Applegate

by Flutters Is Shy

19- Dawn of The Crystal Empire

A calm, relaxing morning. A calm, relaxing day. A torturous reminder every darned second. Golden Harvest. The heck was I going to do? I didn't really want to go have dinner with a complete stranger, just so she could eventually ask out another person.

I felt so freaking used.

It was while I was wishy-washing my way around the castle, trying to decide if I actually would go or not. I would. I wouldn't. I had to go, I promised I would... I could skip, I did tell her that I could potentially get the wrong form, It wasn't like I was legally bound to acting as a stand in for her weird ass crush.

I was saved from such thoughts by a Displaced summons.

"I summon thee shapeshifter from beyond to aid me in my quest of knowledge!" The voice was definitely female, a soft voice that made me want to reach through the cosmos and hug it. Suffice to say, it basically solved my dilemma as to whether or not I was going to welch on my agreement with Ms Carrot Top.

I accepted the summons, slowly slipping out of the dining room I had been hiding in. Slipping off, into another world.

---

I fell through the air, stopping as my face collided with the floor. Tiled floor, made of some sort of stone. What was with the multiverse and making me do faceplants? Apparently SOMEONE hated me. Prying my gaze from the floor, I was finally able to take in my surroundings. Oh great, another version of the shows 'main six'.

"Great, ANOTHER Twilight to whine at me whilst taking a mountain of notes. Would you mind waiting, at least till I managed to..." I stopped in my antagonistic musing, noticing the person that had called me. It was Pearl, from Steven Universe.

"Pearl?"

"Why does everyone think i'm her?!" she sighed, "Ah, so you are the shapeshifter. Sorry to summon you abruptly. Were you in the middle of something? Oh gosh, I hate that I interrupted anything!" The Pearl lookalike blushed. "I guess introductions are in order. I'm Crystal Gem, not Pearl."

"A Crystal Gem named Crystal Gem, eh?" I deadpanned as an alternate Fluttershy and Twilight dragged me off the floor. (This was another unicorn version of her, maybe the pegacorn version of her was the one that was uncommon?)"My names Wade Jallecks, pleasure to meet you. And no, I wasn't in the middle of something, The universe just loves causing me physical discomfort."

I took the Pearl lookalikes hand in mine, giving it a single shake before letting go.

She chuckled, her mirth quickly changed as she straightened back up and donned a more serious tone. "Right, so Wade Jallecks? These are my friends." She gestured, guiding her hand over to where the six mares were standing. "Meet Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie." As soon as she said Annoying Pink's name, the sugary devil herself jumped in front of me, bouncing up and down and smiling merrily. "Hi, hi Wade Jallecks! Can I call you Wade-y or maybe Wad, or how about WJ?" She said excited, as she had that calculating look on her face, "We need to have a super special welcome party when we get back to Ponyville! Or maybe we can have an ity-bitty one right now and then have an even bigger one later!" She cheered before gasping in surprise. "MUST. GO. PLAN." She chanted as she disappeared in a pink cloud of cartoonish dust.

"What...I...No..." I mumbled incoherantly as the annoying pink ball of pony bounced away. "I just sat through my Pinkie's party. That was bad enough..." I looked at Crystal with pleading eyes. "Please Pinkie Promise that you'll send me back before we get ANYWHERE near Ponyville. Please. Or at the very least, " I directed my question towards this version of Twilight,"One of you PLEASE get her to abandon this idea, due to the fact that I've already been put through a Pinkie Pie Welcoming party. And I did not find it fun."

"That being said, I've already met everyone here." I looked around, and saw someone new, actually. "Except for her. She's new." There was an older pony with thick spectacles doddering around a pile of books. Guess she was a librarian or something? She looked kinda out of it, to be honest. "Where are we? And if one of you states the obvious by saying 'in a library', I am going to groan in an extremely annoyed manner towards you."

"Don't worry, Pinkie's harmless." Twilight chuckled as she waved a hoof at the surrounding room, "Welcome to the newly rediscovered Crystal Empire. And yes, you're currently in a library." Purple menace contributed, tempting my ire by immediately doing what I asked her not to.

"Well um, anyways. I don't think you have to worry about heading to Ponyville anytime soon. It's about fifty something miles south east of us and-" Crystal started.

"We're on a mission!" Rainbow Dumbass interrupted as she puffed up her chest proudly. Great. Of all the ponies that could use a personality change, she would be it.

Crystal rolled her eyes, "Right, which is why I summoned you. Do you know anything about an entity called Sombra? We were presumably attacked by his shadow on the way here, and well um-" she cast her eyes to the left, visibly uncomfortable.

Twilight noticed it and Intervened,"ahem*, she means something odd happened with previous scouting of the land. A couple of centuries back this place mysteriously vanished, leaving us to believe something happened to make this place reappear." She frowned, giving me a serious look.

"Which is why we gotta protect it at all costs." Applejack butted in in a determined tone, as everyone nodded in agreement. Just like Fluttershy's animals. Creepy.

"First off," I fulfilled my promise and groaned in an annoyed manner at Twilight. "And no, I've never even so much as heard of a 'Sombra'. Sounds mexican. Sombrero. Sombreeeerro. Sorry. Never heard of him, And the only shadowmancers I know of are from Arm of Kanon, and Fullmetal Alchemist. Neither of them have names even remotely similar to Sombra." As it stood I highly doubt Pride would be in a world this bright. And the other was from a series that was simply to grimdark to fit with the landscape. God forbid it actually didn't work like that, though.

I picked a book off a shelf near me, and lo and behold I could actually read it. English. Thank god. I barely managed to suppress an excited look, and put it down. I'd yoink a couple once I finished helping them or whatever. And if worse came to worse, I could always come back. Thank god Donkey Kong's world isn't the only place I can get reading material now. "If you were attacked once, stands to reason your attacker would try again. Can't you just wait, then retaliate?"

Rainbow Dumbass flew up in my face, a scowl set upon her own, "Helloooooo! Did you not just hear her? This place can't stand another attack! We gotta find something to stop Sombra before he gets the one up on us again!"

"I'm sorry, the Arm of what now and an alchemist?" Crystal asked in a confused tone, "Should we be preparing for a full scale attack?"

"I don't think that's what he means." Twilight explained as she turned towards me and gave me a serious stare, "You're not from here are you?"

"As I've had to explain to two other versions of you, no. According to the crazy pony that lives in the gold coin, We-" I pointed at Crystal, bobbing an outstretched finger between us, "are what is known as 'displaced'. Apparently some shmuck with a crappton of power calling himself the 'Merchant' is picking up humans off of different earths and stranding them on different Equestria's. That's my exposition, take it or leave it." I nodded in a self satisfied manner.

"W-I was forced to come here?" She asked, choking on her own words.

Twilight sighed, "I thought something like that. I wasn't sure Crystal, but ever since I met you your magic aura radiated differently..." She frowned, seemingly unable to find the right words to use.

"It's ok. Let's just go ask some more locals if they know anything about how to stop Sombra..." Crystal said.

"Hold on thar sugarcube!" Applejack called as she tugged a book off a shelf with her teeth and sat it down on one of the tables, "Talks a lot about the history of the Crystal Empire here. Take a gander at it." She gestured for everyone to gather around as Twilight read aloud. "Hmm. interesting, it seems that before the empire disappeared, the Crystal ponies had some sort of extravaganza to spread joy and happiness to power up the heart of the empire to protect them from evil." Twilight muttered.

"A fair? Pfft. If that's all we need to stop Sombra, I'll go find Pinkie!" Rainbow Dumbass shouted as she flew off.

"It's worth a shot. Crystal, will you go inform Shining and Cadance what we're planning to do?" Twilight asked.

Crystal shrugged, "Sure." She said, before looking over at me, "wanna come?"

"Sure..." I had only been half paying attention, instead gazing at my watch. It had a very disheartening 3 lit up on the surface. That meant I was close to dropping if I had to do another morph. "Hey Rarity, mind if I get a hit off of you?" I will admit, I worded that wrong. So wrong. "I mean, I'm kinda a little bit low on magic. I can't acquire Twilight or Fluttershy, and I already have Applejack, technically. A blend of her and her brother. So I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to sap any power off her."

Rarity tilted her head in confusion, "I honestly have no idea what any of that meant, but if you need some mana I've got a few extra." Rarity explained as she pulled a small crystal out of her pack that was radiating with a bright blue hue. She smiled as she held it in her telekinetic grip, "I always pack a few extra on long trips in case I get bursts of inspiration and need to stay up late." She explained.

So...mana crystals? Sweet, If I could refresh my stores without sleeping, that'd be wonderful. I grabbed the crystal out of Rarity's magic field, and focused on it. I wasn't really sure what to do with it, though. I tried acquiring it, but nothing changed. Not the crystal, not the gauge on the watch. I realized I wasn't going to have any leeway fondling this thing, so I held it back out.

"Sorry, I don't think I can leech any energy off of something that isn't living. Thank you for the effort, though. It means a lot to me." Bummer. Having a loophole to this would have been awesome.

"Don't mention it darling. I apologize for that not working, but if you need direct contact with an individual to use magic I am more than happy to help." She said said as she walked forwards and lit her horn up. Wonder why? It's not like I could get more by grabbing the horn...not like I had told her that...

I placed a single finger on her forehead, taking care not to muss her hair.(I was just guessing, but with the way she seemed so obsessed with fashion and the like, I was pretty sure I'd get an earful if I got even a strand of hair out of place.) I started the acquirement trance state, and watched as her eyes glazed over. Twilight looked a bit worried, but I guess I wasn't that threatening. After a few seconds, she shook herself from the trance, and I withdrew my finger. A quick check to the watch showed I had gone up a full 5 points. Just as much as Dante. Huh. Or maybe that was simply the standard 'suck off' of magic content? Oh dear god I have got to get better terms, as it is now if anyone were to read my mind I would probably come off as a bad porno.

"Eight. Thats good. Thank you for the juice, Rarity. And I'll give you the same Pinkie Promise I gave Spike. I promise to not use your form to mess with you, or otherwise screw with you or your reputation in any way. And also, if someone assumes that I'm you, I'll inform them otherwise. I hereby Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly," I followed the motions, crossing over my heart and flapping my arms like an idiot, " Stick a cupcake in my eye!"

"Yourrrrrr're, mosssssst weeeeeeelllllcome..." Was all she said before she simply flopped over on her back and gazed at the ceiling like a drunk person.

Twilight shook her head as she stared at the downed fashionista. "Magic feedback. She's not used to handling intense lash out of using major amounts of mana like I do." She chuckled before helping Rarity on her hooves as she drew out one of Rarity's reserve crystal. A quick tap on the horn was all that was needed from the crystal as the glazed over looked on Rarity's face vanished, and was replaced with confusion. "S-sorry about that. I'm just going to go help with the preparations for the festival now." She said embarrassed as she dashed off leaving a cartoon trail of dust behind her in the form of a pony.

Crystal looked on in interest, "what did you just do to her?" She asked me.

"I'm guessing you never read the book series Animorphs?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in annoyance. Seriously, it was one of the best series I'd ever read in school, and nowadays no one remembers it. Bah. "I received a magic cube thingy from that series called an Escafil Device. Like the characters in the books, I can take the form of anyone I acquire. With some variables, I guess. I acquired Pinkie Pie, but when I turn into her, her hairs all flat and darker than normal. And I don't copy the butt mark, but I guess that's maaaaagic or whatever. Anyway, when I acquire someone, apparently I suck out a bit of extra juice. Learned that from this other displaced, Dante." I rubbed my chin, in an absentminded manner. Maybe my subconscious thought it raised my thought process or something. "Anyway, I just 'acquired' Rarity. Maybe...I should have explained all that before I asked it of her? Sorry...I'm not really the kind of person that thinks things through..."

"Nah it's understandable." She shrugged after the others had left to go...do whatever. "Sometimes stuff happens and all and you try to make the best out of it." She chuckled as she rubbed her arm sheepishly, "So a shapeshifting device from animorphs huh?" She inquired, "I saw them in the display cases at the front of my library when I was little, but never bothered to actually read them." She chuckled embarrassedly, "heck, I never really bothered with reading anything. I kept away from books like the plague, and stuck to the mind melting cartoons. I guess that's what makes us different, huh? Books vs. Cartoon items. Strange how that works out, am I right?". She gestured to her gem on her forehead as she concentrated and turned into ... a pony. What the hell. I mean, I know they could transform on the show, but seeing it right there out in front of me...huh. "Come on, let's go inform Cadence what's going on." She said.

"Okay. Cadence...Is that the same My Love Cadence Twilight told me about? She said she was the princess of....uhhh...sorry, I forgot." I raised my hands in supplication, a useless gesture to whisk away my failure. "So where is this Cadence, anyway?"

Crystal raised an eyebrow in confusion, "My love Ca-? Oh! You're using her full name!" She facehoofed. "She's the princess of love according to Twilight, and her brother is married to her." She explained, as she led me from the library to the giant castle in the middle of the city. "She's inside the throne room trying to hold the Shield up to ward off Sombra until we can vanquish him."

"She's... married to her own brother? Incest is legal in Equestria?" I rubbed my forehead. this was a weird place. Hopefully my Equestria wasn't this wierd. But hey, magical unicorns and rainbows. Thats not wierd at aaaaallllll. "...Whats...wrong with them? They all look like they're stuck in an acquiring trance...Heeeeey. Lady guard pony person..." I poked a pony in the forehead, gaining very little of a response. "Hellooooo, anyone in there?"

"Gah no! I meant Shining is married to Cadence and Twilight is Shining Armor's sister." She sighed, grumbling about stupid pony lips not working right...She then turned her attention back to me, "Everyone in the empire has been acting like since since this place first appeared." She explained, "shining tried to briefly look into it but- excuse me, are you poking them?!"

"Yes. Yes I am. What's WRONG with them? This ain't natural..."

"Y-yea. At first I thought it was just PTSD, but now..." She hummed in thought before the whole ground started to shake beneath us. And then it stopped. Man, those earthquakes really are hell the closer you are to the water... "Ah fudge it! We ain't got time for this!" Crystal then turned back into her pony form once more and went dashing out of the castle. Leaving me to my lonesome. Wonderful.

Well. She seemed high strung. This Sombra guy had them all looking over their shoulders in fear, and I could kinda see why. These horses, how they were all milling about without seeing the world around them. It was like when I used to go visit my grandma in the mental ward. Everyone was puttering around, but no one was behind the wheel.

I was out of my depth here. If there was a legitimately evil shadow sorcerer running amuck ( a fact that seemed ever more and more possible if the vacant faces were anything to go by), what was I supposed to be able to do to help? That's what I claimed on my token I was able to do. Help.

I had Dantes form, but what good would that do? Oh yeah, I'd PUNCH the shadow into submission. THAT would work.

Oh hey, maybe I should follow her? Not sure I should just be wandering around unsupervised. Kinda surprised they just let me wander. If it was me, I'd try to WATCH the mysterious biped and make sure it wasn't up to anything...Oh well. I trundled off and promptly got lost. I kept finding more slack jawed ponies milling about.

By the time I got back to the giant crystal castle,Crystal was still gone, along with Twilight. And Applejack. And Pinkie Pie. Come to think of it, the only people I could see were a smattering of the tranced ponies, plus Rainbow Dumbass and Fluttershy. Well, I guess she wasn't really Rainbow Dumbass. She was this Equestrias Rainbow Dash, who to this point hadn't done anything against me. Maybe I should at least TRY to be nice...

The way she acted was pretty much the same, though. I was going to have to be careful, or thorough in explanations when morphing around her. If my Rainbow Dash was anything of a personality template to go off of.

Fluttershy was being led by Rainbow Dash, almost seemingly unwillingly towards an unknown location.

"Hey! Rainbow! Wait up!" they both slowed down, letting me catch up to them. It was then that I noticed something a little different about the area. Over the past half hour I had been wandering around, the populace had started perking up. More and more of the wierdly colored horses had started paying attention to their surroundings, and if you looked carefully enough, you could actually see a few of them smiling.

Oh, and someone had managed to organize and set up a fair when I wasn't paying attention. Seriously, just a half hour ago the streets were bare. Now you couldn't walk two feet to your left without running smack dab into someone eating a cob of corn or adjusting a silly looking hat. Impressive, I must admit.

"What do you want, Wade?" Rainbow asked, throwing as much sarcastic inflection on my name as she could. "We're kinda busy, ya know, saving an entire empire? You know, for somepony who claims that they're here to help, you've really not done much. Not that we needed your help, mind you. I mean, when you have somepony as awesome as me around, why would we need some Crystal Gem knockoff like you?" Wow Rainbow Dumbass, no, really. Tell me how you really feel.

"First off, not a crystal gem. Never said I was. I'm a human. And how am I supposed to help if you won't let me? Kinda hard to do something if you're never given a chance, don't you think?"

Rainbow Dash let out a puff of air as she calmed down her enormous ego, "Fine hue-mane, whatever... You can 'help' by being the equipment keeper while me and Fluttershy here do the real action." She said with a mischievous look on her face, "But you have to catch up first!" She laughed as she left a prismatic trail in her wake, zooming past anything and everything that was in her path. Freaking wierdo.

So yeah, RD took off like a bolt of lightning. Jerk.

"Excitable, isn't she?" I asked a certain lump of pink and yellow hair.

"..." She replied, hiding behind her hair.

Great. Rainbow Dumbass was long gone, I had no idea where she had gone off to, and Fluttershy here was the only one who really knew where she was heading. And she wasn't talking. She just met me, after all. According to Twilight, this is what she normally acted like, my introduction was under different circumstances than normally would be... Maybe if I-

"Do you have a bat named Ferdinando here too? I adopted a bat by that name from my version of Fluttershy. His left Fang is larger than his right, has a tendency to overindulge on crickets?"

I could tell by her eyes, the open mouth- The way she wasn't trying to hide behind her hair anymore.

I made a friend!

She yapped on for a couple minutes about how she had been looking for 'somepony' to adopt Ferdinando and Fernadette(apparently this version of Equestria came in a paired set...), before I interrupted her.

"Not to dissuade such pleasant company, but wasn't Rainbow dragging you somewhere? Do you know where?"

With a nod, she led me on. Rainbow Dumbass had been taking her to some place called 'The field', and thankfully Fluttershy actually knew where it was. We eventually found ourselves at some sort of...arena. A jousting arena, if I was right. Kinda morbid, considering the clientele.

"Now wheres Rainbow Dash?"

"Yo! Up here!" Rainbow Dumbass called out.

"NYEAGH!" I muttered, dodging falling pieces of assorted helmets and horse armor. "Watch it! You almost hit us!" I had managed to drag Fluttershy out of the way as well, and when Rainbow Dumbass landed she gave me the stink eye. Then she picked up a helmet and saddle thing, thrusting them at Fluttershy.

"Sorry" Rainbow Dumbass halfway apologized before looking over at Fluttershy. "Okay, so here's what's going to happen. Me and Fluttershy are going to have a duel with each other by charging head first with these metal poles," She explained as she scooped one up with her hoof while simultaneously donning a helmet. "You will be our 'pole colt'." She smirked as she finished putting on her armor, "Simple as that."

"So...you're jousting? Why? I know this place wasn't this lively before, but surely these guys have soldiers or guards who are actually, you know, qualified for this type of thing? Have you ever even jousted before? I sure as heck know Fluttershy hasn't. This is a stupid Idea," I rattled off before she used her wings to buffet a ball of air at my head, interrupting my thought process. "Stop that. Its mildly annoying. Fine, so what do I do, I just go and prepare the lances for you or something? I can only really do this for one of you, I can't be on both sides of the field at every pass you two make..."

Rainbow Dash groaned as she rolled her eyes, "ugnh! You sound too much like an egg-head!" She snorted as she went over to help Fluttershy with her gear, "look, in case you haven't noticed all the guards are kinda loopy at the moment and in no condition to joust. Plus, we gotta keep these ponies entertained and stalled while Twilight and Crystal to find the real Crystal heart. So, me and Fluttershy will walk out the same end of the tent to our west here, and that's when you give us the poles." She gestured with her hoof, "Simple." She rolled her eyes once more, "Fluttershy's not used to exchanging equipment as fast as I am, so you'll have plenty of time to reach the other side." She explained, before narrowing her eyes at me, "So stop trying so hard about this! Don't think, just react!" Her gaze warmed as she flicked me with her left wing as she turned around, "Come on Fluttershy, let's go make an entrance!" She chuckled as she started to walk away..

She stormed off, her tail swishing back and forth in an irritated manner. Looks like my presence more than just displeased her. I walked along Fluttershy as we made our way to the opposite side of the pitch, trying to help her into the saddle armor. For something so simple looking, it was bloody hard to get it to latch properly. I finally got it on, and next we got the helmet atop her head. It had some sort of magic spell attached to it, sucked all her hair out the top like a mohawk in only a second. Thank god, can you imagine trying to force a horses mane through a slot one strand at a time? Would take freaking forever. In the end, it had this REALLY cool roman armor effect. Fluttershy's soft pink hair had a sort of lacking image, Rainbow Dash's (I could see her across the field, she had managed to get dressed all on her own, what wonders next?) hair actually had an awesome look to it...

As I slotted the pole into the holder in the armor, Fluttershy gave a noticeable shiver.

"Don't worry, this is Rainbow Dash we're talking about, she wouldn't do anything to hurt you, would she?" She gave a shake of her head, "She'll probably just wing you on the pass, make a show of it. The point of this is to... keep them entertained? So she'll probably grandstand as much as possible. Just get out there, run as fast as you can, try to make it look like your lance is pointed in her direction, and if the other lance looks like it's going to hit you, veer right as sharp as you can."

"Thank you..." She muttered, taking her position at the end of the field.

I shot a glance towards Rainbow, she was pretending not to look at me whilst obviously looking at me. She had yet to equip herself with a lance, so obviously she was waiting for me to come over so she could rub my face in how awesome she was or something. I made my way over to her, but she didn't say anything.

I slotted her lance in it's holder, and all I got was a harumph in reply.

Looking around, the stands surrounding the pitch were filled nearly to their brim with cheering folk, all eager to watch these two run at each other with the promise of violence. Well, I guess when you don't have HBO...I even saw a vender with various snacky things. Cotton candy of all things. Hmm.

They finally started, running full tilt, well, Rainbow Dash full tilt and Fluttershy sort of...well it was a decent speed, I guess. Who am I kidding, I could run faster than that, and in my normal human form to boot. At least he was trying, I gue-

Rainbow Dash's lance jabbed directly into the side of Fluttershy's armor, bending almost completely its entire length before straightening and flinging her bodily almost the entire length of the field. She landed in a pile of hay. At least these lances had big metal ball things on the end...They did look kinda old though, was that a crack in the tip of Rainbow Dash's? Regardless.

I ran over to the ball of quivering pink and yellow hair, but Rainbow Dash was quicker, she made it there before me. I managed to get there on the tail end of a request from Fluttershy...

"Isn't there...somepony else who could take over...the jousting demonstration with you?" she asked, her voice quavering at the end.

Rainbow Dash simply scoffed, "The fate of an entire empire rests on us show these ponies a good time. But, you know, if that isn't important to you..." Son of a...really? She just wanted the ponies in the stands to continue praising the ground she walked on! She made Fluttershy cry with that sentence though, so she quickly tried to console her. "Okay. Okay. I'll take it easy on you next time." Fluttershy smiled at the sentiment from her friend- "But not too easy. I've got a reputation to maintain!" And with that, Rainbow Dumbass wandered off, back to her side of the pitch.

"Hey Rainbow, can you fit yourself this pass? I wanna make sure Fluttershy didn't break a wing or anything." I lied, dragging Fluttershy towards a nearby tent.

"She's fine...allright, whatever, just hurry up, okay?"

"Oh, she'll be right out, raring to go! Come on Fluttershy, you gotta help me for this to work, allright?"

She looked around the tent I had dragged her into. "Thank you wade, but my wings are fi-what are you doing?" She asked, as I unlatched the armor from around her midsection.

"Simple. You aren't going back out there, I am."

She looked at me in confusion a couple seconds, before breaking into a wide smile, "Thank you wade, but I don't think the armor will fit you...Plus you aren't exactly built for this, I just don't want to see you get hurt, much better if only I-" she cut off, watching as my flesh twisted and melted into itself.

"I better get changed into something more comfortable then, hadn't I?" I quipped, slowly shrinking down to Fluttershy's height. "I got this form my version of Fluttershy and Ferdinando, it doesn't look exactly like you, but with the armor on, it should be able to fool ol Dashy till she's right up next to it, right?" I asked, the morph finally ending.

"Ibuh, tha-, nyaf, tab-,"

"Deep breathes there Fluttershy. Its still me, Wade. I'm not trying to replace you or anything else nefarious. I'm just trying to take your place in the jousting match. Make it so YOU aren't the one getting hurt. Okay?"

She finally stopped hyperventilating, and took a deep breath. After that was settled, (And after rebuking her attempts to get me to just let her go out again) she helped get me all kitted out. The armor is a LOT more comfortable than it looks, even if the helmet feels like a cold weight the top of my head.

Finally, I walked out of the tent, lance at the ready and took my- Fluttershy's place at the head of the field. Oh hey, there was Annoying Pink... she had some sort of Jester outfit on...

"FLUGELHORNS! GET YOUR FLUGELHORNS HERE!" Annoying Pink shouted as she juggled the odd shaped horns in her hooves...

"You ready for round two?" Rainbow Dash tried to yell above the roaring crowd.

"I'm gonna grind your face into the dirt, you prismatic punk!" I called out. I don't think she heard it though, seeing as she just had a look of confusion on her face.

Annoying Pink let loose on one of her 'flugel horns', and Rainbow Dash took off running. I followed suit, and tried to keep my lance pointed upwards, and to my left. Harder than you'd think, without hands and an arm to keep it steady. Fluttershy might not be a top notch athlete, and her legs were already burning with the strain of running as fast as I could. But she was still a quadraped, who for all of her life had walked around on her four limbs. They were impressive in their own regards. Rainbow Dash had probably been running about 40mph in her first pass, so I'm pretty sure I was getting about 30, 35.

We met in the middle, and my lance never made it anywhere near her. Too high, too far to my right. Her lance almost found its mark, grazing the side of my helmet and leaving me reeling as I retreated to the other side of the pitch.

A flicker of light splashed across the sky, and it momentarily darkened. Probably some sort of 'crystal firework' or something. Fireworks that only worked in the daytime, what frivolities next?

"You gonna spend all day watching the pretty sky, Rainbow Dash?" I called out the length of the field. The crowd was somehow quieter, so my words actually reached her this time. Her head jerked back towards me, so I continued, "If you keep your head in those pretty little clouds, I'm liable to knock your block off! Now quit daydreaming, and come on!"

I took off running.

As I ran, Rainbow Dash looked like she was trying to say something as she ran to meet me in the middle. Obviously her mind wasn't on the match at hand...

"-I don't think we-" Whatever it was she had been trying to say was cut off as the tip of my lance collided with her breastplate...barrelplate? Whatever. She was knocked clean sideways an entire step, but she stayed upright and continued onward. Once I reached the end of the pitch, I looked back and saw a horrifying sight. She had a look of determination on her face, any traces of mercy were gone. I could tell she was now 'in it to win it'. Why did I have to open my big mouth?

"Fine, you wanna do this the hard way? We'll do this the HARD way!" She called out from across the field.

She...she wouldn't actually try to hurt me, would she? She still thought I was Fluttershy...at least I was pretty sure she did. So even then... She reared up on her back hooves(oh hey, she wasn't wearing overwear, dangerous for a pegasus...) let out a mighty whinny, and...well...'dashed' off the line.

I took off as well, pushing myself to Fluttershy's limits as I charged down the row. I moved forward... twitched the lance to square on her head...SHE DUCKED UNDER IT, it clipped her helmet and knocked it off, and she centered her own lance directly into my side.

I watched the milliseconds tic by in glorious slow motion as her lance bent in half, before rapidly returning to its normal length. By flinging me across the field, as Rainbow Dash had done to the real Fluttershy before me.

With a sickening crack, I hit some sort of flagpole of some sort, and all my motion came to a sudden, violent halt.

Well. I've never actually broken anything before, and certainly never something filled with countless tiny, hollow bones. There was this one time way back when, I hit a rough patch of gravel on my bike, flipped over the handlebars and went tumbling. It felt like the entire driveway lodged itself under my skin. Like broken glass. Needless to say, I was a little bundle of crying annoyance for the rest of that day. From what I remember, anyway.

Looking back at my wing, it was a twisted, broken mass of leathery skin. Poke a shoestring through it, and you'd have yourself a bag. A group of concerned crystal ponies had gathered around, but I was in too much pain to be all that social. Rainbow Dash was front and center, practically on the verge of breaking into tears. Good to see she at least cared about someone besides herself.

I had no desire to remain with a broken limb, so I started morphing back. The multitude of ponies surrounding me slowly backed away, confusion and fear stamped on their faces. None were more confused than Rainbow Dash's own, her eyes darting between my emerging form and the real Fluttershy, standing behind her.

Finally I was done, my watch said I was back down to three, and I was happily without a broken wing. Happy days.

"Told you Fluttershy had a broken wing," I said, standing up and stretching. "Well I was off by a few minutes, and it was my form of her that had it, but thats just semantics. No Flutters, I'm fine," I said, trying to settle the concerned pegasus trying to look under my shirt at my back. "Stop it, GETOFF," I pried her off, holding her at arms length.

"Here, YOU take her," I said, thrusting her at Rainbow Dash. "I said I'm fine."

"Wade!!" She shouted, "You, you jerk!" She shouted, ignoring Fluttershy gasping behind her as she flew up into mys face. "That was not ok!" A frown suddenly dominated a majority of her face, "don't ever do that again."

"Don't...get violently injured from YOU stabbing me in the side with a lance? Well okay then Dashy, I'll get right on that." I muttered as she flew away. Freaking weirdo. You think she'd be a little more passive after just almost killing me. Whatever.

I was down a few points on the magic, as well. I turned towards a blue hued crystal looking pony and extended my hand. "Excuse me good sir, I find myself slightly drained after healing a broken wing. Would you mind if I acquired your form, thereby allowing myself to restore my energy by taking just a little bit of your own?" He balked, looking at my hand like it was a knife.

"Are...you a Crystal Gem? The Crystal Gems don't steal magic..." Oh. great. was I just a magnet for this?

"No, I'm not a crystal gem. I'm a human. My magic is a bit weird. My morphing should only use my personal energy, but it uses magic for some reason. I can replenish it in small chunks when I acquire a new form, which is basically what I'm asking of you. Cmon, help a brother out," I leaned in close, giving a loud stage whisper, "All I have are female forms, its starting to get embarrassing..." With a smattering of laughter from the surrounding ponies, I got a blue hoof placed into my hand.

"It wont hurt, will it?" he asked, nervously looking from me to Fluttershy.

"No. not in the slightest. At most you'll go into a daze at the start." As it turns out, he wasn't affected by the trance state. "Or you could just be immune like apparently three quarters of the multiverse..." I trailed off at his nonunderstanding look. "Chalk it up to magic being weird. It seems to like to...do ...that..." I trailed off once more, but for a different reason. The sky was spazzing out.

It shimmered, shifting from a pure blue to a darkened blue. Eventually it gave out the ghost, and the sky collapsed.

Suddenly the sky was nothing but an unforgiving black, with streaks of lightning.

"Ummmm, methinks it's time to regroup," I said to the ball of quivering pink and yellow fluff behind me, "Where did the others go?"

Fluttershy gave me a quick nod, and took off running. Well, I guess that works. Except for the fact that now I'm back to being two legged and slow. She zoomed off, making for the castle in the middle of the city. Shoulda guessed. Where ELSE would the others be? Hiding in a tree in the middle of the woods? Naw, just stick them all in the largest, most obvious looking place in existence.

Thanks to old Blue pony, I now had enough juice for another morph. I sure as shit didn't want to get caught back out here by 'ol Sombrero. I started the morph with the full intention of using the form I had just gotten. I kept the shade of his coat, the slight cleft to his chin, and the rough way his hair seemed to part at the forefront of my mind. When I was done however, I was sorely disappointed. I had somehow morphed Rarity.

"What? I didn't ask for this! I wanted the crystal pony, not the fashionista! This is the, worst. Possible, wait, what am I doing? I don't have time for theatrics, I gotta get to the freaking castle!"

I was now in a slightly better position, but Rarity it seems was just as out of shape as Fluttershy. I should have gone wondertwins. I really should give that one a name, wondertwins makes it sound like it has two bodies or something... Fusion? No. Twinmold? God no. Applecrasher? Nah, although I think I'm getting closer. I don't have time to think about this right now.

As I got closer to the castle, more and more spires of black crystal jutted from the ground. On one giant spire, perched a dark, stereotypical evil looking pony. He was firing chunks of black crystal at the tower and everything. And to top it off, suddenly Spike was tumbling from the heavens above, a crystal heart falling with him.

The evil looking sod-I guess it's Sombrero? Maybe? God help me if the bad guy doesn't actually look like a bad guy...- was reaching a hoof skywards and laughing manically. It looked like he was trying to catch the heart...So I did something stupid.

I charged magic to my...Rarity's horn and enveloped his tail. And then I gave a sharp, tug.

With an undignified yelp, he slid backward, one hoof skidding off of his perch.

I wasn't anywhere strong enough to pull him off his ledge, but I was able to distract him as...Wow, I did not think this through, without someone to catch him, Spike was going to go splat. Oh, I guess that worked itself out. He was flying on the back of some sort of...Oh it was another pegacorn. I guess that's Cadence? Where the heck did she come from? It looks like...Oh hey, it looks like her husband had thrown her.

Wait, he threw her? Who the hell would throw their wife? Even to save a falling dragon without wings, that just seemed a bit over the top...

"YOU."

Waht? "Waht?" I asked, swinging my head back to Sombrerro, who was staring at me with barely restrained rage.

"Meddlesome wench, I'll deal with you later!" He shouted, summoning another rock and throwing it at me before rushing off and trying to follow the pink pegacorn.

Jerk. I thought he was supposed to be some sort of shadow manipulator, not a freaking geomancer. He almost hit me with that last rock. As it was, it splintered into countless shards and peppered my right foreleg. Now I was all dusty and my right leg was starting to bleed. Jerk.

It was then the ground started to glow. All light, glowy blue. And it was just the roads, nothing past them lit up or anything. Did Sombrero do something? Seems kind of odd that he'd make stuff glow, instead of making it dark. But he was supposed to be a shadow guy, so what did I know? For all I knew, he could shoot rainbows out of his butt, and people would be going around, describing him as a snake charmer.

The glow retreated back towards where the pegacorn, Cadence had flown off to. I could see her from here, it looked like she was standing next to some sort of...heart? A spinning heart...That was spinning faster and...Oh that can't be good.

With a blast of energy, the heart thing started letting out cascades of blue energy, decimating and disintegrating all the stalagmites of black crystal. With a yell, Sombrero was gone. Wonder what happened to him.

A more pressing concern however..."Nyeagh, why am I sparkly?" I asked, looking at Rarity's sparkling, crystalline coat. That blue light had done something...It had even messed with my hair! What the hell? Looking like a girl was bad enough, but being sparkly was just over the top. Thank god I hadn't morphed Twilight, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

So I was sparkly. At least I wasn't demorphed when I got hit with this, I like my human body how it normally is. I'd just change back when I got the chance, and this nightmare would be over.

"Um, you doing alright there Rarity?" Asked a voice off to my right. Distracting myself from...well, myself, I got a look at the pearl look alike, all sparklified.

"What? You get a new outfit, and all I get is girlified? Seriously though," I thrust a hoof out in front of myself to inspect it better, "If my Rarity morph is forever tainted by sparklies, I'm gonna be majorly disappointed." I scuffed at the fur on my left leg with my right, trying to rub the sparklies off. "What the heck happened to Sombrerro? He was heading this way, going after the pink pegacorn."

Where DID he go? You think if he were still around he'd be cackling evily, or throwing rocks around like a jerk. I didn't exactly have much to go on with him. Maybe he was an avid fan of macrame?

"Dunno. I was kinda busy when all this happened." She replied, "Hey, at least he's gone. Thanks again for helping out." She smiled, obviously trying to stifle a laugh at my discomfort.

"Helping out? All I did was get pounded by Rainbow Dash...well I guess I provided some sort of entertainment." I mused, slowly trying to bite the sparklies off. "Do you know whats with the sparklies? Why don't they come off? Screw it, I'm just going to morph back. Get rid of the sparklies once and for all."

I straightened my back, slowly rising back up on my own two legs. My spine rearranged itself with audible creaking and crackling, as Rarity's hair retreated and shrunk back into my scalp as it returned to its usual brown shade. My hands broke out of Rarity's hooves, splitting into my five fingers as my arms stretched and lengthened. Finally, I was back to normal. Or as normal as I could be, seeing as-

"Nyeagh, why am I STILL sparkly?" I still was all sparkly, my clothes were affected too. At least they weren't as rock solid as they looked.

Crystal hooted as she busted into a laughing fit at me. "Dude it's magic. Be thankful that you didn't end up like Sombra or something.." She pointed over to the smoldering remains of black dust...Really? The heart thingy killed him? Geesh, remind me never to go evil, the ponies may look all cuddly but they are HARDCORE when taking out the trash...yeesh. "Anyways... Whether you think it or not, you did actually help out." She smiled, "You kept the crystal ponies distracted while we found the Crystal heart. You sacrificed your time (and maybe a bit of pride) and kept panicking to a low. That's true humility amigo. Stop being so modest and just take the compliment."

Woooo, so she could summon Pearls weapon too? Cool.

"Where the heck did you pull that from?" I asked, pointing a glittery digit at her...sword spear thing? It was damned sharp, whatever she called it. She was cutting up swathes rubble like they were blobs of butter. Seems she was dang strong too, you can't get that kind of speed just from having a sharp sword. Maybe...

"Hey, think I might be able to copy your form too? It could come in handy if I get in a real fight." I reasoned. I already technically had a battle morph in the form of Dante, but she didn't need to know that. And if watching episodes of Ben 10 has taught me anything, there's no such thing as the ultimate form. Each one has its own place. What if I went up against someone who countered Dante perfectly? Maybe a holy magic user or something. Videogames and anime have taught me that even the most devout can go wrong somehow.

"Copy my form?" Crystal hummed in thought, "Yes, I suppose that's ok... Just don't go messing up my reputation." She frowned, "I'll hunt you down." She growled in warning, before turning cheery once more. "As for the whole summoning my weapon thing, I don't really understand it either..." She frowned before turning to the object in question and making it disappear into magical sparklies. "It's sorta like condensed magic according to Twilight... Same as my form." She explained, "I don't really know, I just think about summoning my form and weapon and it just happens." She shrugged. "Anyways, getting back to your request; yes you may use my form. Just one thing, should I be aware of anything when you try to acquire me? I'm kinda sensitive to direct magical input, so I tend to avoid anything magical that comes into contact with my gem."

"Coolio. Here's the rundown. My power should work off of nothing but technology. But it seems to feed off of magic for some reason," I stated, showing her my watch. It had gotten a sparkly overhaul as well, all glistening black stone...and I could swear the diamond on the side was bigger than before... Whatever.

"This tells me how much magic I have left, and as I demonstrated earlier, I can somehow leach off a little bit of energy when gaining a morph. But to answer your concerns, all it should do is put you in a trance while I acquire your D.N.A, but for most of the people I've been coming across it hasn't even done that. They've just stood and stared at me while they waited for something to happen."

I reached out a hand, and gave her my biggest smile. "Half a minute, and it'll be done, no worries!"

Crystal nodded, "ok, go ahead."

She actually went into the trance state. What the heck, it only seems to work when it wants to make me more uncomfortable. After about half a minute, she shook her head free of her daze. So it seemed that worked out well.

But I was still sparkly...maybe I could get rid of the status effect *Sparkly*(you glitter with the force of a thousand prepubescent girls, +10 to blinding light, -10 to Dignity, -10 to Manliness, -10 to Sanity, Description: Well you wanted to cosplay as that one guy from Twilight...) if I morphed a bunch of times? Maybe that would use up the magic or something. Well it might work, if I wasn't only back up to six according to my watch. I must have put more magic than I thought I did into yanking on Sombrerro's tail. So I'd only get one more morph, unless I acquired more ponies. Not that I had anything against adding a few more male morphs. I could make another hybrid morph...not that these guys wouldn't stand out like a sore thumb in Ponyville. So dang shiny.

I started to morph. I slowly crept downward in height, and my limbs thinned and shrunk. My clothes shrunk into and melded with my skin, forming a layer almost skintight against it. A pressure pushed against my left eye, then subsided. I was finally done. Maybe this morph wouldn't be...

"Nyeeeeeeaaaaaaaagggggghhhh...Why am I still sparkly? I don't like it!" I whined in Crystals voice, thrusting my arms in front of myself to better examine them. Thin as hers, with an almost greenish tint lying just below the skin. Dang, hope I never got caught on a sunny day with no sunscreen, this skin would probably BURN. Not even freckle, just shrivel up into a black cinder or something. My nails were for some reason, emerald. That didn't make any sense, she didn't have pearl fingernails...And yes, you didn't read that incorrectly, my fingernails were now a ROCK type mineral thingy. So weird. Apparently Crystal wasn't 'humanoid' enough to register to my clothes as not needing to morph with me, seeing as now I was wearing some sort of green, sleeveless shirt with a stylized crescent moon on it. It was tied off with a sah, that surprisingly hung down lower than what looked my bike shorts.The orange of them didn't really fit well with the green of the shirt, in my opinion. And lastly, I appeared to be wearing purple slippers, with green socks almost reaching my biking shorts. Seriously, what was the point? If you're going to give me thigh highs, at least give me pants, damnit.

And it all was sparkly. Someone in the multiverse is laughing at me. Oh well. I turned back to Crystal, and noticed she was looking at my head in surprise.

"What? I didn't grow antenna or something, did I?" I asked, running a hand over my forehead and through my new hair. It actually had managed to style it in the exact same shape as hers, I think its called...pixie? I'm not sure...the only difference I could tell was that it seemed to feel longer than hers...looked. If that makes any sense.

"Yo-your eye..." Crystal pointed in shock as her face flushed a pale blue.

"What? Whats wrong with my eye?" I asked. Its not like I could tell on my own. Regardless of how shiny everything was, nothing was really all that reflective...hmm

"It's all weird. Your gem is supposed to be on your head like mine, but it's green and it's over one of your eyes. Seriously, how do you not feel that?" She asked, thrusting a finger forward and jabbing it in my eye. Instead of the customary pain that would ordinarily accompany such an action, her finger bounced off with an audible *click*. Regardless of how invincible my eye now was though, it still made me flinch.

Twilight had separated from the herd, and came to voice her own concerns. "I don't think that's very healthy..." She paused, circling around to examine me with her horn all a glowing, "or pleasant feeling." She frowned, "your inner mana is going crazy!" Inner...mana? Well, I already was using magic, which I wasn't supposed to. That already was screwed up enough. "It's like there's two distinct forces of mana clashing but not mixing. You might want to get that checked out, assuming you are able to return to wherever your home is." She frowned.

"I am, thanks for asking. No, I can't do it on command, it'll happen when it happens. Sometimes I'm in another Equestria for a day, a few days, or even as short as a minute. It's all rather random. And are you sure? I feel fine. Well, as good as I can seeing as I'm currently a girl...but that seems to be an uncomfortable constant these days," I stated with a slump of my shoulders. " No offense, Crystal."

I prodded at my eye with a dainty fingernail, wincing with each click. This really was bizarre. there was a freaking rock IN my head. I could still see out of it like normal, there wasn't a green tinted or anything. In the show, they used the gems for magic and stuff, so I tried to channel magic to it. like the first time with twilights hoof, all I managed to get was a couple emerald tinged sparks. Weird.

"So, you honestly have no clue when you'll return home?" she asked, settling into a bit of a slouch with a hand raised towards her chin, rubbing it to get the introspective juices flowing no doubt. "Huh... well you're welcome to tag along, but for the record Gems don't have genders, we simply choose what we want to look like," she added.

So...It gave me this look because of some sort of BS subconscious thing? I had been trying to turn into Crystal, well, Pearl, and I had ended up looking like a knock off. But if that was the case, why wouldn't I be able to change it now? I didn't seem to be able to change anything just by willing it...It was the changeling forms all over again. 'Just change already' indeed, Queen of not being able to teach worth beans.

I tensed every muscle I could, straining and concentrating on changing. Not morphing, but changing, hopefully to a male form. Predictably,nothing happened, save for a slight tingling in my fingers.

"It made my fingernails longer? What the hell? How does that even work?" My nails had grown a full half of an inch, as if that was any sort of improvement. How did imagining myself turning into a male crystal gem translate into nail growth? Bah. Screw it. "Screw it, this isn't working. Your body doesn't like me trying to change it, I'm gonna stop trying for now before it tries making my hair longer or something. Feh. And yeah, no idea when I'll get sucked back...speaking of, if I don't get to go back before nightfall, I don't really have a place to stay... I stay in a spare room in Twilights castle in my Equestria, but last time I got stuck in another Equestria for more than a day Applejack let me sleep in the Apple's barn. Think she'll mind if I ask?"

Who knows, she might be touchy about it in this world, better to ask someone else their opinion so I can know whether she'll be pissy about that sort of thing. I already had first hand experience that not all of them were the same person, regardless of how they looked.

"Don't worry about accommodations." Twilight smiled as she made her way back over to us, "I just got done chatting with Cadance, who said she really would like us to stay and enjoy the place before heading back tomorrow. The palace is big enough to house several hundred guests, so I don't think we'll have a problem squeezing in one more." She said perkily as she looked up at me.

Crystal smiled, "Sweet! She'd really do that?! Awesome! I've never gotten to stay at a castle before! " She fist pumped the air, "Well save for maybe Disney World, but that doesn't count seeing as it's not a real castle," she chuckled.

"Coolio," I muttered, trying once again to do some sort of magic. I guess making sparks pop out of ones eye is rather impressive, but honestly I was hoping for a magic spear to pop out or something. Heck, if I could just levitate something or shoot eye lasers I'd be happy. As it was, all I got were green sparks.

"HNNNGFFG," I grunted, squeezing my right eye closed and forcing a gout of sparks to shower out of my eye/gem. "Fffffffffff...well that does nothing. Nothing useful anyway. So should we thank this Cadence? Or is it just a normal occurrence?"

"Don't worry, Cadance is my sister-in-law, so it's pretty normal for her to offer." Twilight chuckled as she stared at me.

"You know you shouldn't try to force the magic to come..." She said absentmindedly, "It's best to try to get a feel for the magic and then gently nudge it where you want to go... Like sticking a hoof, er appendage, into a stream and guiding the flow. At least, that's how I started until I was able to to actually command magic."

"You know you shouldn't try to force the magic to come..." It was with this comment that I realized I had been haphazardly following Twilight whilst I 'practiced' my magic. I had apparently followed the purple pony right out of the castle and into the streets of the crystal city. Some paragon of astute observation I am. "Its best to try to get a feel for the magic and then gently nudge it where you want to go... like sticking a hoof," she paused, taking a second to look me over as she realized I didn't exactly 'have' hooves. Well, most of the time. "-er, appendage, into a stream and guiding the flow. At least, that's how I started until I was able to actually command magic."

Well that was wonderful for her. What with her stream metaphors and so on. Again, for me it was like trying to shove the energy out, trying to 'guide the flow' wasn't exactly something I even knew how to implement. Maybe my 'magic' was as screwed up as she said. Wonderful.

"I don't know how to do that...stream thing you're talking about. What I do is basically grab the strange feeling inside me, and shove it into a magical orifice. When I'm you," I winced at my poor description, but continued anyway, "I shove it into your horn, and that seems to work...Although as you've witnessed, I'm not very good at magic. lifting up something as small as a nail feels like I'm trying to bench press a cow. Can't...even..." My eye sparkled as I tried to levitate something, or even make a magic glow, SOMETHING besides these annoying little magical sparkles. "Get anything besides sparks with this form. This is bogus, I saw Pearl use magic all the freaking time! She could summon a sword thingy like Crystal, and she could do all kinds of other cool stuff... nyeeeaaaaagggghh." All I got however with my increased concentration, was an increased stream of sparks. Bah.

I could hear Twilight and Crystal trying their hardest not to laugh at my attempt. "W-! I uh... Hmmmmphffff...." Crystal muttered under her breath as I followed her back into the Crystal castle.

Crystal led the way as we walked and shrugged, "Well dude, sometimes ya just gotta have patience with things like this," She stated as two Crystal guards saluted us and opened the doorways to what appeared to be the guest quarters. "I mean, I guess because your default is human magic just comes harder..." She frowned as she whispered "Still wish I was one..." Didn't quite catch that. She sighed as Cadance, Spike, and the guy that threw her off the top of a tower came into view as Crystal waved them over.

"Still, I can do magic. Sort of," I claimed, "I can levitate stuff... but the exact same steps aren't doing anything in this form. Maybe your magic is different?"

Crystal looked like she was thinking about it as the previously established Cadance, Shining, and Spike came into earshot. Spike immediately ran up and hugged Twilight, who then returned the favor. Spike then waved to Crystal before hopping on Twilight's back.

"Glad to see everyone's still in one piece," Shining Armor joked as they laughed. Crystal laughed too, "Yea, and check this out!" She smirked as she withdrew a green centipede ball thingy from her pack. Cadance and Shining looked at it in a mixture of awe and confusion. My own look was one of stunned disgust. If she threw that at me, I would let loose the most MANLY of terrified screams. "We think it was the guardian of the heart before Sombra tainted it." Twilight explained as Crystal moved to hand the green ball to Cadance.

"It's rightfully yours Princess, that is if it still works or anything..." Crystal shrugged.

Cadance smiled uneasily and pushed it back into Crystal's hooves. "That's quite alright dearie, you should keep it as a trophy for your brave endeavors," she smirked as she turned her attention back to me and did a weird... half bow... thing. Kneel bow? Bowing knee? Good god these ponies were weird.

"Thank you again for helping with both the festival and distracting Sombra," her Pinkest said as she smiled earnestly.

I eyed the ugly little centipede ball that had returned to Crystal, wondering how it could have been that much of a nuisance. Maybe it shot acid out of its mouth?

"I... only did what I was able," I muttered, trying to look her in the eye and failing. She wasn't as big as sunbutt, but she was definitely larger than Twilight. "I... wasn't that much help, really..."

Cadance chuckled as she smiled honestly, "And modest to boot!" She playfully punched Shining Armor in the...shoulder. Wither? She then lit up her horn and used her magic to open a door to our right. "Come, everypony else is already seated for dinner. Let's not keep them waiting," she hummed as she trotted through the doors like a pony variant of a school girl. Rolling her eyes and smirking, Twilight motioned for the rest of us to follow.

"Okay... so you've been here long?" I asked, directing my question towards the local reagent.

Cadance turned towards me as the rest of the group paused to wait for her, before she signaled with a polite flick of the wing for them to continue without her. I mean, whats with that? When did she start using her wings to make gestures instead of her leg/arms? Twilight and Rainbow didn't do that...

"Oh a week at most," She hummed thoughtfully as they continued to walk at a much slower pace. "Celestia wanted me and my husband to be out front first to protect the ponies, since our shield at my wedding had worked well." She smiled, but there a brief flash of resentment in her eyes before it faded just as quickly.

"My Twilight told me briefly about you and her brother, but nothing more than the fact you were recently married. The changeling invasion was also briefly glanced over in my history lessens. The good 'ol ex-queen didn't really seem all that interested in going over her lowest point. Something like that."

Cadance blinked in a confused manner at my explanation. "Uh.. Erm, well I'm not sure what all of that meant, but yes we did in fact have an invasion of changelings over a month ago," She calmly stated as we neared the entrance to the dining hall now. "It's not something I like to talk about despite how much praise I receive. It was more of a joint effort on everypony's part. But hey, if you're going to be around for some time, I'd be more than happy to arrange an afternoon to discuss it." She smirked, "I too have many questions to ask." She said with a scary looking gleam in her eye. If you don't hear from me, you know my last location. Send the Police. Make sure they bring tasers and horse saddles. Bit's and tack... or would that be considered fetish equipment for ponies? Uuuuerrrrg. No. Lets not think on that any more.

"Well, you might as well ask them while you can," I posited. "I'm not really sure for how much longer I'll be staying. I'm still kinda new to this whole thing, and so far how long I'm in another Displaced's world has been random," I told her.

Cadance hummed slightly in thought, "Very well then." She said as they stepped through the entrance to largest dining room I've ever seen. Cadance took a seat next to Shining, who was already chowing down on something that vaguely resembled oatmeal. She then motioned for me to take an empty chair next to Crystal and Twilight, who were having their own little chat. "I can think of many questions, but I will limit myself to just two." She took a breath as she used her magic to grab a cup of water and sip. She let out a satisfying breath before setting the cup back down, dispelling her magic from the cup. "Firstly, you speak as if this has not been the first dimension you've been in." She stated calmly, as she told the server she wanted waffles. Why waffles? She was the reigning monarch of crystal kindgom land, and she goes for something as base as... ehn who am I kidding, I love waffles.

"My guess would be then that you are looking for answers." She readjusted herself in her chair. The rest of the group had barely noticed our presence. Too busy idly chatting away excited, as their forms glistened in the very sparkly room. God, the eyesore was real, if the sun didn't stop making everything send shimmering waves of glancing pain into my eyeballs... Cadance then studied me cautiously, as if sizing me up for a meal. I instantly felt profoundly uncomfortable, and wondered if I should be planning an exit route. "A question for a question then." She stated. "What is thine purpose?" She asked in a suddenly serious tone.

"Either find home, or someone that can send me home," I responded. "Seems like it should be easy, right? Someone at the very least should know something."

"So now for my question. Do any of you know anything about transportation between dimensions, alternate realities, universes or otherwise?"

Cadance visibly relaxed as she mulled over my question. In the meantime a waiter brought her a platter overflowing with precariously balancing waffles and she began to eat while thinking. I assume she was thinking. She might have been reviewing a book she read recently for all I know. She shook her head, "Nay young traveler, I know not much about plane shifting." Her eyes glazed over for an unknown reason, but she quickly brought herself back to the present. "Only what has been handed down from eons of a madmare's research, and what my Aunt Celestia has told me." She hummed in thought. kept shooting me glances, then looking back over towards Twilight. The hell was going on in her head?

"My turn," she said in between bites of waffles. Somehow. She was seriously hoovering those things like... like a hoover vacuum? Man I'm bad at euphemisms. "I must know for curiosity's sake, if our world is any similar to yours..." She asked, "I don't have to know specifics unless you comfortable talking about them, but I ask mainly to gain knowledge and in case our world should be prepared for war."

"As far as I can tell, it's almost exactly the same," I started, pointing over at Sparkly Twilight Sparkle. "Minor differences though. My Twilight Sparkle is an alicorn, like you. And am I wrong to guess that Ex-Queen Chrysalis isn't living in Ponyville with her marefriend?" I asked.

Cadance blinked with a rather surprised look on her face before composing herself and shaking her head. "No I would say not. Queen Chrysalis is in the dungeons of Canterlot ever since Crystal discovered their hideout." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Good to know that this world is not in any immediate danger though." She hummed thoughtfully. By then dessert had come around...

"Well, I wouldn't put absolute faith in what I say," I said, thinking about Crystal, "As far as I know, there's absolutely no mention or reference of Crystal Gems in my Equestria, if they even exist there at all. And again, my Twilight is an alicorn, there could be some VERY drastic differences between our worlds. You could head back to Ponyville and find it taken over by fireflies for all I know. Ideally, you should just take things as they come. Unless you have super accurate prophesies that are never wrong. If you have those, follow those."

I munched at a cake that had found it's way in front of me, "Unless it's a thing to rebel against fate or something here. I really only have a bare bones idea of how things work around here to begin with."

Cadance couldn't help but chuckle at my reference to Ponyville being taken over by fireflies. "Hmm..." She said, a thoughtful look on her face as she folded her hooves in front of her. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see won't we?" she turned towards her husband and started talking to him. Guess Q&A time was over.

"So what now?" I asked Crystal.

"Dunno..." she let loose with a shrug, "Usually this is where I kinda kick back and relax at this point." She said, slouching in her Minotaur-sized chair. She let out a deep yawn, "I guess I'll probably head to the rooms soon and take stock of things, perhaps play old mare with Pinkie Pie, etc." She added.

---

"No."

"Baby," Rainbow Dumbass tried to chastise me.

"Call me what you like, I would rather sleep on a cactus than sleep in the same room as you," I clarified, "I'd probably get more sleep that way."

The time had passed with frightening frequency, leaving us at a crossroad as they tried to assign me sleeping quarters. A slight problem had arisen when it turned out there was a slight lack of rooms. Seven rooms. Apparently they would have set me up in a completely different section of the castle, but Cadence had voiced some concern for my well being. I think she just wanted to room me with one of the girls to mess with me. She seemed kind of like the prankster kind of person.

"Wimp," she said in a pathetic attempt to insult me.

"No," I preempted Pinkie Pie, pointing a finger in her direction. She had a manic look on her face, and an arm/leg thrust above her head like she wanted a question answered. "Just no. With Rainbow I can look forward to hours of her trying to convince me how awesome she is. With you, the same hours I'd be trying to fall asleep would be filled by you being generally energetic and annoying. Sorry, not annoying," I tried to find a better term to describe her as her expression twitched for the barest of a second. "Distracting. Not conductive to sleep."

Crystal sighed as she set down her playing cards and gave Pinkie a pitying glance before getting up. Where was my pity? I wanted some pity.

"Enough." She interrupted as she stood up fully, "Wade, you can sleep with me." Crystal offered, turning away as she did so.

She opened the door to a random room, revealing its contents. Desk, desk lamp... and one bed.

"Noop," I muttered, going over to try the one door across the hall. Desk, desk lamp, bed. Singular. The remainder of the rooms showed the same lack of duality, revealing a frightening possibility. Cadence wasn't just a prankster. She was an annoying, matchmaker cupid of a prankster. There wasn't any other explanation for trying to stick me in the room of one of them with only a single bed. Well I couldn't just let that be as it was.

I let out a low sigh, trying to think of a passive way I could stymie her. "Can I get a single pillow and a blanket from each of you?" I asked, trying to think fast, "One pillow, a spare, and then a blanket from each of you. I basically want to make a pile I can sleep in it as Spike. That way I don't have to encourage a certain Alicorns amorous related shenanigans," I explained.

The six of the main ponies shrugged and left to go fetch the items that I requested while Crystal put her hands on her hips. "Huh, I could've sworn there'd be more than one bed in at least one room." She frowned before looking over at me. She walked into the bedroom and looked around. "Do you think its got a bathroom somewhere? If it does, we might be able to squeeze one of us inside a tub or something." She hummed as she put a hand to her chin, "Or maybe if I shapeshift into a pony I could save space and sleep inside the tub..." She muttered to herself.

"That sounds... insanely uncomfortable," I said, stifling a grimace. "Just take the bed, I'll take the floor. I'm sure to disappoint the pegacorn already by not sharing one of your beds, I wouldn't want to inadvertently piss her off by making you sleep in discomfort while I get a bed. You wanna know what I honestly expected? Bunkbeds. I don't know why, this place was just giving me that vibe. That and the whole-" I stopped, bringing up one of my hands to stare at it.

The glimmering shimmer that had covered my pseudo 'Crystal' hands was slowly fading, returning them to regular flesh tones. As regular as tinted green can be. As I thought on it, it was kinda weird I hadn't morphed back by now. I guess I was just trying to break the form in. Nothing all that different really -YES. DIFFERENT GENDER. I KNOW. AVOIDING THAT- except a particular vibrancy of citrus fruits. Oranges just tasted better, for some reason.

"Coooool," I flouted,"Hey, Crystal! Look! I'm back to normal!" she gave me an incredulous look, as if to silently judge my supposed intelligence. "As back to normal as a clone version of you can be, yes."

"Huh. Well good for you." She nodded as she went back to assess the situation. "Look, back to the bed thing..." She thumbed to the piece of furniture. "I've slept on harder things than floor, and the tub isn't any worse that your pile idea." She sighed, as she pulled out her sword thingy from her forehead rock. "So, since neither one of us wants to budge we're going to do this my way..." She grinned as she held the sword.

Well I couldn't have THAT, now could I? How dare you girl, rebuff my attempts to be courteous! I shall pummel my chivalry into your skull! Okay I think I took a wrong turn somewhere.

"I'll warn you," I started, flailing my arms in front of me in a pseudo kung-fu manner, "I can probably last for a whole thirteen seconds before being knocked out. In that thirteen seconds, I'll be sure to give you a nasty bruise! Or... you know, barring that I'll lower myself to insulting you or something. I'll think of something!" I eyed her sword thing, watching it as she waved it back and forth in front of herself.

"Hmmm... Pretty sure sword beats gauntlets," I thought out loud, thinking back to the gloves I had gotten from the necklace. They were pretty destructive when they did touch something, but they were still GLOVES. Kinda lacking on the range department. "Maybe I should look into getting a sword? Or a staff. Or maybe I should just try to get a shield. A shield seems like it would be very useful right about now..."

"Uh, I was just going to spin it on the floor to see who takes the bed." Crystal blinked in a confused manner. Clearly we were thinking two very different things.

"Sorry to say, but when you brandish a sword with a wicked look in your eye and the slightest sneer of an edge in your voice, that doesn't exactly scream 'benign', just so you know," I retorted, letting my arms drop to my sides.

"Huh?" Crystal said, "I didn't think I sounded like that. Apologies." She frowned, "Anyways, I'll just set the sword down here an-"

"Uh... Am I interrupting something?" Rainbow Dash suddenly asked confused as she opened the door.

"Blanket!" I all but yelled, grabbing it from the pegasus, "Perfectly innocent blankets! I'll throw that in this corner," I tossed it in the corner, leaving it in a heap. "There! Ties the room together, don't you think?"

Rainbow scratched her head confused, "Uh... Yea I guess so?"

Soon the other ponies came in as the awkwardness faded and brought the supplies needed for my bedding pile of awesomeness.

Crystal had to smirk when she saw all the assorted blankets and pillows. She couldn't have any. Mine.

"We found some extra linen in the maid's station." Rarity said proud as she dropped a pillow from her magic grip.

"We also searched for a bed, but came up with nuthin'" Applejack sighed, "But hay, at least we found these!" She said cheerfully.

It was then that Twilight noticed Crystal holding her sword thingy. "Uh, why is your weapon out?" Twilight blinked confusedly as a blue tint flushed over Crystal's face.

I collected the assorted bedding, piling it in a corner. Once I had assembled it into a formation I could easily crawl into later, I turned back to the group.

"I dunno, but she said something about 'spin the bottle'. However the heck that would work with a sword," I contributed. What? I can make jokes too...

"That, and I- uh..." Crystal's eyes darted back and forth for a moment as the faint blue blush faded from her face. She took a deep breath and let it out, "That and I was er... Wanting to give Wade a weapon, Yes!" She lied in a high pitched titter, "A um, weapon to help defend himself if need be since his Crystal Gem form is unable to. Here Wade." She stuttered as she handed me her sword thingy.

Twilight smiled, "Aww! That's so sweet~!" Twilight clapped with her hooves in a fashion I can only describe as 'cheerfully'.

I took the blade as she handed it to me, turning it over in my hands. What she had been saying hadn't really made any sense. She said one thing, then went and said yet another thing someone else asked. She was kinda weird.

The sword was again, kinda not sorta a sword. It was like a spear... but more like a sword with a really long handle. Its pearlescent shine was offset against my own green tinged skin.

I turned it over again, and I felt a familiar sensation. As I tried to place the feeling, the sword disintegrated in my hands.

"NyeeeeeeeAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!" I yelped, dancing around on my tiptoes as a cloud of white sparklies flew around my head. I frantically waved my hands in an attempt to protect myself, but that had about the same effect as the same effort would have on a swarm of bees. That is to say, laughably ineffective.

I ran circles around the room, Crystal yelling something but I couldn't tell what it was. My feet somehow found the only errant sheet in the entire room and managed to wrap it around themselves, sending me tumbling to the floor. Crystal landed on top of me, inadvertently pinning my arms to the ground. I could only watch in horror as the sparklies gathered, diving towards, and into my left eye.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?" I trailed off, noticing first and foremost that... it didn't hurt. "It... didn't hurt? Well now I feel just like an... can you get off me?" I asked, trying to struggle out from under her. "I can't... get... just... heeeeeeelp." She was like a human Chinese finger trap. Or it was the blanket wrapped around our struggling forms. Maybe.

"Argh!" Crystal yelped as she tangled us up further in the sheet. God she wasn't helping at all, her wrigglings were just causing the sheets to get tighter...

Anyways, we struggled to our hearts content for a few seconds, before a familiar tingle engulfed us and gently lifted us up into the air.

"I thought we agreed you weren't sharing sleeping arrangements..." Twilight giggled as she untangled us both from the bed sheet and gently set us back down. "Honestly, you're like two foals." She snickered as she left the room, having done her duty. in embarrassing the hell out of us.

"It wasn't li-!" Crystal tried to reply, but Twilight had already left.

Fuming from embarrassment, she crossed her arms and stood up.

I kept quiet as Crystal stood fuming at the door, a list of muttered obscenities too low to hear.

How... what the hell was that? In the show they drew weapons from their gems, but it wasn't like I was a real one. And it was HER sword, anyway! Did I steal it? How the hell did I steal it? It just turned to sparklies and flew into my eye! And what the hell was that feeling I had? It had felt like... like when... when I absorbed the necklace?

I closed my eyes, trying to put words to the feeling of the event. It was heat and cold, and neither. It was an odd sensation that put my hair on end, making the hair on my neck stand on end. I... for lack of a better word, reached for that feeling. It was encircled around my... my... my magic. It hung there next to the source, and I grabbed at it.

I felt it cascading out of my eye, slowly solidifying in my grasp. I opened my eyes, pleasantly surprised by what I now held in my hand.

The sword had returned, but in an altered state. No longer did it have the form of a spear, it was a proper sword now. It had a long, curving blade, like a cutlass. The hilt had a guard, encircling my hand and sending off shimmers of light. But the biggest difference, was the material it appeared to be made of. It was a vibrant shade of green, the blade itself made of emerald.

"Uh..." I started, turning to Crystal, "Is it supposed to do that?"

"Woah." She blinked, "That is amazing! How-? Wait, nevermind... Can you actually use it?" She smiled in a worrying manner.

"I'm... not really a fighter, really," I admitted. "I took fencing classes when I was ten, but that was only for a few months. I... was a bit of a spoiled brat. So if by 'use', you mean flail around wildly and hope it looks like actual swordplay, then yes. I can totally use it." I took a couple chops, wincing at the sweep as I swung off target. "It... I don't think this sword lends itself very well towards fencing. This is more of a... pirate-y sword. Yaaaar, avast ye matey," I said, closing my right eye, "Ye'll be giv'in up ye booty to the dread pirate rock eye, ye shall!"

Crystal couldn't help but laugh at my impeccable privateer impression. "Well I guess you'll just have to learn then." She smiled before stretching out and yawning. "But not tonight." She said, her eyelids drooping cutely as she walked over to the bed. "I'm way too bushed," she muttered, as a bright glow enveloped her being and she switched to pjs. She then climbed into bed.

Wait, did she just get changed right in front of me? I'm not sure how to feel about that. Conflicted?

I followed suit, demorphing as I rearranged the pile of blankets and pillows. I slowly went from green skin, to regular skin, to thick scaly hide. It was really quite amazing how dense the little dragons skin was. And as if to say 'screw that' to the state of his skin by the law of physics not being as dextrous as my own, his skin was just as good as mine.

I nestled in under the multitude of covers, poking out a snub scaly snout.

"Hey Crystal?"

Crystal turned around as she got into the covers. "Hm?" she grunted.

"Thank you," I muttered, sliding back under the pile.

"Not a problem," she hummed pleasantly.

---

I had a restful sleep, one without dreams or memories. I woke up slowly, stretching to my furthest extent under my pile of blankets. That wasn't very much, mind you. Both because I was now Spikes own diminutive stature, and because a familiar ball of scales was wrapped around my midsection. Drooling on my damned chest.

I dug the blankets away from my head, surfacing and allowing me to look around. I must have looked freaking hilarious with my head poking out, because as I turned my head I caught sight of Crystal. Laying on her stomach, watching my pile intently with glee in her eyes and a smile on her lips. Kicking her heels back and forth, staring at me intently and trying not to laugh.

"How long has Spike been here?" I asked, as straight faced as I could. I really hope this wasn't going to become a regular occurrence. I really should have learned from the last time, next time I had to sleep in an unfamiliar environment I'll just make a pseudo mattress and sleep on top of it normally. Not that sleeping as Spike wasn't anything less than comfortable -seriously, dragons are incapable of get back cricks, it's heavenly regardless of the contortion- but I didn't like people being in my personal bubble.

Drooling all over my freaking chest. Did I highlight on that part? If I didn't, I think I should. The scaly little bugger was DROOLING ON ME.

"Did you see him come in?" I enunciated, doubtful of confirmation. This version of him probably sleepwalked too. Just my luck.

Crystal shook her head, "No not really... But last night around three I heard something scratching about but didn't see anything." She rubbed her chin.

Just then someone knocked on the door in rapid succession.

For some inane reason -seriously, I just wanted to pry Spike off me and go back to bed. Could I do that? I'd like to do that- Crystal went and creaked open the door, only to have it slammed open as a pink blur dashed through the room.

"WADE!" Pinkie Pie giggled madly as she began bouncing up and down fast. "IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE~!" She sung as yellow frosting seemed to fall off her face in clumps, giving the effect she was foaming at the mouth. Wonderful. My morning went from bad to worse.

"Wade?" I said in a shaken stupor.

I then had a brilliant idea. There was no way it couldn't work. It was so stupid, it had to work! Spike was still hidden under the mass of sheets surrounding me, giving me an ample excuse.

"I'm not... Wade. I'm Spike!" I said enthusiastically. "And anyway, isn't it too early for a party? If you're too tired, you can't enjoy a party.'' I made a grand show of looking all around me at the room. "Crystal? How did I get," I leaned my gaze downward, hiding my face from sight. "Oh... was I sleep walking again?"

Pinkie Pie drew closer, the scent of sickly sweet sugar frosting on her breath. She let out a "Hmmmmmmmmm," before darting her hoof forward in a lightning fast motion, throwing the covers to the side. And somehow making them all fall into a neat little stack, each of them folded perfectly. "Aaaaaaha!" she chirped, grinning wildly. "I found you~"

"I... uh..." I stammered, Spike still somehow not having woken up from all this, "Split... into... two?"

Pinkie gave me a short shake of her head.

"I'm... dreaming. Yeah. Obviously there couldn't be two of me..."

Another short shake of her head.

"Oh my gosh, whats that?" I asked weakly while pointing at the wall behind her.

"That's a wall, silly!" she chirped, her head whirling around to look at said wall then back to me. Well. I've had better track record with that. Think I'll stick to 'Oh look a distraction' from now on. That one at least worked in my favor.

"A... wall... yes it is..."

"C'mon you silly billy, there's a party waiting with your name on it!" she exclaimed, holding out a hoof for me to grab.

After a couple seconds realizing there was no way I would get out of this, I let loose a sigh and reached a claw forward to accept her hoofshake. The sooner I could get this over with, the sooner I could go back to not interacting with anyone. As I reached my/Spikes claw forward, I encountered flesh and grabbed.

"Wade?" Twilights voice asked, and my eyes flew open in shock. My appendage was stretched forward, the digits clamped down on her... snout. Looking around I saw I was back in the crystal castle. Back home. Pseudo home. "Let go," she said in a harsh whisper.

I let go of her face, apologizing as I did so. I looked around once more, making sure the other variant Pinkie Pie wasn't going to pop out of a wall or something.

"What are you," Twilight started, more than likely in reaction to my wild head turns. "Is there something I should be worried about?"

I gave her a shake of my head, slowly coming to terms that the multiverse didn't actually hate me. It had handed me a gift on a silver platter. I shook, slowly raising my/Spikes arms above my head. Time to let my victory be known, and completely jinx myself.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand he's safe!"

Author's Note:

This was a crossover with BlueSkyHeadLeft010 's story, Crystal Ballerina.

Give her story a look, it was definitely a fun time collabing with her.

Comments

[Dravkwn]

Nice to see another chapter.

[Flutters Is Shy]

6286876
*Snatches it up, and puts it in a safe*

You can't have it back. It's mine now.

[Schroedingers_Katze]

Neat, neat.^^

[Rain Nero]

Nice to see you finally got around to updating this. I think this was one of the first Displaced stories I actually read/favorited. Now if only I could get back to updating mine...

[Chrome Masquerade]

I never really bothered with reading anything. I kept away from books like the plague, and stuck to the mind melting cartoons. I guess that's what makes us different, huh? Books vs. Cartoon items. Strange how that works out, am I right?"

Twilight would be disappoint.

[nighters]

so will this do the mlp comic adventure? sea ponies! monsters! dragon town in a pony city with dragons that aren't little or to big!

[Balewood]

"You know you shouldn't try to force the magic to come..." She said absentmindedly, "It's best to try to get a feel for the magic and then gently nudge it where you want to go... Like sticking a hoof, er appendage, into a stream and guiding the flow. At least, that's how I started until I was able to to actually command magic."

"You know you shouldn't try to force the magic to come..." It was with this comment that I realized I had been haphazardly following Twilight whilst I 'practiced' my magic. I had apparently followed the purple pony right out of the castle and into the streets of the crystal city. Some paragon of astute observation I am. "Its best to try to get a feel for the magic and then gently nudge it where you want to go... like sticking a hoof," she paused, taking a second to look me over as she realized I didn't exactly 'have' hooves. Well, most of the time. "-er, appendage, into a stream and guiding the flow. At least, that's how I started until I was able to actually command magic."

repeat, also

"Nay young traveler, I know not much about plane shifting."

I see Cadence is channeling her inner Luna here unless you were aiming for a 'neigh'

"Noop," I muttered, going over to try the one door across the hall

Anywho glad to see a new update, Thanks for Writing!

[Flutters Is Shy]

6288431
It's over three MILLION!!!

[DiscountDiscord]

Could Wade possibly use those mana crystals if he was in in a unicorn's form? Or would it simply come down to his inexperience with using magic making him unable to use the crystals? Just curious.

[DiscountDiscord]

You know, I just realized something, did Wade accidentally acquire a fusion of Crystal and the Centipeetle gem?

[KiaraGate]

Conflicting magic in Wade? I wonder what that could be.

Seriously though, even if I didn't have knowledge of the future, the signs are here for what is going on.

[Razzy]

Nuuuuuuu, free Chryssie!

New form get!

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

Seriously, it was one of the best series I'd ever read in school,

Yes, yes it was.