Wanderer's Journey: Brony War!

by LonesomeWanderer

Chapter 13: LOOOOooooOOOOOOOnnnngggggeeeeeerrrr chapter!

Author's warning:
If you haven't heard of the many-worlds interpretation made by Bryce Seligman Dewitt, then you may get confused by what Wanderer does in this chapter...
Also... you'll only see the horizontal rules with light chapter formatting.

Wanderer was sprinting at full speed towards the city in the distance. He stopped in a slide as he reaches the ravine and now faces the wall blocking him from the buildings of Cantorlot. He stared at the wall with a sense of mostly fear... the odds were stacked against him, the ponies were most likely coming with destruction in mind, and he lost his lucky penny from an earlier chapter.

"Enough dramatics Author! Wait..." he checked his pockets quickly, "Oh you son of a-"

He examined the wall for any places that he could climb up, but saw none. He examined the ravine for any sewer grates, but got the same effect. There was no way in except through the front gate... he kept looking in vain, but kept finding nothing.

Then he thought about his first run-in with the Doctor, "OH CRAP! I forgot to give him the flower!" Wanderer made a sound that was between a sigh and a grunt, "Oh well... but what about that... I think I'll try it without training wheels this time!"

---

Rysuke was flying at top speed towards Cantorlot, so that he could warn Wanderer of the ponies coming soon. However, when he got there... Wanderer was not there. Rysuke tried to look for him, but saw nothing that could give him a clue as to where his friend had gone.

Not long after reaching this conclusion, Rysuke heard a set of wheels screech to a halt behind him. His reluctance to turn around was manifested by his overall fear of the ponies that might be behind him. When he finally turned around he was surprised to see Wanderer holding the rope to a wagon containing his solution to the front gate! The magic amplifier!

"KAAH!? (Did you seriously pull that all the way from the Crystal Kingdom!?)" Rysuke asked in a surprised screech. Wanderer nodded, so Rysuke continued angrily, "K-KAAHH!!! (D-Don't scare me like that ever again!!!)"

"Scare you like what? You only stood there like a buffoon, or... floated there like a bubble..." Wanderer 'thoughtfully' commented, "I just went back to the Kingdom for a spell, even thought about some things that happened in this past month."

"KAH! KAAH! (Whatever! Your letter didn't stop the ponies!)" Rysuke screamed.

"Is that what was going on a few miles back? I didn't notice." Wanderer grinned, "It's almost as if we could have gone here together and not have an effect on the story."

"KAAH? (Do you always have to talk like that when I'm around?)" Rysuke asked unhappily.

"No, but I always choose to." Wanderer commented sourly, "Anyway, you might want to get away from here, I'm about to do something you've never seen me do before!"

Rysuke flew back a little as Wanderer picked up one of the cables attached to the machine. Wanderer held his palm out and took a few minutes of silence...

......

............

........................

Something's wrong here...

"Okay... now!" Wanderer shouted as he shot his hand forward. Nothing happened again. "Um... abracadabra!" he yelled unsure of himself... it still didn't work.

"KAH... KAH, KAAH! (Wow... you're right, I've never seen you do that before!)" Rysuke made a sound that could be interpreted as laughter for a falcon.

"Can it, stupid bird!" Wanderer tried again and nothing happened. He threw his hands in the air and yelled, "Alright universes! Give me a way in!" he threw his hands forward one last time and let loose a spell, "TAKE THAT!"

The gate erupted in bright light and turned pure white in reaction to Wanderer's spell.

"K-KAAH! (O-Okay I really haven't seen you do that before!)" Rysuke screeched in surprise.

"Yeahah! I did it!" Wanderer exclaimed in victory........ "Wait... what did I do?" he laughed at himself for a couple seconds. After that short amount of laughter, he tried to open the gate. His hand went through the gate instead of onto the handle though.

"KAH... KAH! (Well... jump in!)" Rysuke screeched in an obvious tone.

"Oh, great idea! I have no idea what's on the other side though, so I'll stay here..." Wanderer replied letting a scared grin paint his thoughts.

"What do you think you're doing over there?" A voice suddenly called out. On the other side of the ravine was none other than the ponies hoping to get into Cantorlot. They obviously expected Wanderer to be here without a plan.

"Oh well, I'm just-HYAH!!!" Wanderer quickly sprinted into the gate with slightly stunned ponies following him.

---

On the other side of the gate... four figures fly through the gate and land hard on the ground. Three of them get up faster than the other figure and jump on top of him and yell in unison "You traitor!"

"No, I haven't done anything yet... you are the traitors." Wanderer simply replied to the figures.

"We aren't going to be cutie mark crusader traitors!" the flightless pegasus yelled at Wanderer. "You were trying to destroy-!"

"Hey, could you get off me for a bit? You're causing a scene." Wanderer looked around to as if his eyes were pointers. The cutie mark crusaders get off and look around and see the city actually looked like it did before the incident with the humans. But all the ponies are staring in their direction this time.

Wanderer quickly grabbed the three of them and ran into an alley, "I have a couple questions... why did you follow me? And how did you get in here with me?" he asked expectantly.

They looked at each other and excitedly exclaimed the simplest sentence in reply: "We were hanging on the ledge while you were trying to do that spell!" Wanderer face-palmed at this.

Sweetie Belle took the reins of the answering by exclaiming, "We thought you were going to destroy Cantorlot for sure! But it doesn't look like you did that at all, you repaired it from bottom up!"

"Yeah... about that..." Wanderer began slowly, "I was making a portal to another universe. So what you see here is different in the universe we came in from. Basically, I haven't done jack-squat to the real Cantorlot." he paused to see if they would accept his explanation.

They stared at each other for a minute before almost literally screaming "AWESOME!!!"

"Do you guys have to be so loud!?" Wanderer exclaimed in an annoyed tone. He pulled out a card, "Alright... I guess I'll have some more ponies here than I thought, oh well..." the card glowed and suddenly disappeared.

"What was that supposed to do?" Scootaloo asked in confusion. She looked around to see what effect it did, but saw nothing happen.

"Hang on..." Wanderer said impatiently. He suddenly gets engulfed in a bright light starts changing into something else. His transformation took about a minute and the light dispersed, showing what he had turned into.

"Whoa... can your cards do everything!?" Applebloom exclaimed in surprise as she held out her hoof in expectancy for a hoof bump.

"Unfortunately no..." Wanderer replied as he hit her hoof with his own, "I want one that can summon food on the fly, but that's just how the multiverse works."

Let's see here... oh... he turned into a stallion, a male pegasus at that. He didn't stumble or anything when he hoof bumped Applebloom... he might already have the hang of this!

"Now let's get moving!" he triumphantly shouted as he moved to leave the alley, but tripped over his hooves. Spoke too soon...

With Wanderer pretty much in tow... the Cutie Mark Crusaders made their way towards the majestic palace in the distance. Wanderer kept falling over into several things for a couple minutes until he finally got used to it. The guards seemed to stare at Wanderer with curiosity as they entered the palace garden gates.

The next step was to get Celestia to speak to him, and that seemed to be easier done than said. "Can we please speak to Celestia?" Sweetie Belle asked the guard next to the door into the palace.

"Sure, she isn't busy." the guard replied before opening the front door. Easy enough...

The noise of the several servents echoed through the halls as they walked towards the throne room. The hustle and bustle had lost some of its effect as they walked into the throne room, it being longer than most of the halls.

The cutie mark crusaders bowed as soon as they got within three long meters away from the throne, but Wanderer hanged back a little and didn't bow. Celestia excused Luna from their game of chess, which Celestia was winning.

"Hello, Princess Celestia. We would like you to meet... um... Beck!" Sweetie Belle turned to Wanderer and motioned for him to come closer.

"Y-Your majesty, I-I..." Wanderer began while shaking in anxiousness, "You see... I... don't know how to get back to my universe."

"Hmm?" Celestia tilted her head to one side and continued, "What are you going on about? Unless... that voice!" her horn emanated with magic as Wanderer was turned back to normal. Surprise overtook her as she reeled back in her throne.

"Don't act so surprised! This is your other universe's fault!" Wanderer exclaimed in anger. He clenched his fist and continued yelling, "If you were smart in the other one, then I wouldn't be here! Now send me back in this exact spot!"

"Calm down! You had orders not to enter the other worlds." Celestia replied.

"You had orders to protect this multiverse! But you screwed up!" Wanderer bit back. He was sending an aura of bad vibe through the room, dude!

"...Hmph... I'll let you go after that, but you should be more careful in the future, and by the way..." she turned to the crusaders, "Don't bring anyone with you next time Wanderer." her horn emanated one last time before the area whited out for our star-crossed heroes.

---

The now dusty ruins of the throne room appeared in front of them soon after the white out disappeared from their sight. Wanderer simply let out a heavy breath while the crusaders made a fuss over by the window.

"AAHH! That's blood!" Sweetie Belle screamed, she stepped back towards Wanderer in fright. The others seemed equally frightened, but wouldn't move away in curiosity.

"That's not blood... it's strawberry jam from someone's toast." Wanderer argued against their fear.

"I-It is blood... it's thick and... and..." Scootaloo began. Wanderer stopped her by swiping his finger on it and licking it, "A-AAHH!!! What are you doing!?"

"Yeah... it's jam... though it's probably best not to taste it, full of germs most likely." Wanderer nonchalantly replied to her scream.

"Y-You jerk! Don't scare us like that!" Applebloom exclaimed in pained anger, "We coulda thought you were a vampire!"

"Well... while we're on the topic of the jam..." Sweetie Belle began shyly, "How did you know it was just jam? Anyone who looked at that would usually tell you it's blood."

"Unless they're an android that can scan!" Scootaloo put up in Wanderer's defense.

"Scoots... I'm not an android, but Belle's right. How could I have sensed it was just jam? Hmm..." Wanderer scratched his jaw in thought. He didn't know how he got that ability suddenly. Could it be... that he was having premonitions like Celestia?

"Well, a-anyways..." Applebloom began shakily, "We need a plan or else we might be twiddlin' or thumbs for a bit."

"I've already got one. Follow me... and please, try to stay quiet!" Wanderer told them in annoyance before walking over to the door that connected to the hallway. The crusaders followed reluctantly as Wanderer opened the door and started acting as if they were some guerilla special operations group; slipping beween each piece of cover before pouncing on enemies together.

---

Meanwhile... back at the gate, the ponies are analyzing it to figure out what kind of magic Wanderer used. Rysuke was watching like... a hawk while he sat on top of the ruined magic amplifier that Wanderer used.

Fluttershy reluctantly walked up to Rysuke and asks, "Um... how does Wanderer understand you?"

"KAH? KAAH? (Huh? What do you mean?)" Rysuke turned to look down at her and scratched his perch.

"Well... it's just that... he never had you around when he was around us, so how could he train a falcon to deliver letters on the spot?" she asked in a curiosity filled voice.

"KAH... KAAH. (Hmm... I don't think I know enough to answer)" Rysuke responded in a confused screech. He rubbed his wing against the bottom of his beak like it was a hand stroking a chin thoughtfully.

"Oh... well, if you find anything else out, could you please tell me?" after getting an affirmative nod, Fluttershy turned and walking back to the mane six huddled together.

Derpy approached next with worry clouding her eyes, "Where did Wanderer go?" she asked no one in particular.

"KAH! (He's in there!)" Rysuke screeched and pointed his wing at the gate. Derpy reeled back a moment before looking at what Rysuke was pointing at. She nodded at Rysuke before walking away towards the gate and flew over... problem here? She hit a magic barrier and tumbled in mid-air backwards.

"What the?" she grunted as she got her balance back. Past the ruined buildings, she could see Wanderer speaking to someone, or at least he was moving his arms and nodding his head back and forth.

---

In the middle of the park... a verbal fight has ensued, "Listen... I like the fire you guys put into your hunt for the cutie mark, but you can't just go off alone! In a guerilla spec ops group, you need to stay with your group, not run off on your own!" Wanderer scolded in an angry tone.

"I'm sorry mister... don't blame them, blame me!" Applebloom replied.

"You kids are impossible to work with! If they follow your orders, then you should've told them to follow me and not run off on a suicide mission!" Wanderer yelled angrily. He grabbed his bow and unstrung it from his shoulder, "I'm going to go look for them, stay here and be quiet!" he ran off in the direction of the royal district passing by the enemies he had killed on his way to the middle of the park. He pulled an arrow out of the neck of a pony mid-run and strung it onto his bow.

He stopped in front of a building and focused his senses, "...Nope, not here." he calmly concluded after a moment passed. Before he ran to check any other buildings he looked around and saw a tuft of purple hair on the ground. He picked it up and looked towards the building nearest to the hair's location.

He opened the door slowly and pressed himself against the wall next to the door gingerly to avoid making any sound. He slowly moved in and saw the architectural detail put into making the house. It looked fancy until the humans came in and made a camp out of it. Wanderer slowly approached a door into the living room and saw a slightly off-putting sight; Pinkamena Diane Pie was slicing up human carcasses.

She immediately turned around and lifted her knife when Wanderer turned the corner, "I thought I told you kids to..." she turned her head in confusion, then simply smiled devilishly "Oh heeeeey Wanderer!"

"Kids? You meant Scoots and Belle right?" Wanderer asked with urgency starting to edge on his voice.

"Really? You don't want to... ask me about my day or anything?" Pinkamena replied disappointedly. She sighed with the knife still in her hoof, "How ungentlemanly!"

"Fine, I'll ask something... how are you holding that knife?" Wanderer asked in earnest.

"There we go! I don't know actually... *blah, blah, blah* it's really confusing really." Pinkamena scowled immediately after the statement(s), "Hey, are you even listening?"

"...I'm sorry, what?" Wanderer was staring with the teenage look that said 'I don't care that much'.

Pinkamena sighed and looked away angrily and stayed silent. She continued cutting the human carcasses in dejected silence.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you needed attention. So... why do you do that? Not the attention grabbing, but that cutting." Wanderer asked in a curious tone.

She sighed and simply answered, "I dunno... For some reason, I always like to cut something with this cleaver." she held up her knife, "It's so... mesmerizing......... I'm sorry, what were we talking about?"

Wanderer sighed, "Where are Belle and Scoots?" he asked seizing the opportunity.

"Oh, I know where they are! But you have to let me be in your party first!" Pinkamena demanded.

Am I going to regret this?

Pinkamena Diane Pie the psychotic cupcakes murderer has joined your party!

"Alright, follow me my good man!" Pinkamena walked to the kitchen. She grabbed some cooking utensils and dropped them onto the counter, "There! Now we can make some cupcakes!"

"Diane, I hope you realize what we're supposed to be doing, right?" Wanderer asked in annoyance.

"Oohoohoo! You already gave me a pet name! This is going to be fun! Alright, they're this way!" she shoved the backdoor open and walked out happily. Wanderer followed cautiously, looking around before continuing to follow her down the street.

---

"When is he comin' back?" Applebloom was sitting against a tree and impatiently tapping her hoof against the ground. She looked around and saw nothing but ruined buildings... and dead people/ponies.

She stood up and balled up her hoof, "Aright, that's it! This is taking too long! I'm gonna go find Wanderer!" she shouted before running in the direction that Wanderer ran. A few minutes later... she found him, or he found her.

---

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were bravely fighting against several human bandits. It was a lost cause, but they needed to survive! They could see no way away from the situation making even more dire. On top of that, they are starting to get tired and the humans are getting closer every second to catching them in a slip up.

"Sweetie Belle, if we don't make it out of this... I just want you to know..." Scootaloo began in a dramatically exhausted tone.

"No! We have to survive! For Wanderer... for Applebloom... for our friends back at school!" she said before kicking into an approaching human and tumbling back onto her hooves.

Scootaloo panted and replied slowly, "Yeah... you're right... we can't leave Applebloom alone, you and I know how she is..." she dodged to one side as a human brandished a spear in her direction, then jumped up to his head to give a heavy kick. The human fell back with a loud thud, but there were more collecting on the hill, "Dang, I wish we could win already..." Scootaloo started hyperventilating.

Sweetie Belle looked around for a way out of there, but saw that they were trapped in a corner. She panted heavily with a fearful look on her face. Many humans came running all at once, too many to fight with only two dedicated fillies. Sweetie Belle closed her as eyes and screamed as the humans jumped in her direction...
........

.............

.................!? The humans were lying on the ground breathless!

"Wh-What?" she gasped at the figure. The figure seemed to be a male unicorn, had a red mane and black coat, and two crossbows attached to his saddle. The stallion stood courageously against the oncoming threat with a long katana in his mouth.

He stabbed the sword into the ground and turned towards her, then arrogantly asked in a deep voice, "What? Didn't expect anyone to show up?" he asked before pulling his sword out of the ground and cutting through the approaching horde of humans like butter.

With their spirits revitalized, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle ran in and jumped onto a human approaching on the stallion's left flank and bucked him sore. The human ran away after throwing them off.

"You two can fight? Good, but minimize any risk of damage you get before rushing the enemy." the stallion instructed before entering a combat pose. The two crusaders made grunts of confirmation before entering their own battle stances.

The oncoming horde shouted to each other in a foreign language before running away in fear.

"HAH! COWARDS!" Scootaloo screamed at the now dispersed horde of enemies.

The stallion looked at her disappointed, "Don't give them a reason to come back and you'll survive longer." he said gently.

"Thank you, Mr...?" Sweetie Belle asked in a polite tone.

"My name is Dark Gambit and you two are not supposed to be trapped in here. However did you get in?" he asked worriedly.

"We... we followed a guy called the Wanderer of universes. Stupid name right?" Scootaloo replied after catching the rest of the breath she was missing.

"Well... you can't blame him for having a bad name." Gambit reasoned, his blood-red eyes flickering in the dark suggested he knew something about Wanderer.

"Do you know him?" Sweetie Belle pressed.

"No... at least not directly. He came up in the news I received before this city came down in ruins. You feel that magic current flowing through the air?" he asked Sweetie Belle directly.

"Yeah... I thought it was weird too, but I haven't seen any live unicorns using magic in this city." she replied.

"Exactly... there's something going on inside of the palace. Yet, it is nigh impossible to get into. Now why would it be so heavily guarded if there's no use for it?" he concluded. He continued immediately, "This city is surrounded by a force field fit to stop any army from entering."

"My brother is in the palace, that's why this city is under unnecessarily heavy guard." Wanderer had approached unexpectedly holding his bow and Applebloom over his left shoulder, "Never walk away from the group, or else I shall make sure that Pinkamena will be in charge of you lot." his right eye flashed red with anger for a split-second.

"Ah, you must be Wanderer! So these children are in your possession?" Gambit asked.

"In my possession........ are you a sick perv!?" Wanderer dropped Applebloom on accident while shouting at the stallion, "They followed me here when I got through the gate with diverse parlor tricks! However, according to you, there's no way for us to get an army in here and stop him." Wanderer concluded further.

"Very well done... everyone knew it before you though." Scootaloo initiated a slow-clap.

"Just making sure we're all up to speed." Wanderer explained. He clapped his hands together and looked at Gambit, "Alright, I want you to tell me where the exit to the city is."

"Haven't you listened? There is no way out of here... except death." he replied coldly.

Wanderer grunted and looked at the fillies, "I don't want to take them with... they're just kids!"

Pinkamena laughed, "You think they're just kids? Look at all those dead corpses! I don't think that Dark Gambit was the only one who killed here. You can do nearly impossible things when in a crisis!"

Wanderer sighed in an annoyed tone and looked away to the left. The view he was looking at wasn't pleasant, being made of corpses and broken buildings... He stayed silent for several moments with a twitching eye showing his thoughts on this decision.

After the silence that cut through the air better than Gambit's sword was over, Wanderer turns back toward the group and simply stated in a serious tone, "Alright, you fillies can come with me, but you have to be careful, or else you can find the way out on your own."

"Alright! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER WORLD SAVERS!" they all screamed in unison.

---

Derpy paced back and forth frustratingly next to the magic amplifier, Rysuke was flying in circles above her head, and the mane six were still huddled together arguing over what to do.

"We need to get in there!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed, "There are probably some ponies who are trapped in there!"

"But... Rainbow..." Fluttershy weakly began, "There could be something dangerous in there!"

"Honestly, ah agree with RD..." Applejack replied next, "Fluttershy, if that's true, then we'd have no choice but to help 'em out."

"But hang on... Wanderer went in there, darlings," Rarity pointed out, "And wherever he goes, he brings plenty of trouble, we already know what happened back at Ponyville; he came before then!"

"But hang on!" Twilight objected, "That only gives more reason to go in! We have to save the Cantorlot ponies from whatever danger that Wanderer has brought..." she paused to hear Pinkie, but realized she wasn't there...

"Could I help?" Derpy had walked up unexpectedly, "If we can't send an army in, then send in a single pony!" this won't end well...

"What!? No way!" Rainbow cried out, "We can't let you in there! You'll screw up along the way and get yourself killed!"

"Exactly..." Derpy started reasoning confidently, "If an army goes in and messes up, then you'd lose an army. Have only one pony go in and slip up, then you'd only lose one pony."

"Which is exactly why we can't let you go with this sweetie," Rarity soothed persuasively, "We can't just throw anypony in there, especially you. You have friends back in Ponyville."

"I don't care... Wanderer's in trouble in that place, I can... feel it in my gut." Derpy admitted, "Even you get that feeling Rainbow."

"Yeah, but I don't do it willy-nilly!" Rainbow cried out in protest, "Gut-feelings don't keep you alive!"

"Sugarcube, you can't just decide that you're going in there alone." Applejack put in for Rainbow, "If we send just one pony in, then the death chance goes up by a considerable rate!"

"Then give me Fluttershy and Wanderer's bird." Derpy concluded. Everypony's jaw dropped to the ground at the notion.

Fluttershy was the first to object, "N-No! I don't want to go in there!"

"Whoa, hold on a second partner!" Applejack pressed, "Why do you want to take them?"

"Wanderer will recognize his bird, and his bird in turn will be able to guide us to him. Fluttershy needs to come along so that we can understand the bird when it finds him." Derpy stated with only confidence edging her voice.

"How can you be so sure of that!?" Rarity yelled, "You don't know what will happen if he sees you again! You don't know what he'll do!"

Rainbow and Twilight remained silent, thinking about what they should do... what path was right. Send their friend into the possible depths of hell? Or keep her here and find another way?

"Rainbow, ah think we need your opinion on this matter... she's been closest to you." Applejack reminded Rainbow in a serious tone.

"You too, Twilight!" Rarity demanded, "You're princess! Whatever your decision is, they'll have to follow it! Make a decision, now!"

"Rainbow!"

"Twilight!"

"Guys..."

"KAAH! (Make a choice already!)"

Everypony was calling out their names as they didn't say anything in confusion. It was like trying to call out to someone in a torrent of thoughts; very ineffective and very disheartening. In any case... the choice for them was simple, but at the same time... very difficult to go through.

Until... that one fateful event occurred in the span of nearly ten seconds, "I'm his partner!" Derpy cried out. Everypony stopped yelling at Rainbow and Twilight and looked at her.

Derpy looked very solemn while explaining,"He isn't going to be able to survive in there alone. If someone doesn't try to help him, then he may die before his job is done!"

Nopony said anything... the silence was unbearably heavy all around the group. Derpy looked away solemnly as she continued, "All I feel is guilt, that he is going to die and I won't be there to help!"

"Listen Derpy..." Twilight had finally found her voice, no matter how dull it sounded, "We care about you and Fluttershy... that's why we're so reluctant to let you go and find Wanderer."

"What would Wanderer say right now?" Fluttershy asked out of the blue, "...I think he would he would go... 'If she's so confident in her ability to do something, then we should let her do her thing!' or something like that..."

Everypony stared at Fluttershy in total confusion, but remained silent.

"KAAH... KAAH. (Just let her do it... she might insist until you get serious and make her no longer part of Equestria.)" Rysuke coldly followed up. He landed on Fluttershy's head and found purchase in her hair while she translated.

Nopony spoke up... and how could they? This choice was made even harder, Derpy needed to go, but Fluttershy was put at risk when they'd go in. It was a long... awkward silence that would fill their memories for all eternity...

Finally one pony spoke up in a low, grave tone, "Fluttershy... are you okay with this?" Rainbow had begun crying a little.

"I think... if Wanderer wants to succeed, then he'll need Derpy's help." Fluttershy confirmed, "If I can help towards that goal, I'll feel like this universe has a higher chance of surviving." she was smiling, but it was very evident that it was to hide the endless terror that she felt about leaving her best friends behind to go on a suicide mission.

"Listen to her! She's spouting dribble just like Wanderer did!" Rarity declared.

"No... she's right." Twilight objected heavily, "We need to help Wanderer... why would he want to send us a letter about infiltrating the gates? Why would he tell us such madness? Why would he know about everything ahead of time? It's because he really was telling the truth every time he said anything." her eyes shot wide open with realization, "Honesty..." she looked at Applejack.

Applejack continued this chain of logic, "He also seemed to care for other ponies safety before doin' somethin' stupid. Generosity..." Applejack looked at Rarity.

Rarity was next, "Never striding away from his main goal whenever he could've been killed on the spot... Loyalty..." she looked at Rainbow with surprise painting her face.

Rainbow continued the chain, "Caring for a simple, yet diverse task from a pony in need... Kindness..." she looked at Fluttershy with wide eyes.

Fluttershy spoke last, "And using his own powers of cards to save everyone from imminent destruction... Magic..." she smiled and looked at Twilight who had finally realized what had happened.

Twilight was the most surprised out of all of them, "Wh-What? He knew about the elements of harmony?"

"Even bigger... he constructed his path to follow the guidelines of each element!" Rarity pondered for a moment, "No one saw our elements of harmony... or could devise a plan to get this to come up some day."

"Well... it looks like he did do exactly both of those things" Applejack pointed out, "Somehow he knew without being told anythin' about our history..."

Everypony's faces were in complete shock over this. However, Fluttershy, Derpy, and Rainbow Dash seemed to be able to process it without the need for any new emotion to be set into their faces.

"So will you let me go in now?" Derpy asked hurriedly.

".....No." Twilight answered in a dark tone. Her eyes suddenly seemed... familiar...

"Hey, Twi... I think it'd be for the best if they did go in too." Rainbow Dash responded.

"No, and that's final! No one goes in there!" Twilight exclaimed.

"What's gotten into you Twilight? That's not very nice to-" Applejack tried to reason, but her words only seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"SHUT UP! I've had enough of this!" Twilight screamed with wild eyes, "You two will go nowhere as long as I live to protect Cantorlot!"

"What are you talking about!? It's in danger now!" Rainbow shouted, "You can't protect something under attack, Twi! Stop being blind as a bat!"

"No... you all want to destroy it so that this will all not matter one bit!" she forced a giant laser-like whip to materialize and prepared to attack, "LEAVE AND NEVER RETURN!!!" she yelled before swinging it across the ravine to strike everyone away. Everypony went flying as soon as the giant whip struck them and sent them towards Ponyville.

"Ahh! Team Equestria is blasting off again!" one of the unicorns screamed as he went flying faster than the others and as he was lost in the sky, you could see his glasses twinkling in the distance... wait... he wasn't wearing glasses...

---

Wanderer stood in a black room, unlike the white room you see him in most of the time, it was essentially a room that was only illuminated by the peeking slit in the door. It was to be their headquarters until everyone was fully rested.

No one was awake in the room with Wanderer, making him think that either they're asleep, or are in separate rooms adjacent to the one he was in. The latter seemed more true since he kept hearing a noise down one of the halls, most likely the crusaders.

He looked around the room a couple times pitifully, but saw nothing that could help him. "I'm going to either starve or be killed off in time for the end of all pony kind." he leaned against the wall in exhaustion and lifted his shoulders and told the empty room, "I'll face this, but I'm screwed... for the first time, I can admit I won't be able to face this even with backup." he muttered to himself.

He looked at the door expectantly, as if there was going to be some miracle that make it easier for him to get into the palace, but he knew nothing would come in... but still he hoped for his assumptions to be wrong for about two hours.

---

Discord was sitting next to a pond sunbathing with a punch glass sitting in a cup holder of his beach chair, and seemed to be enjoying himself. Let's interrupt that, shall we?

The screams of many ponies can be heard in the distance, when Discord looked back, he was greeted to a forceful slam from multiple ponies at once. They all thankfully landed in the pond, which was enlarged by Discord.

"What are all of you doing here!? My resting spot!" Discord seethed with anger, "You even broke my beach chair!" he rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming.

"We're awfully sorry Discord... Twilight shot us here from Cantorlot and in turn made us break your chair." Fluttershy apologized.

"Wh-Wha-Why!?" Discord asked in great pain.

"That don't matter right now!" Applejack exclaimed, "Twilight just did something that she normally wouldn't do, so we gotta do something about it!"

"Is she under some kind of spell?" Rainbow asked.

"I 'ave no idea..." Applejack admitted.

"I'm pretty sure she is," Derpy proclaimed, "Why would she hit us away like some unknown villains if she was thinking ordinarily?"

"It does seem kind of... strange when you put it like that." Fluttershy replied.

HOLD ON JUST ONE SECOND!!!

Reality seemed to shatter all at once as Rarity raised an objection. She glowered at Derpy and started shouting, "It's all this mare's fault! She poisoned our friend with some potion!"

"Wh-What are you talking about!?" Derpy shouted back.

"I'm saying you did something to her to make her this furious!" Rarity declared.

"Hang on! You don't have any proof that I did it! I'd never try to poison Twilight!" Derpy exclaimed.

"Oh yes you would! And I do have proof! You obviously snuck to where you could slip the poison into her drink! That's how you did it!" Rarity exclaimed wildly.

"THAT'S NOT RIGHT AT ALL!!!" Derpy's shout engulfed Rarity's argument in anger-filled flames, "There's no way that's right, Rarity! You saw me talking to her about going into Cantorlot!"

"Really? Well, you wouldn't know would you?" Rarity seethed, "Rysuke would be able to tell you though!"

Speaking of whom, he went flying--literally--into Discord's face.

Rarity pointed at him, "Rysuke knows that stress weakens a unicorn's mental barriers! He's spent enough time with Wanderer to learn about it!"

"KAH? (Did I miss something?)" Rysuke screeched confused.

"Oh, you haven't missed a thing..." Discord angrily seethed. Rysuke flew away in case Discord was hungry for falcon stew.

"He told you to make Twilight face that difficult decision so that she would break under pressure and the poison would finally affect her thoughts!" Rarity declared in a rather dramatic tone.

"Ya know Rarity, it sounds like the same thing happened to you!" Applejack angrily replied.

"Wh-How dare you! I am nothing like that brute!" Rarity shouted.

"What? Who is the brute?" Fluttershy asked.

"That Twilight of course!" Rarity yelled.

"Hold on a second here!" Rainbow Dash objected, "How can you call your own friend a brute when she got hit with some strange spell? Also, why would you go for Derpy's throat first? It could've been one of us, or even you!"

Rarity flinched at the accusation, "H-How dare you! I wouldn't do anything like that!"

"But, you look like you would've done it." Derpy accused, when everyone looked at her with suspicion glazing over their eyes, she explained like this: "You eyes are darker, why is that Rarity? You pride yourself on fashion!"

"Ah! I-It's just this time we're in right now!" Rarity worriedly replied.

"Also, you're not complaining about the rest of yourself. Usually you'd complain about how your mane was 'ruined!' if anything happened." Derpy continued.

"Ah-Um... for buck's sake... where is my comb?" Rarity tried to get them to back off. It was very ineffective...

"Rarity, you didn't bring a comb on the trip," Applejack pointed out, "You said it would be a hindrance to the rest of what you were packing."

Rarity looked scared, but at the same time... unsurprised...

"So... you did it didn't you?" Derpy asked angrily.

"Ah-Ah... You don't want to do this... please! He'll... he'll..." Rarity looked pale(r) as if she had seen a ghost.

"Who's he? What's he gonna do!?" Applejack demanded in hot fury.

"His name... I couldn't get that, but..." she paused and looked around as if 'he' was nearby, "He'll kill me if I tell anyone what I was supposed to be doing! Please, don't ask anymore questions!"

"B-But..." Applejack was quite fazed by this point.

"No, if we ask anymore questions, he'll kill her!" Fluttershy begged.

"But... F-Fine... but you're going to go back to the Carousal Boutique!" Applejack declared.

"Alright, thank you!" Rarity hugged Applejack and ran towards the Carousal Boutique.

"I'll follow her and make sure she doesn't go somewhere else accidentally." Rainbow called out after she started flying after Rarity.

"So, now that we've dealt with Rarity, what do we do about Twilight?" Derpy asked.

No one spoke up, just stood there in confusion, but Rysuke was just floating in confusion.

Eventually Rysuke shallowly screeched with Fluttershy translating, " KAH, KAAH. (If Wanderer were here, then he could just use his mind to fix her, but he's in Cantorlot, so...)"

"Is there anyone else?" Applejack asked intrigued.

"KAH... KAH, KAAH. (Well... I don't know who, the ones who could've been able to are either dead or just too evil.)" Rysuke pointed out.

"What do we do then?" Derpy asked with hopeless eyes.

"We could divert her attacks and get someone in..." Applejack replied.

"That's too dangerous! What if she turns around while the ones trying to get in are next to the door?" Fluttershy objected.

"Well, we gotta do somethin' Fluttershy! I don't like taking risks as much as you, but we have to do something to get in and help Wanderer!" Applejack responded angrily.

"Maybe we could persuade her?" Fluttershy randomly replied, "If she knew we meant no harm, then we could get in, right?" she was looking around at everyone's despair filled eyes.

"That could work if we knew what to do... how would we get her to think we're not hostile?" Derpy asked. Everyone looked at Derpy and smiled... "...What is it?"

---

Wanderer was standing outside the gate of the palace garden and held his bow firmly, the rest of the group was hiding out of plain sight while he went to open the door. The door slowly groaned as it swung open, then... the strangest thing happened.

There was no one to greet them... no sound came through the garden as if it was the ghost town's center. Wanderer looked around and signaled for the group to come out of hiding.

"Hey, where's the baddies? I thought we would be greeted by smiling faces covered in blood!" Pinkamena exclaimed. She looked around disappointed and kicked a pebble, "This place is more dead than the rest of Cantorlot."

"Congratulations should be in order! There aren't any opponents to fight!" Dark Gambit excitedly replied, "Looks like we don't need to fight now! Okay, let's go home."

"Something is wrong here!" Scootaloo objected.

"Besides we haven't even checked the inside of the palace yet!" Sweetie Belle added.

"If they're gone as Dark Gambit says, then we may have to investigate just in case. We'll need to know where they are." Wanderer replied. Before giving the order to go in, he spoke to the crusaders, "You seem to be handling those crossbows I gave you very well. Have you gotten some sort of training?"

"Ah got some tips from my big sister. And ah shared it with the others." Applebloom responded. The other crusaders nodded in agreement.

"Are you four done? Cause we got to get moving." Dark Gambit simply responded.

"Yeah, yeah... we're coming!" Wanderer exclaimed aloofly.

The throne room was completely trashed, but the throne still stood with plenty of dead bodies in front of it. "So.... looks like a dictator was in here." Wanderer observed.

"Idiot..." Dark Gambit muttered. Before anyone could say anything against him, he continued the observations: "This place looks recently used... I can even sense the magic that still lingers in the air. And the throne has... fresh blood on it."

Scootaloo gagged, "I can smell it from here..." she admitted. She looked towards the throne with overgrowing curiosity, and started unconsciously walking towards it.

"Scoots, what do you think you're doing!?" Wanderer shouted at her, waking her from her unconscious walk, "Before checking things out, get an adult! We don't know if that is booby-trapped!"

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Scootaloo sadly replied.

"Don't worry, it looks safe..." Wanderer walked up to the throne and before he got halfway to it, a pillar of flame shoots up from the floor. He jumps back in fear and trips on the carpet, then cries out to the group after a long pause: "Okay... the throne is off limits!"

"Seems like it's for the best." Dark Gambit agreed.

Pinkamena walks up to Wanderer and offers a hoof, "Get up." after pulling him up to his knees, she continues with a question, "What do we do now?"

"We have to find out where our opponents went..." Wanderer replied. He stood up and cried out orders, "Alright everypony, we'll have to split up to find some clues to where the people that were here are. Crusaders, you'll stay here and yell if anyone comes through that door. Gambit, I want you check the hallway rooms. Pinkamena, you'll come with me to the princess's chambers. Anypony have an objection?"

No one said anything, so everyone went to their jobs. Wanderer carefully walked with Pinkamena towards what he hoped was the chambers that the princess's shared. Eventually he found a set of stairs and climbed the steps. What he found might not surprise you... or will it?

To be continued... save your progress now!!!

O-okay... why are you so angry?

OR

Don't take that tone with me, boy!

Author's Note:

Please tell me any grammer, spelling, or whatever errors I made this time, you know the drill. Oh, and merry Christmas! Be good, Wanderer knows Santa!

Comments

[Humbucker]

This chapter is huge...
Welp, guess I better start reading

[Humbucker]

Okay, probably my only serious gripe with this chapter, random over powered original characters jumping out of nowhere and saving the day is a big no no for any story.
If your gonna have a new character save the day you should give the readers prior knowledge of said character and show us how he got to that point or else it just feels cheap.
the story seems to have a nice flow for the most part, there are a few rough patches but nothing serious. I also feel like the wonderer might be a bit too perfect, nothing really seems to bother him, why? Is there something I'm missing? I know he's like the doctor, facing danger every other day, but It would be nice to know more of his past adventures to know him a bit better.
I also have to ask, is this planned out or are you just making it up as you go?
As for spelling and grammar, it's pretty good, there might be a few slip ups but nothing serious.

P.S. Merry christmas

[LonesomeWanderer]

3656791

Okay, probably my only serious gripe with this chapter, random over powered original characters jumping out of nowhere and saving the day is a big no no for any story.

First: I thought it was made obvious that some people/ponies were trapped in there like Pinkamena. Don't worry... he'll be explaining himself...

I also feel like the wanderer might be a bit too perfect, nothing really seems to bother him, why? Is there something I'm missing? I know he's like the doctor, facing danger every other day, but It would be nice to know more of his past adventures to know him a bit better.

Second: Yeah, I see your point about Wanderer... I guess I should tone down the writing of him being hard-stone-cold... and talk about his past adventures, sometime later in this story, or next chapter.

I also have to ask, is this planned out or are you just making it up as you go?

Third: Yes and no, I'm going along a basic skeleton, but I still make those expositions in my head. The basic skeleton is a story on Fanfiction.com with the same (sort of) name as this one... with the same author... making this story a rewrite of a terrible script version... don't read that one!