(13) Mk. C: Tinsel Tree
“What was that?” Luna asked. She almost sounded surprised, not that I blame her.
“Sorry,” I said, wincing, the last sparkling remnants of Luna’s dream-bubble flittering away as I recalled the human-sized block of sand. My mind-ache was back, not that it had managed to go away since last night, though the sounds of a cold-shower had helped.
Princess Luna had wanted me to try and get as many nightmares into her dream as I could manage, and, being the brilliant tactician that I am, had tried to cram in the monolith of combined fear and had managed to blow the dream to smithereens and crack up some of the walkway for my trouble.
‘You shou-ow- should have just brought a bunch of fea- sand into lit-ow- needles and inject them in from all side? Ah, Captain Hindsight to the resc-ow-ue.’
“Are you feeling alright?” Princess Luna asked, the dream noticeably unformed.
“Yeah, it’s just pain,” I said, giving a violent shake of my head to try and keep my train of thought online. If it didn’t hurt so much, I might have almost thought I was feeling sleepy. Still not sure what Luna hopes to gain from this.
“Be that as it may, w-” Princess Luna said, before a halo of golden-sand erupted above me, stealing away the sound.
My sand, unfocused as it was, came into sharp focus as it ribboned around my chest, tightening before the glaring ring of light swept it back, giving me just enough time for a tiny ‘no,’ before the ground was stolen from me.
Adrenaline soon poured into the gaps, and maybe it was the ring or the strange wavering grey-blackness around me but I found the thudding in the back of my head had, instead, given itself to the jackhammer going off in my chest, but at least I could think I could think without hurt.
Again the ring of sand opened, dropping over me before, and with its disappearance came the sensations it had numbed. I could feel my body twist in on itself, pulling closer together as belief flowed numbly out of me, my stomach lurching as gravity finally took hold of what passed for my body. I squinted at the sudden light, and, for just a moment, I was overwhelmed by the sudden heat and smell of sugar-cookies and frosting before I rolled into the floor, already a shadow, and waited for the stinging in my eyes to vanish.
I had almost hoped it wasn’t, but as my vision cleared I was greeted by the doughy cheeks and unkempt hair of Jacob, the self-proclaimed Iron Man.
“You,” the cold-word escaped to die on my mouth when I saw the assembled crowd around him. At any other time it would have filled me with awe to see such attention to detail given to such costumes, but here, where Iron Man’s suit was an actual thing and was in the hands of some flippant sociopath, it turned my stomach.
We were in a large kitchen, very large, that at least explained the smell, but the sleek/showy grandness of the appliances and whisk-toting ornament-shaped Christmas-themed looking robots were only further proof of what I wished could be just a bad dream.
“Didn’t you get my invitation?” he smirked, flashing a bit of teeth as he swept his hand to a dark, bipedal-looking version of Nightmare Moon, “I’m inviting displaced to a party. If you feel as though you are being kidnapped,” he shrugged, “I did state how to decline the offer.”
“Again with the lies,” I said through gritted-teeth, my mind-ache coming back again, “why-”
“Listen to me,” he interrupted, rolling his eyes, “I just stated that you had the ability to decline. Or is there too much sand in your ears Wayde?”
‘He’s the same as ev- holy shit was that Chrysalis?’ I worried, blinking as I saw the hole-pocked end of her tail as she left the room.
“And who exactly are you talking to?” the anthro Nightmare Moon hummed, leaning into Jacob’s ear, “because it looks like you’re talking to a cupboard.”
“Actually,” Jacob said, quirking an eyebrow, “that is another displaced, rather like Pitch Black if I recall. Now, in order for you to see him, you might want to believe first.”
A Venom Spider-man toeing the wall chuckled even as the likes of the surrounding comic-book looking villains continued to mingle and otherwise tend to themselves, but I felt it, the rush of belief even as the mingling fears of those around me finally began to seep through to me.
“Now Wayde, if you agreed to this invitation by accident, I can send you back, but I am trying to wash away any bad blood in between us,” Jacob said, leaning forward.
The urge to scream ‘yes’ was almost overwhelming. Go back, find a shower, let the cold sounds get rid of this ridiculous pain, and… and, I could leave all the people, ponies, griffins, everyone here, to deal with their manipulative princesses and the tinkering trickster alone.
‘This isn’t right.’
How long have I…
‘Help. Them.’
Just a few seconds, awareness I hadn’t had felt since I fell into Equestira, and all of them too terribly real. I had to do something.
‘He’s mad, slice him.’
I … had to do something about the mechanical wizard who fights alicorns and had clearly found the way to enchant comic book villains out of their stories and who knows what other people by conscription with this show of power alone.
‘No, don’t leave it to chance.’
“Your days of stealing across dimension are through,” I replied, slipping into the cupboard behind me before and then to the shadows beyond. I didn’t want to hear his reply.
***
Racing across the darkness, the lights were so similar, but each time I surfaced I was reminded how far I had come. In place of the prisons I had wanted to see were, instead, spas, resorts, and theme-parks. Wasted time, but it gave me a chance to plan, this was so much bigger than anything I’d ever done before. Could I wait until nightfall to reach for the Elements of Harmony, or would it be too late? Would they go through some teleporter, some air ship, or just snipe them from ranged? Did he even have lasers? Did any of those creatures with him have anything like that?
Finding a prison, a place where the city of Rydah had been back in m-… the last Equestria, even though it hurt, I couldn’t risk for the time and sent out my sand in papery waves. They’d find their day-nappers and nocturnal-sleepers. Even in the numbness of my shadow I felt my joints loosen, belief flowed back into me, but I needed more.
***
Sliding back across the walls, sure that his robots will have spot my un-cast shadow soon enough, I looked down from the garland crowding out the ceiling, and was hit so suddenly with jealousy I wanted to scream. There they were, smatterings of what all but the fears radiating off them would tell me were humans interspersed with quadrupedal and bipedal ponies alike. And I missed it, not my family, the few members I considered it, not the few friend I had managed to stumble upon, but humanity. I missed the feeling of being so surrounded that I could take them, every last Goddamn one of them, for granted.
It really did look like a Christmas feast down there, though I suppose it was Hearts Warming here, but with all the crazy looking people trussed up in costumes from comics, cartoons, and anime, it almost looked like Halloween.
‘Guess that makes me the Nightmare befor- focus! Gather them up. We’ll make sure they get what’s due to them, even if it means we never get to leave.’
Theatrics, that’s what I needed now. Make a show of force. Scare them.
Though they did little to actually light the room, from above, I sent out quick bursts of sand from the thin and twisted shadows hiding in the holly and ribbons and snuffed out the flames before whipping it all back into the fireplace, sending it to smoking ruin. The light of the room briefly dimmed before the unseen lights compensated. The nightmares pulsed around me, their power dulling the ache behind my eyes, and I sent them spiraling into the air, blooming around the necks of the seated as q circle of shining black blades, inches long, but wickedly sharp, and gleaming even under the sterile lighting.
“By the way Sir, it appears that our guest in black has returned.” said Jacob’s J.A.R.V.I.S.
Moving under the dark, I pulled up inside the gutted remains of the fireplace and stretched out, covering the table before stopping at the opposite head of the table where an empty seat had been left unattended. Curling around the legs, a cloud of sand puffed out from above, forming into my likeness before floating down to the seat, and, in a quiet voice that played through the blades, it said, “If one of you move before you are told, know that I will interpret it as the open sign of aggression that it is,” and leaned forward, hands clasped by its knees, the face drawing in shadows where none should have been.
“Out of the frying pan and into the oven,” the teenager near the middle groaned, closing his eyes as his sickly-green jacket shrugged into his jaw-line.
“What do you plan on doing Wayde?” Jacob asked, still sitting. “Kill me? These guest who mostly mean you no harm? This planet for holding me in it? What,” he continued, brows knitting in obvious mock confusion, “are you going to do after this? You’ll be stuck on this world unless I am able to let you go. Kill me, or any of them, and you can kiss your friends goodbye forever!”
I bit my tongue.
‘Tell Stick him to quiet the or plan die.’
Letting out a stream of air, which the proxy mimicked, I shook its head, and, keeping the same tone as before, had it reply, “You will all be marched to Celestia and have what smattering of justice that can be metered upon you, and know that one of the very few things keeping these,” the blades edged to their necks in unison, “in check, is my ignorance of how many crimes you have committed.” Moving the head to scan the crowd it added, “And as soon as any of you Legion of Doomers makes a poor move, the last vestiges of that protection will vanish,” it smiled, sandy features stretching to sickle-like proportions.
“Um, I hate to interrupt,” the Venom Spider-man giggled from the wall, “but that’s DC comics. You might want to use, if anything, that Mavel equivalent please.”
More giggles, this time from the small blond girl with ridiculous pig-tails and a blue dress. “He said Doomers,” she managed before laughter took her.
“So,” Jacob said, his gaze sweeping the long table, “anyone got a plan to get out of this?”
‘What?’
“I think you’re outnumber black… person. You’d be wise to leave at once.” The little red-head girl in the pink dress declared, though not without a glance to the blades orbiting her neck.
“Ben?” called one of the more human looking ones, save for her ruby-red eyes, and thankfully old enough to not squeak, “Think you can pull some political magic on this situation?”
“Why should I?” he asked, shrugging out of his green jacket enough to open one eye. “You and Raven,” he pointed his chin to the raven-haired blue-eyed girl beside her, “can take care of yourselves. I rightly don’t care about what happens to anyone else.”
“Ben!” she snarled, full length blond hair rising a few inches from her shoulders.
He sighed. “Fine. Annoying little…” He pushed off from the wall, if only just. “Hey, black sand dude! Wanna stop trying to kill everyone? Thanks,” and leaned back, closing his open eye once again.
“Anyone who gives a damn have an idea?” asked Jacob.
“I might,” Venom said, his plate now stuck to the wall by a rounded edge of his plate by black webbing. “Yo, guy who looks like he needs someone to talk to that will treat you normal being. Can we all talk like civil beings on this holiday since trying to scary, mean, and threatening will not get you what you want or help with anything.”
Fear had clearly begun to tie his tongue, but it wasn’t just that he was babbling, others were talking, and three had even started eating again.
Scanning the crowd, some were talking, rather animatedly amongst themselves, but I could feel their silken fear growing, if slowly, within them, but it wasn’t subjugation. They were planning something, but what?
Another face popped out of the side of my nightmare to float beside my nightmare to look at the Venom Spider-Man, gaining me another few degrees of fear over them as my nightmare stated, “My actions are wholly predicated on your choice to comply with them. So, it would be in yours and everyone’s best interest to stand up. We are leaving now.”
More mewlings. This was getting very old. Why weren’t they obeying? Why do villains always-
“Hiya! I’m Bubbles! Who are you? Can we be friends?” The girl in blue said cheerily… in front of my nightmare… and with a neck no longer ringed by-
My nightmare exploded before my eyes, and when the air cleared, Bubbles, the girl who couldn’t have been half my height, was still standing there, her head nestled into her left shoulder with a demented grin and her hand extended, as if to shake, where my nightmare’s head had been but seconds before while the remains of it piled on the chair.
Looking up I saw Jacob’s skin turn pale and his lips turn a startlingly vibrant shade of blue before the sand-blade ringing his neck were encased in ice and shattered upon the floor as a spotlight, an actual spotlight, was placed over the chair even as my sand continued to roll off the seat. And, with a wave of his hand, Jacob sent a thin slice of blue across the room, turning my remaining blades to ice, sapping my control of them, as if I needed one more reason to hate cold.
When the hell had everyone turned into The Flash? Why did everything have to be so hard? Why were they talking and not FEARING ME?!?
Pouring new sand into the chair, my nightmare quickly reformed, a bit less defined, but the lack of detail suited me.
‘Less to bother about getting in the way when you slice their bragging, spotlight throwing children and let them taste real fear.’
I stretched out from the chair, showing how little the spotlight did to stop ME, even as my nightmare’s own shadow eclipsed me. Placing its elbows upon the table it said, “I will not repeat myself,” sapping what little warmth there was from its voice with every syllable, even as I threw more sand into its growing frame.
“You know what? Fuck it,” Jacob said, a force-field blooming in front of my nightmare, who now stood at nearly half the height of the vaulted cavern ceiling. “I tried being nice. I tried to calm everyone down. I even considered going with you in place of them,” turning to his cronies he added, “Let’s just kick his ass.”
‘The cross-dimensional kidnapper is through being nice?!? Oh, well, in that case…’
Snapping my nightmare’s fingers, a new ring of knives bloomed across the shield-wall and around everyone’s necks, again. It felt god to see them flinch.
“You saw what I did to your meager tinker-toys last time,” my nightmare said. “Now please,” it said, turning for the exit, head now scraping the ceiling, “follow.”
Even as they screamed, muffled as it was through the shield, I watched as, again, as my blades were frozen, shattered, or simply disappear without my call in a blur even as lasers, magic, and tentacles lazily fell to their owners sides. And those same three were still eating: Ben, the ruby-eyed girl, and the raven haired one beside her.
Robots swarmed my vision, sphereing around MY nightmare before they began to fire. Again and again I reformed my creation, so much easier than dealing with someone else’s dream. “I will not allow you to spread,” it said, throwing its hand to the side, swatting the offending eyesores to the wall even as the force-field dissipated.
More lights were flashed on.
I just wanted them to be STILL! Stretching out my arm, my nightmares spread, as giant copies of my hand sprouted from the floor, but it didn’t matter, flashes of colored light were all I could see, even as more spotlights were cast towards me and my nightmares were shattered.
My shadow the only thing still standing in a room where a full half of the room, my half, was now nothing but particles of ash, ooze and broken nightmares. Jacob, his body now pale and ghostly translucent, turned to me and said, “Well Wayde,” he wasn’t even winded, “it appear that you lost this fight,” he sounded… bored. “I would like to get your facts straight about me, but I will also gladly send you back to your world if you decide to, provided that you deliver a small note to your Princess Celestia.”
What I had just saw… under two minutes… and, again, clarity, I realized, ‘I can’t take them alive.’
“Nn-”
“Before you say something aggressive,” Jacob interrupted, rolling his eyes, “I just want to tell you that I am the only one here that will offer a non-violent opportunity. I view each of them more powerful than me. Furthermore, I am also the only one here who is standing in between you, and a bunch of pissed off people. I suggest you choose your words carefully.”
“You don’t get it, do you,” I whispered through gritted teeth, my throat burning with the violent words that would only give him more perverse satisfaction. “I have to do what’s right,” I finally said, even as images of his eyes closing for the final time assaulted my thoughts.
“Based on the information that you were given, and your assumptions about me, you would be in the right in trying to turn me and anyone you see as an accomplice in. There is one problem with that. Some of the facts are wrong though. Yes, I did go to court, and yes, I was found guilty, that’s true, bu-"
‘Iknowthat.Whydoesn’thethinkIknowthat?!?’
“I’m not talking about that,” I shouted, recoiling at the sudden rise in pitch and shut my mouth with a snap. My eyes were burning, this wasn’t how things were supposed to be going. Taking a breath, trying to keep an even tone, I said, “I’m talking about how you’ve threatened my life by stealing me from home, twice, and now, lying to me, still, wh-while, misshapen monsters,” looking to a changeling-infected Rarity thing, Venom, and the psychotic powerpuff rejects, “and known,” I growled, “murders,” I pointed to Chrysalis, “and you expect me to do nothing while th-thEY feast before battle??”
“Hold on.” Jacob frowned, “I didn’t know about murder, but the monster attack was a low blow. And as for kidnapping you,” Jacob snapped his fingers, another panel on the floor sliding away to show a monitor screen.
I bit my tongue. ‘I swear, if…’
Blinking on, it showed Jacob, in full armor, sleeping on a couch, when a stream of golden-Goddamn-sand blew into existence above him before pouring onto his head. “I could use some company,” he mumbled, his words drawn out with sleep.
Pausing the security video, Jacob pointed to the glowing-sand sticking to his face-plate and said, plainly, “When a displaced, i.e. most of the people in this room, requires the assistance of another displaced,” he emphasized the word, “the displaced uses a token, for example,” he tapped his finger on the image, “golden sand, to summon said being by calling for help, or in this case company. In my sleepy state there was no way that I would have been able to notice that sand. I was just thinking aloud. This second attempt to summon you, however, was intentional,” and tapped the screen in a quick pattern. The picture changed to a table I vaguely thought I recognized from the kitchen where a palm-size red gear, circled by a number of equally small… knickknacks, the golden-sand included, then said, “but as you can see,” the video played, voicing a call for party goers, “there was an invitation that told you how to decline. Therefore, there is no way either incident could be considered kidnapping.”
In the silence that followed, I wanted to scream. Displacing, was ‘teleportation machine’ not good enough for him? He couldn’t possibly think I was so stupid that if I had either the ability to decline or had actually heard him that I would have-
"Yah low blow,” the Venom whined in with a grunt, “We’re not a monster, o.k.? Hybrid is an alien, but that’s different from a monster."
“I’ve committed murder,” the girl with ruby eyes shrugged.
“Same, and I am a monster,” Ben grinned
“Wartime murder doesn’t count, at least I think it doesn’t,” Raven frowned, briefly glaring at ruby-eyes.
“Not. Helping.” Jacob sang through clenched teeth.
“Well,” ruby-eyes said, suddenly sounding more mature, “it seems that our little shadow friend her can’t decline any form of Displaced summoning. The best thing to do would be to teach the poor connard how to reject those summons, or at least how to choose them so this kind of thing doesn’t keep happening time and time again.”
‘No, wait, I can’t, but she… faked footage? no, yes? nooo… but, murderers? War?’
There were too many, too many thoughts, I just wanted… did I even really know what I wanted, had I?
Looking at Jacob, I had to know one thing.
“So you summoned me unintentionally?”
“Yeah, what’s your point?” Jacob asked, knitting his brows.
“I left last time by you throwing me out by the same way I got here, which means you knew how I got here, but you didn’t tell me,” I deadpanned.
Jacob only chuckled. “So close to making me guilty, but so far. You want to know how I was able to, what was it, throw you away. Simple, I deduced that you were a displaced when I saw your sand five minutes before sending you back. Seeing as how I hadn’t spent any time around beaches as Jeff can back up,” he thumbed to the Venom, “I figured that if you had a token, then you had to be a displaced. And, because I was summoned by someone else a few days before then, I was able to stop you from murdering this world’s Celestia by sending you back. Look at anyone here and ask them if it is true if you don’t believe me.”
‘I was angry you -ow- idiot, I didn-’
“I’ve been traveling the Void for over fifteen years now, I can verify just about any kind of craziness,” Ruby-eyes said, raising her hands placatingly as she took a half-step forward, her left-foot hanging in the air. “Oooh,” she sighed, her foot coming down, “accidental token creation. I’ve seen this before, and it does not end well for anyone involved,” Kat sighed, shaking her head, “Sometimes I think Ben is right to keep himself away from this stuff.”
Ben grunted in affirmative. Ruby-eyes glared at him before throwing me a pitying gaze. “Look, Mr. Shadow,”
“Molan,” I growled.
“Mr. Molan,” she nodded, keeping an even tone, “I can assure you that no one here has ever posed any ill will upon you. It’s all a big misunderstanding. I know this can be,” she paused, glancing to the half of the room still standing, “difficult to understand, but that’s just how this multiverse stuff works. Anything can, and usually will, happen.”
“Here here,” Jacob chimed in, as though he thought he was helping.
Just barely keeping back a ‘shut up you little cockroach’, I look down at Ruby. ‘She’s the sanest sounding person in the room,’ I thought, staring at the floor, still high enough on the wall I could see them all, disgusted that someone you claimed to be a murderer should hold such a title.
I felt hot, even with the numbness of the deeper shadows stroking at my back, but I could feel my thoughts coming back to me. “So I’ve managed to make… something,” I sneered, “that allows me to tear across dimensions. And this doesn’t sound ridiculous because…?”
"Um since when did anything that is done in the multiverse ever obey the laws of physics?” Venom asked.
‘Why is the it talking?’
“I’m not saying that any laws are being broken,” I glared, “I am saying that it’s utterly ridiculous for that amount of directed power to occur without my express knowledge. Here, look,” I said, throwing a handful of nightmares out into the room towards the glowing orb of golden-sand Jacob had gotten out, for gloating or demonstration I was getting too old to care about it anymore, only for it to freeze on impact, ripped from my control, and flow into the floor like melting wax.
Ruby snapped her fingers, a fist-sized black gem shaped like a cut-diamond appearing above me. “Just touch it, and listen,” she said.
I almost reached out of my shadow, but froze, a sudden thought pulling up the burning coal feeling still pulling at my chest. “I ring your necks with dark-steel and you all fall to gibbering like children, the next moment you shatter them all, and now your counseling the person who is still a threat to you?” I paused, surely they thought I could make things smaller, harder to shatter. Why do this to me, I thought before adding, “this is madness.”
“Welcome to my life,” Ben quipped. “I may not have the ability to listen to them, but considering you’re gonna murder anything you see similar, you might, might, wanna at least humor them a bit. Just sayin’.”
“I am no murderer,” I said coldly, the room darkening as the heat in my chest almost went out.
“Oh for goodness sake.” Jacob complained, throwing the golden sand-orb at me, “this’s taking too damn long.”
The slow missile seemed to float gently through the air, almost gliding, but once it was within arm’s reach it gave a sudden blur of speed, slamming into my chest. “Jesus Christ,” I screamed as the hellish thing sent clouds of wall dusting away as it burrowed in. I could feel my chest burn, really burn as it felt like the orb was trying to pull me from the shadows or dive into it. Seconds later I heard someone yelling ‘no, no, no’ and it wasn’t until the orb was shut away in a small box, by Jacob no less, that I realized it was me.
“Sorry about this,” he smiled, raising his shoulders, “I thought that it would be a lot more calm around you, seeing as how it never tries to harm anyone that touches it.”
“Keep that wretched-sand off of me,” I shuddered, glaring at the Incredible Iron Bumbler.
“That’s all you seem to be,” Ben smirked.
“Are we done talking to the thing that isn’t there yet?” Raven sighed.
Thoughts, real thoughts were finally coming back to me, and, with a final look at the crowd, I looked to Ruby and said, “Look, y’all are admitted murderers,” placing my hands behind my back I started to bring up my sand, small as I could in an unseen cloud, “I cah-” I winced, the pain in the back of my mind spiked before settling, “can’t let you walk away after hearing that.”
“Walk?” Ben and Kat both asked at the same time.
“I’m already serving out my sentencing,” Ruby smirked, quirking an eyebrow.
“Celestia pardoned me,” Ben added boredly.
“What?” I squinted. Had I heard that right?
“Serving. As in it’s still going on,” Ruby corrected. “My punishment was exile from the entire planet. Self-imposed, mind you, but still valid. And of course I’ve had to go out and kill quite a few things in the Void. Dalek’s don’t kill themselves, you know.” She sounded quite proud.
“If Dalek killing counts as murder, then I guess that I did some killing as well,” Jacob said, scratching the back of his head.
‘What have I done?’ I thought with what felt like a brick of burning-cold ice wrapping around my mind.
“You pelicans don’t know the difference between murder and killing,” I said, mouth gaping, hands falling to my sides.
“Seriously,” Jacob deadpanned, “you’re using that as an attack?”
“No,” I replied in kind, too tired to figure out what exactly he had meant, “I, what I’ve almost done.”
“Well, I’ve actually never killed anyone in my life. It was the other dudes who live up here,” Ben tapped his noggin’, “who did all the murderin’ and stuff. I’m a borderline pacifist.”
“And a no good politician,” Raven snarked.
“There’s no such thing as a good politician,” Ruby smirked.
“True.” Jacob chimed in.
“I’m a bad person,” I mumbled, sliding down the wall to the stairs. I needed to get their eyes off of me, stop embarrassing myself, and get my head back togeth-
“Join the club!” Ben jeered after me before he gave a winded grunt.
The sound of rockets followed after me, as someone, J.A.R.V.I.S., in a gleaming, pony-shaped chassis, shouted, “Wait.”
Despite myself, I paused, still angry, though that was beginning to dull into the coal in my chest, but confused.
“Why do you consider yourself a bad person?” J.A.R.V.I.S. asked, if a bit too sweetly, almost as if he were talking to a child.
“Due to my incompetence I’ve acted under misinterpreted pretenses and attempted murder. Punishment is required,” I answered imperially.
Tilting his chin up, J.A.R.V.I.S. said, “I’ll not insult your intelligence by bulleting the number of instances where Jacob and the others, yourself included,” I flinched, “have fallen short. Instead, I want to tell you that people have ways of dealing with the lives they had to end. From the beasts in the Everfree, to the vile egomaniac with too much time and power in their hands. No man wants to kill without a just reason. And when they they do finally act, it is not without some consequence to themselves.
“Were you to surface, I could easily blow your head to pieces with any of the number of missiles stored within me or disintegrate you entirely with my optic-lasers, but as of now such a course of action would be that of evil for a lack of just motivation.
“You had thought that the guests and host were maniacs whose ringleader kidnaps people that he never met before... though not without some manner of justifiable reason, and certainly your interactions with the royalty of this land hadn’t helped matters either. And certainly your actions were quite violent, but you should keep in mind that rather than attempt to slaughter them like so much cattle, you decided to treat them as people and gave them the opportunity to be treated under what falls under the court of law in these parts despite the vile acts you thought they had committed. And I hold no uncertainty that there is more than one in there who would not have held to such standards had they been in your position. I may just be an AI, but I am trying to help you.”
Stopping his flight, he landed on the floor, just before the steps. He, or, it, sounded weird, but something about that spiel had rang true, but all of that pleasantness fell away as the robot began to… play, just, the worst, sappy piano tune from his horn, no doubt chosen to enhance the calculated mood and/or sympathy, and all too heavily-handedly reminding me why I always felt like I was stuck looking at this world sideways.
“Cute,” I grunted, “but my ignorance doesn’t mean I am excluded from punishment.”
“Last time I checked, us ‘murderers’ are serving or have served punishment, though, I have not.” Jacob smirked, stepping from behind J.A.R.V.I.S. and sipping a steaming Christmas-mug. “So, how about I do what I set out to do, and make amends.” Placing a small box beside me, his steps betraying his inebriance, he said, “Inside that box, is your token. When I eventually send you back, I want you to give this to your Celestia, and explain what it means.”
“What what means?” I sighed, exhausted and cold with spent anger. Stopping to turn around, head lolling, I asked, “and why are you trying to act so, so, kind to me?”
“Because you’re not alone,” Ruby said in a somber tone. “Everyone, every single one of us here has made mistakes. Mistakes that have cost lives. Often times even the lives of those we’ve cared for. That’s why Jacob has gathered us on this day, the ponies’ celebration of togetherness, to show that no matter what we go through, no matter what may come our way, there are others out there that are going through just as much. And we don’t have to do it alone. Things may have started rocky between us all, but what say we simply start over and try again? This is not a time for this, not now anyway.”
“Couldn’t have ssaid it better myself Kat.” Jacob grinned, lifting his drink in a toasting gesture.
Alone. That was a good word for it. Weeks I had waited, hoping for some miracle to whisk me back home, just sitting in my allotted room when I wasn’t being told to do laps or take a ball to the face. It was just so, I felt like there was always something just, weighing down my chest. It just, putting it on the shelf for a later day only worked for so long. It really was beginning to hurt, the fear, always the fear, from everyone, every moment of every waking hour I was around them, anyone. Then there were these… people, a mad inventor who played with the laws of physics like putty when he wasn’t showboating in a world which I had no Earthly idea of how it was still standing, anime-eyed little girls, comic-book characters, and now a jewel-eyed blond lady who was trying to talk to the madman in the shadows.
Taking in a long, slow breath, I held it. I felt… better, somewhere in all the murk clouding my head, my God damned heart, something, my vision, felt clearer than it had in such a long time. Sliding up from the floor and to the wall, and, expelling the cooling stream of air, I took a single step forward, my knees wobbling as gravity reaffirmed itself.
“I’m so sorry for how I’ve treated you all,” I said quietly, tensing as I waited for, likely, the end.
“I do not know of the others, but for me, it is water under the bridge.” Jacob said before giving a small bow, his drink finished. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I got a party to reboot,” he said, turning on his heel as J.A.R.V.I.S. rushed to keep up with him, clouds of robots already swarming in the ceiling and carrying replacement tables and the like.
Ruby just gave a small smile, then turned back to her own, leaving me to watch as she and everyone else went back on to what I could only guess were ‘normal’ conversations and other assorted ‘party activities’.
Not three minutes later, the only signs of the damage from before was a hole in the wall where the golden sand had tried to eat my chest and a few emptied food trays, the latter of which was already being replaced by trays of fresh holiday sweets.
I watched as a punk-rocker haired man flanked by both Chrysalis and the Rarity/changeling hybrid left in a flash of green, courtesy of Jacob. He even tried to get me off the wall I was pressing my back to, but declined as politely as I could. Thankfully, he relented.
Still keeping an eye on as many of the others as I could manage, once the dull roar of the room’s conversation swelled, I made my move. Walking towards the center of the room, painfully aware of how obtrusive a grey-skinned, black-robed figure was under the room’s festivities, I kept my eyes on target and did my best to ignore the hushes here and there from some of the flyers and wall-crawlers who had taken to the ceiling above me. Still, my eyes drifted to the mop-hair Ben and the black haired Raven, and was greeted by their twin, death-beam stares.
“Excuse me,” I said in what he hoped was a sufficiently polite, if quiet, tone as I tapped ruby-eyes shoulder, Cat, I think I’d just heard Ben call her. Was it short for Catherine?
“Hmm?” she asked, turning around, her hair fanning over her short, black jacket. “Oh! Hey there shadow man! What’s up?” she cheered, briefly showing off a smile so big she had to close her eyes.
“Um, yes,” I replied, his eyebrows bunching, glancing back to see the unchanged glares from before, “would,” I sighed, almost losing my train of thought for all the answers I wanted, “what, exactly, did you mean when you said displaced?”
She blinked. “You don’t know? I would have figured someone would have already given you the typical run down over this stuff by now.”
“Yes, well,” I hummed, briefly glaring at the shooting form of Iron Man as he moved to another crowd of shrinking guests like the social butterfly he thought he was, “my only experience has been with this other Equestria, and the deception and all around scatter-brained hijinks the world has, “ I paused, searching for the right word, “shown me, there was little enough time to sit and have a worthwhile conversation with someone like him,” motioning with my chin to Jacob. “And, with how much it hurts to lose belief so suddenly, I was a bit preoccupied,” I smiled, trying to stay pleasant.
“Oh,” was all she could say. “Well, I suppose I could give you a quick experience. Walk with me.” She gestured to one of the side hallways, starting to walk in said direction.
“I’d hate to overly intrude,” I quickly replied, noting the glares of Raven and Ben intensifying.
“Don’t mind them,” she waved off. “They’re just a little protective of me.”
“Okay,” I replied quickly, stepping aside to follow Cat.
“So,” she said after we rounded the first corner and were out of general eyesight. “Why don’t you start off by telling me what you do know? See how much I need to build here.”
After a few false starts, tapping at the sides of my legs, “I, I think it’s something like multiverse theory, but rather than our Earth, I, and now, by the sound of it, many others have been stolen from their lives and thrust into Equestrias without so much as a chance to say goodbye.”
She nodded. “That’s the start of everything. Displaced are those beings, and are usually very old beings by the time they discover the Void and the connections between worlds. We were chosen as play things by certain Void beings to become accustomed to new bodies and powers on very strange and exotic worlds.”
“Playthi-,” I sputtered, a flash of anger briefly sparking the air beginning to darken before it vanished under my exhausted emotions. “Powers?” I asked, trying to put myself back on track.
“None of us were born with the abilities you’ve seen,” she said, shaking her head. “I couldn’t always manipulate gravity. Thirteen hundred years ago, I was a simple orphaned girl just trying to get by. Now? Now I fight for others on a multiuniversal scale with one of the four powers of creation bending to my whim.”
I couldn’t decide how she looked to me when she said that. She was certainly quite pretty, her skinny black jeans curved along her well enough indeed, but to be that old, and she look closer to twenty-something than anything.
“Very well,” I deferred, putting my focus into the answer I needed, “So, is everyone here some sort of guardian then?”
“No, everyone must choose their own path in life. Some become heroes, others turn into villains. I like to believe that most choose to just live their life in peace, but the world is turned against them. Take my brother, Ben, for example. He’s just trying to live in peace, but his powers are what make the ponies constantly call on him for help. He won’t turn them down, but I know he’d much rather just be sleeping on the couch all day.”
“Okay,” I nodded, “but what about what Jacob called tokens, and how he seemed surprised that the golden-sand he threw at me tried to bury into my chest?”
“I’m not too sure about the sand thing, but tokens are a rather simple concept. They’re… calling cards, if you will. A symbol of a Displaced, created by said Displaced, and distributed into the Void. While it is the beings of the Void that toy with our lives, the Void itself seems bent on helping us survive, allowing for easy, almost instant travel between worlds, and for tokens to be sent wherever we may call upon or be called upon for help. In a nutshell, tokens are our way of sticking together.”
“It hardly seems like any sort of help to steal someone away without their permission to a whole other world,” I frowned, despite the sudden spark that was just beginning to glow just behind my thoughts.
“It may seem that way, but that’s actually closer to your fault,” she said, poking my chest. “If you’re being dragged away without choice every time you’re summoned, it means you’re too weak to say ‘no’.”
I blinked away the sand that started to flicker at the outer-lids of my eyes, this was no time for false-pride. “Weak... how?”
“You don’t have the power, or energy, required to cancel a summoning or to look deeper into who is summoning you. You haven’t trained yourself to recognize certain energies and negate them.”
“Okay, and how’s that done?” I asked, still calm but groping for hope.
She shook her head. “It’s not something I can teach. Everyone has different powers and abilities that allow for such negation. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with your powers to help you do as such. The most I can recommend is to start reaching out into the Void itself and familiarize yourself with its unique energy. If you can recognize it, then you can start to focus on how to negate it.”
“And how is that done?”
“I just told you, I can’t teach you something like that. You have to figure it out on your own. I’ve never helped anyone with such a problem and everyone’s powers work in different ways. I can only tell you what I do know.”
“Understood,” I replied, chewing my lip, though not quite understanding, aside from asking about something that was useless to ask about.
She nodded. “It’s no trouble. As I said, my job is too help.”
I shook my head, what she was doing was obviously more than just some bullet-pointed list of actions she was required to do. “You are far kinder than you give yourself credit for. Thank you,” I said, gazing into her eyes.
“Aw shucks, aren’t you sweet? I suppose Fluttershy rubbed off on me while I was home all those years ago.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly, a little off-put by the return compliment.
“Well, I’m just glad I could help you out, even if it was only a little.”
“I don’t suppose,” I said, beginning to straighten up from my usual vulture-like hunch, not wanting the first pleasant encounter with a human in nearly two-months to end, “I might continue to talk with you while we’re all still here?”
“Sure! I’d love to get to know my newest friend!” she cheered.
‘Friend?’ I thought, eyes going wide, but managing to nod as the first hints of a smile began crease the sides of my mouth.
Stepping back into the dining hall, I moved in line with Kat and asked, “I’m a bit thirsty, would you like some punch too?”
“I wouldn’t mind a glass Cat shrugged. “Oh, and don’t mind Raven and Ben’s glares earlier. They’re not as … accepting as I am.”
“I can’t say I blame them,” I frowned, chewing the inside of my cheek. Flicking my hand forward, rather than merely sending out an unshaped cloud of sand, I gently shaped twin jellyfish which swayed through the crowds before enveloping two glasses of punch in their spindly tentacles, floating back with ease. ‘Theatrics,’ I thought with a pleased little grin. Grabbing my glass, I sent the nightmare to vanish as the other hovered just in front of Cat, and vanishing once she took the proffered cup. The smile vanished, my original thought resurfacing, and said, “after what I’ve done, what I was about to do, I really can’t see how you’ve brought yourself to do this to me.”
Cat only giggled. “Oh Wayde, if I let things just lie then I wouldn’t be me. You seemed more in pain than one willing to cause pain. So I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. But, just don’t take Raven and Ben too personally. They don’t like any Displaced really.” Taking a quick sip, “Ah, refreshing, anyway, Raven isn’t really willing to get too involved with all this stuff due to the war, and Ben is… well, Ben just doesn’t like people in general.”
War?” I asked bit quieter, glancing over to Raven and back to Kat.
Cat nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I’d rather not talk about it. It’s a… touchy subject with us.”
I nodded, finally taking a sip of my drink, disappointed that it was nowhere as good as my grandmother’s recipe. “So, this, party, really was meant to try and help people then wasn’t it,” he said as his eyes dropped to the floor.
“Mhmm. A way to let your hair down, so to speak. Just a chance for everyone to stop worrying about their hectic lives and have a little fun in peace. Though I bet that’s why Ben is complaining. Lazy brother of mine never does anything unless he’s forced too.”
I nodded, my gaze still on the floor, but drifting over to Cat’s feet, “I think,” I paused, reminding myself to be polite and make eye contact with her and not the floor, “if you ever came across my token, I don’t think I would mind if you ever felt like I could help you,” and took another sip of my drink to cover my embarrassment.
A small sky-blue screen with a face popped up next to Kat and had, “Just kiss already!” blinking in block-lettering on it. The face was snickering before, much to my pleasure, an annoyed looking Jacob started to chase after it with a clearly oversized hammer as the sign melted and molded into a wheel before rolling away.
Cat groaned. “I really wish people would stop shipping me with other people. I’m quite happy in my standing.” Then she noticed my blush and her face fell. “Oh no, please don’t tell me you’ve got a crush on me now too.”
I blinked, blush disappearing as propriety took the driver’s seat, though not without just a bit of regret, and plainly stated, “No. We’ve just met,” eyeing her from the tips of her feet to the crown of her head, “and while it’s not every day that I speak to someone as pretty as you, I don’t know you well enough about you than to try and be a friend to you.”
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she sighed, “Hoo, you had me worried there for a moment. I do not need anyone else falling for me. I’m just not interested in any other guys. And I’m glad you think I would make a good friend, since I already consider you my friend.”
“Thank you?” I smiled, pretty sure I had out on top, friends, actual friends, not people who just used the word, were exceedingly valuable. “But, if you’ll excuse me,” I nodded, wanting to try and go out on as high a note as I could manage, “I think I’ll take my leave.”
Jacob then appeared behind me, and stiffening, because he must have used a teleporter because his fear wasn’t anywhere near me until that moment, I turned to see Jacob holding out a small white box with a large lock and a key scotch-taped to the top nestled in his outstretched palm. “Given what has happened recently,” he said as I took a half-step back, wanting a bit more personal space than three inches, “and given that it all happened in my universe on both occasions, I want you to have this.
“It’s your token.
“If you want it, you may deliver it to either a pocket dimension, or someone you trust not to use it. If you don’t want it, then I’ll keep it. Both ways will guarantee that you will get home though so you don’t have to worry about that. I can understand if you were to chose the latter, given how I normally wouldn’t want anything to do with my accidental kidnapper. And if it’s any consolation, I bid you safe travels and a prosperous life.”
“Thank you,” I nodded, gingerly grabbing the box between my thumb and forefinger as quick and polite as I could manage, “and,” I swallowed, still a little mad, all things considered, “I apologies for my misguided actions too. But, I think I can trust this to my new,” I paused, seeing a golden opportunity, turning to Kat, “friend,” and held out the sealed box to her.
Kat smiled, taking the box and holding it gently in her free hand. “Thank you for your trust, Wayde.” Reaching out beside herself, the air rippled as she pulled a book from nowhere. Opening it, she put the box on one of the blank pages where it then sank into it before she slammed the book shut. “I’ll keep it safe.”
“I’m sure you will, and please use it as you see fit,” I smiled, and all the wider with Jacob next to us.
“Welp,” Jacob then belted out, “time for this crazy old fool to send you off. Wayde, our contract is complete.”
“Umm,” I said when nothing happened.
Jacob gave an exaggerated sigh. “I just want a decent send off! It that too much to ask! Alright, alright, fine. Kat?”
“Hmm… it must be a connection to the token and not necessarily the summoner himself with Wayde. How very strange, but then again, every Displaced is different. But before you go Wayde,” she pressed the black gem from before into my hand. “Don’t be afraid to call me if you need anything. Whether it’s to fight or just to talk, I’ll be there. You take care of yourself, alright?”
“Ok,” Wayde said quietly before pocketing the gleaming palm-sized gem.
”And be sure to call me with that gear I left with you as well if you need me for either help, or just to get revenge on me.” Jacob said.
“What? Revenge?” I asked, annoyed. He vastly overestimated his importance to me if he thought I wanted to so much as think about him again.
“Don’t mind him,” Kat waved off. “He’s just being a weirdo. Ready to go home?”
“Yes, please,” I replied.
“Then, Wayde, our contract has been completed. See you around~!” she said with a little wink.
“See you around,” I smiled.
‘She seems nice,’ I thought, smiling even as a ring of golden-sand sprung up behind me, sucking me back into the void.
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I will be reading this. I just wanted to put out a general your awesome thingy. You're a good author and you're in the featured box. I can't remember if you've done that before, so your awesome wanted to say that before anything.
6703581 You're welcome!
... I was also bored and I'm tired as dirt. 
6703991 political-humor.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/tactical-facepalm.jpg
6705462 you mean taticool :)
This chapter can also be safely ignored.