothing the various bruises and scrapes I had. As I washed, I found that some parts of me had changed since my arrival. The strange circuit-like lines and circles that had previously been contained to my face and head seemed to have spread across my body.
Also, along my spine and down the back of my elbows, strange ridges had appeared. I couldn't tell what color the ones on my back were, but the ones on my elbows seemed to be black, so it was safe to assume that was the case all round. I was concerned, but decided against freaking out just yet. Maybe they were some sort of interface for the armor? I mean, I HAD noticed that "armor status" message on my HUD earlier... Also, they looked sorta draconic, which made them cool in my eyes.
My back basically consisted of two lumpy, swollen masses of bruising, most likely from having been smashed through those airship walls... How the hell had I survived that, anyways? By rights, I should've been a pancake several times over, armor or not. I guessed I'd have to figure that out later... And as to why those bruises were still there after Luna's healing spell, well... Maybe magic couldn't fix everything immediately. The upside was that they weren't TOO sensitive, or sore, just... a little tingly.
I hopped out of the shower, and finished drying off just as the machines completed their cycles. I put the now clean clothes away in my Hammerspace, and switched to some of the spare clothes I'd brought from home... I had to switch mental tracks to keep from getting all mopey. I wasn't going to allow my homesickness to slow me down. Rather, I was going to do my best to turn it into a driving force that would propel me back home, come hell or high water.
Heh. Yeah, right. Like THAT was going to happen. I donned my armor once more, leaving off the helmet long enough to tie back my hair. I left it unbraided so it could air dry, and then looked at my helmet. It had reverted to what seemed to be my "default" mask, the one that Nurhii had kindly identified as a Mask of Adaptation for me a few days ago. He'd called it a Kanohi "Aptare" at the time. It had a few scratches, nicks, and dings, as well as a passable scar over the right eyehole. I don't remember what could've caused it, but I still thought it was cool.
All the while, I wondered what to do since my base'd been invaded. Then I realized... There was an adventure just calling my name down south.
The Great Spirit Robot. There was bound to be some fun stuff left behind in there. Maybe even weapons I could use to clear out my base! I jammed the helmet on, ran downstairs, and immediately exclaimed my plan to the others. Understandably, they were shocked, but in the end, I managed to convince them. We left for the nearest train that was headed south, but it was mid afternoon, and the last one for the day had already left.
I was ready to say "ta heck with it," and try the next day, but Sans wasn't having it.
He came up with a brilliant plan, which I was more than happy to try out myself. It was time to see if I could learn one of his moves. I mean, Kapura had figured it out, why couldn't I do the same?
"Hold out yer arm," he said, taking a slightly aggressive stance and holding out his left arm as an example, palm down, fingers extended like he was trying to make contact with something. I mirrored his motions with my right arm and leg, and casually stuck my left hand in my left pocket. Yes, my leg armor had pocket slots. Deal with it.
"Ok, good. Now, channel yer energy into yer hand, and let it leak JUST a little." As he demonstrated, his eyes did that thing where one disappeared and the other turned to blue-yellow flame, and this time, a small amount of blue-ish smoke wafted up from his hand. I did as he said, remembering the feeling of the magic that had flowed so freely before, and willing it to come to my aid, to do as Sans had told me. I felt the familiar shift of my magic "awakening." Similar smoke began drifting up and around my palm.
"Very good!" He said, an eyebrow raised. "Ok, next, ya gotta sorta set it off to the side of y'self, give it space to work." And with that, a large skull that was about half as big as Sans himself appeared next to him. "Keep it small, this time. We don't want the locals freakin' out just yet, eh?"
I nodded, still a tad startled at the thing's sudden appearance. It was also looking at me. Like, it actually had glowing blue irises, which were pointed my way. I did my best to ignore them, and concentrate on the task at hand.
Not a moment later, I heard a sound, and turned to see a floating head on my right, slightly bigger than the one Sans had summoned, and it was draconic, covered in black scales. To be honest, it resembled the head of a Night Fury in some ways. Its irises were the same lime color as my magic, whereas the pupils and "whites" of the eyes were black, so it must've been mine.
"Alright, nice!" Exclaimed Sans, punching the air. "Ok, Kapura, summon yers, and we're off!"
Kapura's looked biomechanical when it appeared, and he promptly hopped on top once it was there. Sans did the same with his own, and I followed suit, not sure what we were doing.
"So, these things can move wherever ya want 'em to, at pretty much whatever speed you need 'em to. They only disappear if ya dismiss 'em, fire 'em off, or get KO'd, capiche?"
"Yep," I said, giving him a thumbs up. "So, uh, how do I ride it?"
"On top is usually preferred," he said, smiling.
"Ha, ha," I said, giving him a wry smile. "Seriously, standing, sitting, what?"
"However you feel comfortable," he said, smirking. "I've found it hard to fall of however I tried it. It's like yer practically stuck to it. Now, let's get moving!" And with that, the two of them shot off.
I laid belly down on my... head thing. Ok, to be honest, it's called a "Gaster Blaster," just letting you know, and it has a fun sound when it fires. You definitely don't want to be standing in front of them when that happens.
Anyways, I patted a patch of scales near me, and said, softly, "hey, there, friend, you wanna go for a little ride?"
The head sort of tilted below me, in what felt like an affectionate manner, like a cat rubbing its head on your leg, and a deep-throated purr resonated through it.
"Awrite, buster, let's go then!" I said, and we were off like a shot into the desert, leaving behind nothing but a trail of dust. As we accelerated, clear lenses slammed down over the eyeholes in my mask, keeping out the wind and debris.
We soon caught up to the others, who'd been hanging back slightly in anticipation of my arrival.
I faintly heard Sans' voice over the wind, asking how fast we were going. According to my HUD, we were over 70 MPH already. I then decided to see just how fast I could go, so I mentally opened up the throttle, shouting "last one there's a rotten egg!" as I did so. That seemed to get the others' attention, as they sped up as well, trying to outpace me.
I allowed my blaster to drift sideways enough to bump Sans', sending him a few feet that direction. He seemed surprised at fie, and then got a mischievous grin and rammed me back. Once we'd grown tired of that, I decided to try standing up, which wasn't all that hard, despite the wind shear. I saw something huge, far in the distance, which we were rapidly approaching.
"Now" I muttered behind my mask, "bring me that horizon."
I felt a relaxed purr beneath my feet, and suddenly we were off, faster than ever.