Guardians of the Multiverse

by Draknir

Chapter 4: elbuorT

“Move it!” shouted Pinkie as she nearly crashed into a group of ponies in the hallway, her squad following as quickly as possible behind. She slid past the door to PC-001’s office while attempting to stop herself. The door opened once Pinkie was stood in front of it, “Commander, we’ve got a problem!”

“Yes, I was alerted the moment you used your emergency override,” replied PC-001, who was sitting at her desk, “A quick scan shows me this isn’t anything your squad can’t handle alone. PP-073, you’re hereby tasked with eliminating this disruption through all means possible.”

“Yes, ma’am!” answered Pinkie just as the rest of her squad arrived, “Okay, let’s get back to the portal room!” The door to PC-001’s office shut once Pinkie had begun to run back to the room in question, allowing for Twilight to groan without fear of repercussions. Nevertheless, the Unicorn and her two other squad mates made their way back to the portal room, where Pinkie was waiting in front of the central computer, “Universe 100, visit directly.” The portal turned on, this time to a bright yellow.

“Let’s move,” said Shining Armor, even though she was catching her breath like Twilight and Sunset Shimmer. The four ponies quickly ran into the portal, and found themselves in a place similar to where they’d been in Universe 5562, which the purple Unicorn deduced as Universe 100’s core.

“So…where’s this problem?” asked Twilight once she was able to see her squad.

“The computer told me it was at stability point seven,” answered her captain, “Stability point 7.” The world around the four ponies shifted suddenly to a barren landscape. The clouds overhead were black, but no rain fell. Cracks littered the land around them and the occasional dead tree shot out of the ground.

“Well, we know we’re on the right track,” said Sunset Shimmer, “Now we need to find the source of the disturbance.”

“Oh, are you perhaps referring to me?” asked a voice that seemed to come out of nowhere.

“That voice…” said Twilight, “Why am I not surprised that you’re the one causing this, Discord?”

“Discord? Who is Discord?” replied the voice, seemingly changing positions with each word, “My name is drocsiD. I know not any Discords.”

“Remember Twilight; in this Universe things like names and sentences are reversed,” cautioned Shining Armor, “So, basically this IS Discord, yet he goes by drocsiD as a result.”

“So, then how are we able to understand him as though he’s speaking like we do?” asked Twilight, looking to the other Unicorn in confusion.

“We’ll explain it later,” said Pinkie, “But, for now, we have bigger things to worry about. Show yourself, drocsiD!”

“Oh, fine,” answered the voice begrudgingly. With an extremely short flash of light, a rather tall and slender creature appeared before the squad. drocsiD’s brownish-gray head was shaped like that of a pony with a light blue goat horn on the right side and a tan deer antler on the left. His eyes were yellow with red irises, the one for his left eye being slightly larger. drocsiD’s white eyebrows mimicked his eyes in that the left was larger than the right. His neck of the same color as his face gave way to a darker brown just before his shoulders, which then gave way to a reddish dragon tail not far after his thighs. drocsiD’s left arm was that of a lion while his right was that of an eagle, and his left leg was that of a lizard while his right leg was that of a goat, “eiP eikniP, I presume? Or might you be somepony else, considering eikniP is an Earth Pony and yet you are clearly a Pegasus?”

“drocsiD, you are in violation of the laws set forth by the Guardians of the Multiverse,” stated Pinkie furiously, “You are hereby ordered to cease all of your activities involving the destabilization of this area and are to be subjected to a memory wipe of this encounter aside, of course, knowledge you are to do nothing else in this place.”

“The…Guardians of the Multiverse?” asked drocsiD cautiously, “I’m afraid I have no idea what that is, so I cannot exactly follow your orders.”

“Listen, we have ways of making you cooperate,” said Shining Armor as her horn began to glow a light rose color, “You have ten seconds to comply before I blast you into oblivion.”

“All right, all right. I’ll stop,” said drocsiD rather suddenly, causing all four of the ponies to look at him with raised eyebrows, “Honest. Clearly I don’t want to see myself blasted into oblivion, as fun as that may sound. Look, I’ll even fix what I’ve done!” With a snap of his fingers and a momentary flash, the landscape changed. The cracks in the ground disappeared while the trees regained life and flourished. Grass and flowers covered all parts of the land now, “And, I’ll even await my memory wipe.”

“O…kay?” stated Shining Armor once the land had changed. A thin beam shot forth from her horn and hit drocsiD straight in the forehead. After a second, he shook his head and disappeared with a flash, “That seemed too easy. But, our works done I guess. Unless there’s anything else we need to do.”

“Nope, that’s it. The computer didn’t alert me to any sort of problems elsewhere,” said Pinkie, turning towards the white mare, “Core.” Within a second, the squad found themselves back in the core of the Universe, “Return, authorization PP-073. Send report 100-SP-07.” With barely enough time to recover, the four ponies now found themselves in the portal room where they’d started.

“This is going to sound a bit stupid, but do we have to report back to PC-001?” asked Twilight once her disorientation passed, “Seems obvious that we do.”

“Actually, no. The extra thing I said before we returned was for the central computer here to send a report to her,” answered Pinkie, “Saves us the trouble of drafting and filing a report, plus it’s a lot less that needs to be archived. Oh, and I wouldn’t take that as a real example of our jobs.”

“Why’s that?”

“That was surprisingly easy compared to the other ones we’ve done,” explained Sunset Shimmer, “Too easy, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, it was kinda boring,” said Pinkie, “Anyway, no use dwelling on it now. We’ve got our main job to take care of. Let’s get going!”

“Wait, you said you’d explain how we could understand drocsiD as though he were talking like us?” asked Twilight, still wanting an answer.

“You see, when we visit a Universe directly and interact with its inhabitants, we hear everything except names in our natural language while they hear everything except names in there’s.”

“Interesting. Does that also apply here at the MGH?”

“It does, actually,” replied Pinkie, “While all four of us hail from Universes that are similar, there are many members here that come from Universes where the main languages of ponies are much different. Anyway, we’ve got a job to do so let’s get to it!”

Several hours passed as the squad alternated between observing Universes, such as in the case with the one’s that Shining Armor had noted were interesting, and directly visiting the Universes. Absolutely nothing was amiss in any of those Universes, which made the time seem to move slowly. The squad was just leaving their second to last Universe for the day when Twilight saw a group of four ponies she’d not seen before.

“Well, the fact that you’re still here tells me that your job went okay,” said one of the ponies, a light aquamarine Unicorn mare with a light cyan mane and tail and a white streak in both. Her Cutie Mark was a lyre, strangely enough, “And this must be the new recruit. LH-7413, or Lyra Heartstrings, as well as captain of this squad at your service. But you can just call me Lyra. Twilight, right? I’ve talked to a version of you on occasion.”

“Same here,” replied Twilight, “And, uh, I guess my codename is TS-314. And…you wouldn’t happen to be Fluttershy, would you?”

“Yes, I am, Twilight,” replied a light yellow Earth Pony mare with a long pink mane and tail, the former of which seemed to make a heart shape, “I only barely recognized you because in the Universe I came from, eight hundred and ninety, you’re a Pegasus.”

“Funny. In the Universe I’m from, you’re a Pegasus. And…seemingly a bit shyer.”

“Well, here at the MGH, one can’t exactly be shy,” replied the yellow Unicorn with a smile.

“By the way, I’m B-6982, Berryshine. Trust me, you have no idea how happy I am that my name is one word,” said a Pegasus of almost the same color as Twilight with a shorter, fluffier reddish-purple mane. Her cutie mark was, strangely, a bushel of grapes and a strawberry, “Believe me, it would be too much of temptation for some ponies.”

“What, are you talking about me?” asked an orange Pegasus mare with a brown mane that was shorter, but very similar, to Pinkie’s. Her Cutie Mark was a grilled cheese sandwich spread out like an accordion, “Oh, and name’s Cheese Sandwich, or CS-074. I believe I met your counterpart in my Universe when I helped plan Rainbow Dash’s birthiversary. Seem familiar to you?”

“Actually, yes,” answered Twilight with a smile as she recalled the event in question, “It wasn’t that long ago as far as I’m concerned. Not sure about you, though.”

“Anyway, now that all of THESE introductions are done,” said Pinkie, recalling the exchange from only a few hours ago, “We’ve probably got one last Universe left before we call it quits. Have fun while we’re off, okay girls?” After activating the portal for their next destination, Twilight’s squad entered into it for what ended up being the last one for that shift. They then ate dinner before retiring to their quarters for the night.

***

“Excuse me, my lord. drocsiD has returned from his mission successfully. We are now able to confirm that the average response time from members of the MGH is around two minutes.”

“Excellent. Begin preparing for phase two.”

“As you wish, my lord.”

Author's Note:

And so ends Twilight's first day on the job!

Writing the word drocsiD was annoying simply because I kept wanting to put capital letters in the wrong spots for some reason.

Foreshadowing at the end, aren't I?

Comments

[Blader-San]

This is actually very, very fun to read and enjoyable. I like it. Almost wish it was animated, to be honest.