Chapter 22
I directed him to my bedroom, hopefully we wouldn’t be disturbed there. My sense of direction held true as he dropped me and I opened the door. Unfortunately, the shredded sheets were still on the floor, even after all this time. Maybe the servants only come through in the evening…
“Ok!” he began, tossing Tim on the bed and then picking me up and doing the same. “First thing’s first: Does the name ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ mean anything to you?”
“No...Not really. I think it was a cartoon or something,” I said, confused. Tim shook his head beside me.
“Hm… ok, several possibilities with that. What’s the last year either of you remember before coming here?”
“It was early 2013, why?” I answered, wondering just where he was going with this.
“Ok, well that strikes that possibility. Does Hasbro still exist in your dimension? Or did it ever?”
“Yeah, I loved Transformers as a kid, I still do actually,” I answered, fondly recalling the disaster that was my first attempt at transforming Ultra Magnus.
“Hm, ok then, that’s another of the list. How about the ‘Powerpuff Girls’ and ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’?”
Tim spoke up this time, “My sister used to watch Powerpuff girls. I admit, that show caught my attention a little. Foster’s...eh, not so much.” I nodded, agreeing with him.
“Ok, so it seems Lauren Faust did her thing. Final question, about how much time did you guys spend surfing the internet as a daily routine?”
“I had work to do in my forge, I was a blacksmith by the way, and I did other odd jobs for my friends, so I didn’t have much time in the way of computers. I know how to use one, since I had a website and everything for orders, but nothing for recreation,” I answered, still confused as to where was going with this.
“I surfed the web quite a bit, actually. It was mostly watching videos, anime, and reading,” Tim answered. He had tried several times to get me into stuff like that, but I couldn’t afford to because of my work.
“Huh. And yet somehow you missed it. Either that, or everything lined up except the creation of that one show,” he muttered. Finally he shrugged. “Ok here’s the skinny: in 2010 Hasbro restarted the My Little Pony franchise under the guidance of Lauren Faust, giving it the secondary title of ‘Friendship is Magic.’ It was a huge success, the writing and voice acting, not to mention world-building, making devoted fans not only out of it’s intended audience of little girls, but also even grown men. Of them including yours truly.”
“It’s not that I didn’t see it, I just didn’t bother to watch the show or look up the controversy or whatever surrounding it,” Tim clarified. “I don’t care what someone watches, it’s their choice, and if it’s a good show, let them watch what they enjoy.”
I nodded and said, “Even if I didn’t really notice it, I hold the same opinion. It’s your choice whether or not to watch something like that, and as long as you aren’t forcing it down someone’s throat, I would be fine with it.”
"Gotcha. Ok, well here's the starting plot, and stop me if you heard this one. One thousand years ago the alicorn sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, ruled peacefully over Equestria until Luna, upset that none of the ponies appeared to be appreciating the night she made, rebelled and attempted to take over, christening herself Nightmare Moon. Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister to the moon and ruled for one thousand years, over the course those events faded into myth."
Tim and my eyes widened, not only at the story but the names.
"On that thousandth year Princess Celestia's personal student, the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, believed the story was real, and warned her teacher of the danger. Curiously, Celestia told her to go to the nearby town of Ponyville and prepare the Summer Sun Celebration as well as 'make friends.' Not one to disobey her teacher, she and her dragon assistant Spike went to the town as told and met five interesting mares: earth ponies Pinkie Pie and Applejack, pegasi Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and unicorn Rarity. As Twilight feared, Nightmare Moon returned and with her came the threat of unending night. Twilight set out to find the Elements of Harmony, and the five mares she met went with her. Over the course of this journey she made friends with the girls and, as it turned out, they all were the new bearers of the Elements and with their power purified Princess Luna of the dark power influencing her. The Princesses were reunited, and light returned to the world. And that," he smirked, "is the end of the first two episodes."
“...” An awkward silence stretched in my small bed room.
“Are you serious?” I asked him. Tim was laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling in shock. There were too many names that were similar for it to be a joke, and the suddenness of being transported here in my new body certainly made it a possibility...But still. A CARTOON?!
“Welcome to magical pony land, where love and friendship are not merely emotions and relations but literal magical forces capable of exuding power on the extent of non-lethal atomic bombs! Enjoy the diabetes inducing cuteness, the occasional sudden musical number, and villains that look like they’d be at home in Middle-Earth!” Gilgamesh said gleefully.
“Except these guys aren’t ponies,” Tim said from his place on the bed.
“Yeah, you’ve got an interesting version like that. Usually they’re candy colored ponies, like in my dimension, other times they’re more anthro, then they could also be basically human just with strange skin and hair colors. Yours is the first I’ve been to where they seem complete normal aside from the anime colored eyes and hair. Oh, and the pegasi wings.”
“Hm…” I hmmed.
“So, you’ve been to other universes then. Is that a normal thing for the Displaced?” Tim asked.
“Ah yes, Displaced, need to mention that. Ok then, first off, do you remember your previous lives before you came here?”
“Well yeah, I do at least, and I’m pretty sure Berserker does as well,” I confirmed. Tim nodded after sitting up on his elbows.
“Ok, well the usual story is you go to a convention of some kind, you get something related to your costume, you get transported to a version of Equestria. Usually the one responsible is a void-dweller and Sys Admin by the title of ‘The Merchant.’ There are some discrepancies, of course, but that’s the usual story.”
“Well the last thing I remember is something strangling me to death, then waking up like this on the top of the mountain, surprisingly not frozen. What about you Berserker?”
“I actually did go to a con, that’s why I had you,” he points to me, “smith me this armor. Wanted to be authentic for the fans. I just didn’t have Arondight, or at least a prop of it. I did meet up with a guy in a long black coat who said he could get me one. He didn’t look too threatening, and I thought his costume was nice, even if I didn’t recognize it. I followed him to a less populated area where he brings out a true replica of my sword. While I was stunned from the reveal, he stabs me through the chest with it. I black out, then wake up and wonder where I am. After that, everything is a little blurry until I got released by Celedon here,” he explained. He gave me a light punch on my arm as he said the last sentence.
“Huh. Well yours sounds pretty typical, Berserker, aside from the stabbing part. As for Celedon’s… eesh. Strangulation. Not fun. You’d be the second Displaced I’d met that got sent to Equestria after they died. Anyway, judging from what you mentioned you, Berserker, likely suffered the other similarity between Displaced: pissing of Celestia and/or Luna and getting sealed in stone for a thousand years… at least. I know I’ve been there.”
“I did find a statue of him that I didn’t know was actually him, just sealed. He was, quote, ‘Berserker: Spirit of Mad Rage and Hatred.’ End quote. Apparently, he waged a one-man war against Equestria and her allies a thousand years ago. Only the Elements of Harmony were able to defeat him. Though the plaque said that he was destroyed and the statue was left as a warning,” I confirmed.
“Huh, not too different from mine. In my universe there was a war that had been going on for five years between the ponies, the griffons, and the minotaurs. I showed up, kicked all their asses, even the Princesses, and basically had a winning streak for one hundred years before they all finally got the idea to join up against me and, after a suitably long battle, let myself get beaten so they could become allies. I was dubbed ‘Combat,’ avatar of battle itself,” he said proudly.
“Nice,” Tim said with a grin. I shook my head with a smile at his behavior.
“I’d believe that, after the thrashing you gave both of us. I mean, seriously? Meteors?” I said, still a little overwhelmed by that last attack.
“Actually, that’s more recent. Originally I was given my insane physical prowess, magical abilities, and my three transformations. Other abilities I got were either given to me as gifts from other Displaced or bought from an extremely powerful Displaced named either Umbra Shadow Walker or Aaron Heibai. He actually is the only Displaced I know that used to be a Sys Admin, and he basically has a store that sells absolutely anything you can think of.”
“Um…‘three transformations?’” I asked.
“Yup! Sorry to say this, but I only used about… thirty percent of my full power, tops, to beat you guys. In my final form my physical strength alone would literally allow me to pick up Mt. Canter and swing it at you like a baseball bat.”
My mouth was open in shock. Beside me, Tim just said, “That’s it. I’m out,” and flopped onto the bed.
“Sorry guys, but I’ve been getting the luck of the draw for a while now. Not to mention, I’ve been in this game for a long time, too. It’s a wide, wide multiverse out there. You’re a couple of big fishes in a small pond, and you just met a shark,” he said before he smirked. “Pray if you meet any whales that they’re friendly.”
“And how exactly would we even contact the friendly ones? I still don’t know how this whole ‘contact through the multiverse’ things works,” I said, exasperated.
“Well, got good news and bad news for you there. First of all, most of us are actually pretty good guys. Maybe a bit selfish at times, but when push comes to shove, we stand up for the side of heroism. Of course, that just makes the truly evil ones out there just seem even more evil. As for the contact thing, we basically send these ‘Tokens’ of ours out into the multiverse with a message attached to them, letting others know about our names, goals, etc. You guys could probably make your own easily now. The one thing I have to warn you about is being newbies that if anyone catches your token and calls for you, more then likely you’re gonna get pulled into their world whether you want to or not. And then there’s the problem of different time speed. All the dimensions move at different rates of time. There’s the possibility you could be gone for months, but only an hour would pass in this dimension. Of course, one time I was gone for a day, only to come back and find out a week had passed.”
“Of course, time shenanigans. There’s always time shenanigans included with the multiverse package,” Berserker said, still laying on his back.
“So, these ‘Tokens,’ how would they get to other Displaced?” I asked.
“Well, basically you kinda just… send them out into the multiverse. To be honest, they kinda work on willpower and when you try them they do what you want kinda on auto-pilot. But like I said, if someone gets them, chances are you… hold on, I forgot about that one!”
“Forgot about what?” Tim and I asked at the same time.
“Another Displaced I met named Robin found a work around with the whole ‘being called no matter what’ clause for newbies. Basically he made his token a book and made it so that anyone who wanted his help would have to write in it and try to convince him to help him. Basically so he wouldn’t be called in for stupid things or called in and attacked by the more villainous Displaced. If you made something like that, then maybe you could make yourself known without having to worry about unwanted trips.”
“Hm. That could be a definite possibility...Just need to figure out something like that,” I said, resting my head on my fist.
“Why not do something song related?” Tim offered, perking up.
“Obviously, but what about it?” I asked.
“How about...making a haiku or poem related to their request for assistance? And it has to be good enough that we take notice of it.”
I closed my eyes in thought. Then I looked at my feathers, all of which could be made into chimes if I let them move in the wind. I plucked a small one, a medium sized one, and a large feather out, all of them making a ping sound after pulling them. I saw them start to regrow as the familiar heat in my stomach started building.
I held out the small one and tapped it with a finger, producing a loud, high note. I repeated the process with the other two, which were noticeably softer and lower notes. I then plucked out one of my hairs and folded it twice, before forcing the hair through a tiny hole near the base of each feather. I then tied the hair in a knot, securing the three feathers together and forming a feather keychain.
I tested the tones again and heard the resonance due to the connected materials. The smallest feather still gave out the loudest tone, with the vibrations passing into the other feathers. Then I thought about the words I would say.
“Greetings, you have reached the Token of Celedon and Berserker, the golden angel and the mad warrior. Please ring your message after the tone. The tone you choose will decide our responsiveness to your request, but we still hold the right to answer.” I rang out a simple low to high scale on the feathers.
“I think that should work,” I affirmed.
"Probably. Now just imbue it with some of your power and send it into the void. Should happen pretty automatically," Gilgamesh said.
My power… I thought. An idea popped into my head. I started humming, gradually reaching the resonance frequency needed to cause the feathers to vibrate by my voice alone. Suddenly, a swirling black vortex opened up to my left, the right of Gilgamesh.
Looking once more at Gilgamesh, he nodded. I walked in front of the vortex and tossed the feather-chain in. Once inside, the feathers split into hundreds of copies, and zoomed off to parts unknown. The vortex then closed like it never existed.
“So that’s it?” I asked, still unsure if I did it right. Before Gilgamesh could answer, a smaller vortex opened above his head, dropping a copy of the chain onto his right shoulder where it managed to hang itself from a piece of his armor.
"I'd say that's a yes," he replied.
“Huh. Well, I guess that takes care of that,” I said with a tilted head.
“Well, as far as tokens go. You still need a heads up with a few other things.”
“Like what?”
“Well, for one, the kinds of things you might be facing here. This place might seem like fairy tail, but it's got some real nasties lurking in the shadows.”
“Hm. I kind of expected that, but hearing you confirm it just makes me paranoid now.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure I can take whatever this places throws at us,” Tim said from beside me. He continued, “Or you can just talk them down with your voice, Celedon.”
“I don’t think that would work on everything, Berserker,” I replied with a sigh. I turned back to Gilgamesh and asked, “So what will we be facing for the most part?”
“Well, first let me ask, have you met anyone named Discord?”
“Yeah, he actually forced the knowledge of flight, harp playing, and singing into my head. Before, I would sing and play my harp as if someone else was moving my hands, and I never learned how to fly. Or at least, I hadn’t taken lessons yet. He did say he was being forced to do so because of my ‘handler’s’ wishes. He’s a pretty interesting character, for a god of chaos.”
“Handler, huh? Might be a Sys Admin. Anyway, I might be making some assumptions with the timeline here, but one group you might encounter are the Changelings. In the show they were bug-pony things with fly-like wings, horns, black bodies, and horns. Considering everypony here is a human, I’m not sure how that would work out. Anyway, they live off love and can disguise themselves with magic, usually replacing a victim and feeding of other’s love for them, which makes them stronger. Their Queen is named Chrysalis, and she can be a very manipulative opponent. Some versions of them in the multiverse are outright evil, but just as many of them are just rival nations, or even just evil out of necessity if they’ve been ostracized for centuries. I’d personally prefer if you found a way to make some sort of peace treaty between them and the Equestrians.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem for Celedon. You heard how good her voice is, right? Well, there are a couple times she said something, like in a request or command, and literally everyone who heard would try to do whatever she asked before coming back to their senses. That’s the only way she keeps me under control when I’m not myself,” Tim recounted. I rolled my eyes and let out a breath. Surely I’m not that powerful.
“Hm. That would certainly be useful, but there’s a difference between a legitimate treaty and just magical compliance. I think it would be best if you used that to help them calm down if things get heated. Just to let you know, many of the Equestrians might not be too thrilled about the idea, especially Shining Armor and Cadance, Twilight’s brother and sister-in-law. Anyway, moving on, although he should’ve been dealt with by now, there might be a man named King Sombra showing up. Pretty much your traditional evil overlord with dark powers, you should be careful around him because he has the power to seal other’s magic and turn himself into an intangible cloud of darkness. Like I said, he’s probably been beaten by now, but I don’t want to make assumptions with the timeline.”
“Right, evil overlord guy, got it.” I nodded.
“Next isn’t an actual villain, per se, but there are things things called Plunderseeds that could pop up from the Everfree forest. They mess with magic and grow out of control, not to mention they kidnap Celestia and Luna, and attack basically the source of all good in this world, the Tree of Harmony. Just so you know, Discord planted them over a thousand years ago when he was still evil. Ask the girls if they still have the Elements of Harmony, and if so, confront Discord about it.”
“You mean those huge necklaces and that one crown Twilight wore? I saw them wearing those when they came to try and seal Berserker again,” I remembered.
“Did someone call my name?” a familiar voice called from above me. Apparently, Discord had been sticking to the ceiling as a mural of a flower pot with balloons growing out of it.
“Oh boy,” I said with a face palm.
“‘Sup, Dissy? How you been?” Gilgamesh asked, not at all disturbed by the man’s appearance.
“I’ve been quite upside-down as of late. These two and their, ugh, handler, have been nearly gagging me with the amount of order that I can feel rolling off them. Then again, that battle was positively splendid!” the god’s mood did a complete one-eighty with just one sentence that I almost felt my head spin.
“Uh, Celedon?” Then I realized that my head literally was spinning.
“Discord, please put my head on straight,” I asked in a calm voice.
“Oh fine,” he said as he snapped his fingers. I shook my head before looking back at Gilgamesh.
“If you can get used to Pinkie Pie, you can get used to him,” Gilgamesh shrugged. “Actually it’s good you’re here Dissy, because I think you should hear about this next one. Name’s Tirek, and aside from Discord he was probably the big baddie of this world as far as I know.”
Sometime during the explanation, Discord had turned into a microphone connected to a tape recorder. The tape deck opened and closed like a mouth, and Discord’s voice said, “Tirek, eh? Well, I can’t say that I haven’t heard of him, he caused quite a ruckus back in the day. Granted, I was made out of stone at the time, but Celly and Lulu talked about him abducting someone and trying to drain their magic. Nasty character.” The tape recorder and mic flashed back into Discord’s mis-matched form, where I could see a small frown of Discord’s face.
“Yeah, well, in the original universe and timeline he’s already escaped by now and is biding his time. And he was also a centaur. Draining magic for his own use was kind of his thing and, unfortunately, by this time the girls had had to give the Elements of Harmony back to the Tree, so they couldn’t use them. Recognizing the threat, Celestia decides to enlist you, Discord, to take him down before he gets too powerful. You succeed,” Gilgamesh then glared at the draconequus. “And then he manages to convince you to abandon you friends and ‘spread chaos’ with him, causing the Princesses to get desperate and give all their magic to Twilight. In the meantime Tirek absorbs all of the rest of Equestria’s magic with your help, Tirek banishes the weakened Princesses to Tartarus, and you promptly get stabbed in the back and drained of your own magic for your trouble.”
Discord’s frown deepened into a scowl, and Tim suddenly said, “Well, since you’ve just told him that, you probably changed the timeline now.”
Discord brightened immediately and said, after transforming to his human form, “Yes, quite. This ‘Tirek’ character will never see me coming, and his plea for my help shall fall upon deaf ears.” A pair of ear-muffs flashed into existence on top of Discord’s head.
“Good, but just in case, don’t be afraid to whip out the big-guns if he starts coming. In my universe, Tirek was responsible for the deaths of thousands, and he did that without your help, although he did have help from another. There’s also the possibility he could be reasoned with, maybe even reformed, there are always possibilities in this huge and crazy multiverse, but if push comes to shove do not be afraid to kill the bastard.”
“I can’t promise that I would kill him, but I’m sure I can find some who would be willing to.” Discord gave a pointed glance at Tim.
“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Tim said with a wave of his hand.
“Moving on, this may or may not happen, but there could be an alternate version of Equestria set in a high school through a mirror portal in the Crystal Empire. Now, considering that in the original verse all the characters were pony’s in this world and human in the other, I have no idea how that might work out, but the point is there may be former student of Celestia’s named Sunset Shimmer who will come to take the Element of Magic and use it to brainwash the people of that world to take over this one. I don’t know if you’ll actually be able to do anything about that, considering there’s a limit on how many can travel to the other dimension before reality starts to break, but it’s best to keep your eyes out. Oh, and some sirens who feed on hate were also banished to that dimension as well.”
“Well, that’s an interesting way to take a cartoon,” I said a slightly confused expression.
“Then again, it is not that much of a stretch considering who it’s fanbase is,” a low voice came from everywhere. I heard Discord sigh as shadows began morphing onto a wall. They formed the shape of a man, who then walked out of the wall. The familiar star-and-space colored coat immediately signified who we were seeing. He nodded to Tim and I first, then looked to Gilgamesh. “I see that another has finally arrived in this universe.”
“The ‘handler’, I presume?” Gilgamesh asked Discord.
“Yup. You owe me for that little stunt, Cr-” Discord started to say, but a motion from Void-coat’s hand hushed Discord.
“Don’t say my name here, it will attract too much attention. And I do apologize for that, but my plans required your help, whether or not you agreed to it.”
Discord grumbled before Void-coat, or whatever his true name was, said, “Yes, I am their ‘handler,’ as Discord introduced me. For now, you may call me Void-coat, as Celedon has been repeatedly thinking.”
“So you can read minds even out of your mindspace?”
“Of course, it’s practically a necessity in my line of work,” he answered without looking at me.
“Please stay out of mind, thank you very much. If you don’t, well… I’ve had mind readers curse doing so before,” Gilgamesh warned with a smirk.
Void-coat looked at Gilgamesh with a pointed stare for a few seconds, before he raised an eyebrow. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“What did you come here for, Void-coat?” I asked.
He turned to me with a serious expression. “You will not need to worry about it now, but future events will require alliances from all the nations on this planet, and possibly some from others. There is something coming, something I cannot reveal yet, it would be disastrous to the timeline. But, again, don’t worry about it for now, just concentrate on your current journey,” he explained.
“Right, tell us we need to bring whole world together, then tell us not to worry about it. That’s not going to make me paranoid, not at all,” I said with a healthy amount of sarcasm.
“Hey, play your cards right, and it shouldn’t be too hard. I did the same thing in my world,” Gilgamesh said. “Then again, I did have the added benefit of the threat of the world being completely obliterated to move things along. Nothing gets opposing sides to forget their differences than the threat of something trying to wipe them both out.”
“A good analogy. I cannot stay for much longer, revealing myself like this has already attracted far too much attention, though your presence,” Void-coat glanced at Gilgamesh, “is camouflaging my own, slightly. So, I must be leaving, I have universes to attend to.” He melted back into shadow before the room brightened.
“Well, that was a thing,” Tim said.
“Meh, seen weirder. Anyway, two last things I’ve got to warn you about, the first being Starlight Glimmer. But first, a bit of an explanation is needed. In the original universe the ponies have these things called ‘cutie marks’ which magically show up when they realize what their special talents are. I don’t know if there’s an equivalent to that here.”
“I believe I can answer that,” Discord spoke up. His mood had been down ever since Void-coat waltzed in, but now that he was gone and Discord had something to do, he was a little bit happier. “The Equestrians do still have their cutie marks, though the position is a little weird. They will wear clothing that shows the marks that they own, but the true mark lies above their heart. Celly and Lulu both have their cutie marks showing where their true marks would be. Most attire would have their cutie marks in some form or fashion.”
I nodded and said, “I remember seeing a sun over Celestia’s heart on her outfit. I’m guessing that is her Cutie Mark?”
“Huh. Anyway, back to Starlight Glimmer. I don’t know if she set it up in this universe yet, but she starts up a town called Our Town in the middle nowhere. It’s meant to be an ‘equalist’ society, where no one is better than anyone else. I bet you can already see where this is going.”
“Do I smell,” Tim sniffed the air comically, “communism? And,” he sniffed again, “corruption?”
“More like Stalinism, if we’re going to get specific, and there’s definitely hypocrisy in there. Starlight pretended to use an ‘artifact’ called the ‘Staff of Sameness’ to remove everyone’s cutie marks. This does more than you think, as it actually takes away any special talent the pony has, even dampens their personality. On top of that, she basically locks anyone ‘indoctrinated’ into a room with repeating messages to try and brainwash them. Turns out, it’s not the staff that did it, but her own magic, and locks the cutie marks away in a vault. She eventually gets revealed and everyone turns on her, but she manages to escape. I didn’t have to deal with her in my dimension, probably due to the World War going on, but I think it’s a problem you might want to nip in the bud. Although, don’t jump to conclusions, she might be different in this universe.”
“Perhaps,” I said.
“Eh, I would rather sic a particular communism-hating robot on her and introduce her to DEMOCRACY!” Tim shouted at the end.
I facepalmed, emitting a clang from my metal hand meeting my face.
“The United States isn’t a democracy, it’s a democratic republic. Small but important difference,” Gilgamesh corrected.
“Dude, I know that. I thought you got your references down,” Tim whined.
“Hey man, I don’t know everything.”
“Whatever. What was the last thing you needed to share with us?” I brought the conversation back to the original topic.
“Yes, though I am intrigued as to this interesting democracy topic, we do need to get you two on track to the Mer-kingdom,” Discord interjected. I blinked a couple times at that.
“Oh, mer-people exist here? Interesting. I’ll have to do a double-check on my own dimension when I get back. Anyway, the final thing is what happens to pretty much all the Displaced, and what I guess Void-Coat, or whatever that guy’s name is, warned you about. Pretty much every Displaced has to deal with a threat related to whatever universe their costume is from. For example, that world war I was talking about? All of Equus versus monsters from Final Fantasy led by Exdeath, the main villain of Final Fantasy V if you don’t know.”
My eyes widened as I’m sure Tim’s did as well. I didn’t have a costume per say, but I would hate to see the Grail Wars reenacted on Equestria.
“Uh, yeah, let’s hope that something else happens. Berserker comes from a very...dark...place,” I nervously answered.
“Like I said, be prepared. Also, you should warn the Princesses and the Elements. I don’t know how much you want to tell them, but you should definitely give them a heads up. And now, for what I usually do before I leave.” Gilgamesh stood up and walked over to Tim. “Berserker, I want you to be perfectly honest with me here. If I gave you something that could help you in battle, do you think you could keep yourself from using it to harm innocents? And I don’t mean ‘could Celedon keep you in check’, I mean do you think you could be responsible enough?”
Tim stared up at Gilgamesh for a couple tense seconds before closing his eyes and deeply breathing. A few more seconds passed like this, before he said, “Being absolutely completely honest, I don’t know. I’ve never had practice with controlling myself in battle, though I’m pretty sure I would go only for the largest threats in my vicinity. Otherwise, I would,” he held up two fingers, air quotes, “‘deactivate,’ so to speak.”
Gilgamesh hesitated for a moment before sighing. “I guess I’m an optimist, but I think you could do it if you tried. So in that case…” Gilgamesh trailed off as he summoned a sub-machine gun into his hand. He then grabbed it with his other hand and began to pull. As he pulled harder it began to glow brightly, before finally it flashed a bright light. After it cleared, he was now holding an identical gun in his other hand. He tossed it to Tim, who caught it. “Never know when you might need a ranged weapon.”
Visions of Berserker shooting at Saber with a machine gun flashed in my mind as Tim began to grin ferally. But he shook his head and said, “Thank you, Gilgamesh. I’m sure it will come in handy. But do I constantly need to carry it?”
I saw him smirk. “Snap your finger.”
Tim did so, and the gun flashed before disappearing. Tim raised his eyebrow and snapped his fingers again, summoning the weapon.
Tim smirked as he simply stated, “Cool.” A third snap banished the gun to wherever it was stored.
“And, because I’m feeling generous,” he said before summoning a rocket launcher and doing the same thing as before. “Do not use this in confined spaces. Oh, and they both have unlimited ammo. The rocket will reform itself after about thirty seconds.”
Tim’s eyes widened. I saw the sheer glee in his eyes. He looked like a kid at a candy store. But before he started jumping off the walls, he shook his head again and calmly said, “Thanks. I know I’m going to use this some time in the future.” He snapped his fingers and banished the rocket launcher.
“And one last thing,” Gilgamesh stated before stepping forwards and grabbing Tim’s hands. He closed his eyes and concentrated and then Tim’s gauntlets shone. After the light subsided, a symbol was on the back of each gauntlet. I recognized them as the same symbol at the end of his scarf. “I’ve given your gauntlets the same properties as my Genji Gloves. In addition to more protection against physical and magical attacks, you are now immune to paralyzing spells and any spells that would transform you into something you wouldn’t want to be. Like, say, a frog.”
Tim looked a tiny bit overwhelmed by all the new additions, but stood up and held out a fist, “Thank you, again. Can’t really say much more than I know they’ll come in handy.”
Gilgamesh bumped him back. “Don’t make me regret it, kid, or I’ll come back and put you down myself.” Despite the warning, his tone was lighthearted. “As for you,” he began before turning to me. After a pause he finished with “I can’t think of anything.”
“I don’t suppose you can give me a staff type weapon? I had a little practice with them back on Earth,” I requested.
He shrugged and unclipped his naginata, doing the same thing he did with the gun and the rocket launcher, and handed the duplicate to me. “I call it Enkidu. It’s completely indestructible and will never lose its edge. Unlike mine, however, it can’t cut holes in reality, so no teleportation for you.”
“That’s perfectly fine,” I said as an afterthought as I twirled the weapon around a few times, getting used to the weight of it. Of course I would have to accommodate my wings, which could make for some interesting transitions. Settling the naginata into a resting position, I experimentally snapped my fingers. The staff flashed out of existence, though I could feel it just barely out of existence.
“And I guess that’s all I can do for you guys. As much as I’d love to stay, I think I need to get a move on. More universes to see, more people to help, and more people to fight,” he said before taking two fingers to his mouth and whistling. A few moments later, the dog from before barreled into the room, panting happily. “Time to go, big guy.” The canine whined in response. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get to have Fluttershy take care of you in the next dimension.” The dog spun in place and barked happily. Gilgamesh then reached for his weapon again before pausing to stare at me.
After a few seconds of his stare, I nervously asked, “What?”
He raised an eyebrow before a look of realization came. “So that’s what I felt before! You’re a guy!”
I decided to come up with my own Look in the few seconds before he left. A flat stare, followed by a roll of the eyes and a breath out of my nose. Then again, I didn’t have lungs to begin with, but the motion is what I was going for.
“Yes, though I don’t really have anything embarrassing underneath this thing. Made it a whole lot less awkward when Twilight was examining me.”
“Oh, interesting. But mostly it was me knowing that I’m getting better at sensing people’s auras. You’re actually the first Displaced I’ve met that’s been gender swapped. At least, I think you are… Wow, I think I’ll stop myself before my mind wanders. Ok then, see ya, hope everything goes well, and may the winds of Freedom carry your wings,” he said before cutting a hole in the air and jumping in, his canine companion following afterwards, and the portal closing behind him.
Then I suddenly heard Discord saying, “Hey! What about my new weapon?”
I shared a look with Tim before we burst out laughing. Discord then did as well.
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pre05.deviantart.net/8ee5/th/pre/i/2012/086/5/7/liberty_prime_by_badkarma87-d4u3ul7.jpg
There is also that displaced story .....
Anyway, I see what you did there
6130233 Ah, so that's what that's from.
More please!
6131367 Don't worry, more is coming! The adventure is about to get started!
6131665 I said ask not demand
oh, you meant demand
SHHH! he must not know!
GOD DAMMIT DISCORD!!!
*gives Discord a rubber chicken* Enjoy!
6329612
6329612
laughs so hard that i die from laughter Heavy: DED! Heavy: you are dead no big suprise