> MegaMane
>  by Flutters Is Shy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1- Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wake up at 6:30, get ready and go to work around 8. Do a soul crushing days worth of work doing something I couldn't care less about. Come home, eat an unhealthy microwave meal while claiming it's only temporary, I'll start eating healthy and working out regularly. Eventually. Just not tonight.  

Tonight I'll do what I do every night. I'll turn on my tower, slide my chair an unsafe distance close to the screen(I already wear glasses, If I keep this up for much longer I'll have to upgrade my prescription), pop off my prosthetic leg, and relax in the glow of a video based website. 

Truly, Youtube is a godsend. Through its providence I have had many a night where boredom has been staved off through copious amounts of man made film and animation. I may be a bit of an anime nut, but that doesn't mean I didn't branch out and enjoy other venues. 

One other such thing I enjoy doing is creating super heroes. 

I've never been a very active individual. I have no excuse, I've seen and heard tales of people worse off than me doing things that would blow your mind. Guys in wheelchairs playing basketball. A guy with one leg cutting a jig on a DDR platform. A man with no arms, functioning and leading a relatively normal life, on his own, without outside assistance. 

I honestly have no room to bitch. My leg was... damaged in a... 'car accident'... yeah, lets go with that, and replaced with a fake made of advanced rubber and plastic. If I had the drive I could probably actually make something out of myself. As is, I'm a lazy, directionless individual with no goal in life.

So I play pretend. There's this website, it has this hotlink thing that when you click on it, it'll send you to a random page on a particular wiki. A wiki containing every single cataloged super power, ability, so on and so forth. The point of it is, you pick out up to 5 random powers, and try to make a character with them. It's all for fun, and there's not really a system they give you to play with after you create someone. So I make up my own stories.

Can't think of a better way to waste my time. So I dialed up the site, hit the button for the first power, and the internet decided to flip me the bird.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Artificial_Limbs
The user possesses at least one artificial limb that has a variety of functions and enhancements. The parts can be technological, magical, or both. 



While there were plenty of superheroes with fake limbs, -heck, Cyborg barely had ANY real flesh left- this still felt like a slap in the face after a shitty day. Oh well, I could spin this as 'mechanical ears' or 'jet wings'. Needless to say, after my indignation had died down, I could work with this. If not, I could just re-roll. You're supposed to limit yourself to three re-rolls according to the site rules. I tried to follow them, so I didn't end up making a god each and every single time. Otherwise creating a character just wasn't very fun.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Physical_Nonexistence
The user discards their physical form, becoming intangible and undetectable. Their physical existence will be effectively erased so long as this power is active, rendering them intangible and imperceptible, lacking any scent, sound, visibility and any other traces of being there. Advanced users can control what physical attributes to discard while maintaining an existential form to interact with others.


Lame. I never really like non corporeal powers. Guess I was always just more into the physical side of things. I'd definitely re-roll that one, unless something worse came along.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Powerful_Objects
Some immensely strong and powerful Objects in fictional universes (such as the DC, Marvel, W.I.T.C.H) can grant numerous superpowers to the wielder. Some of these objects are sentient and have a mind and will of their own and can even take full possession of their host's mind and body if the host is in grave danger, or when the host is angered or enraged. These sentient artifacts/objects can even speak through their host when it takes full control over the host's body and mind. The voice of the object depends upon the sex of its chosen host. For example: if the host is female than the voice of the artifact is female, same goes for male. The voice of the artifact is much deeper than its host and even alters his or her personality. Most items are accompanied by Powers Via Object. 


Okay...That could potentially work quite well with the synthetic limb thing. Maybe spin it so it was like that one version of Thor, where the guy found the stick and that's what turned him into Thor...I digress. Make the synthetic limb an object of power, check.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Air_Imprisonment
The user can bind, imprison and/or otherwise stop object/being by surrounding them completely by using air/wind.


Eeeehhnnnnn. That didn't sound very cool at all. Maybe it had some sort of application, but I definitely was going to re-roll that one.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Powered_Form
In some cases the user is a normal human or normal for their species until they activate this power. The user may gain a new costume or may have their body completely change into a new form. Unlike a secret identity, the user loses their powers while outside of this form, and unlike a Super Form the user is not increasing their power, but gaining it. Some users may have powers out side of their Powered Form that's different from their true powers. 


Ooooh, that was a good one...added to the Thor scenario though...might have to re-roll it. Nah, I'd keep that one. Maybe make some sort of Super Sentai or something.

So that was my five. Checking it over, I was pretty satisfied with my selection, save for the non body one and the air prison. Those just didn't fit. I discarded them (closed the tabs more like, but 'discard' just sounds so much cooler than simply clicking daintily on a computer mouse) and clicked on the powers link. What I got was...interesting to say the least.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Multiple_Forms
Users of this power have the ability to shift into numerous forms, allowing them to unlock new levels of strength or entirely different sets of powers.


Bah, it was simply another version of powered form... I knew I should have re rolled it. Oh well, not having an overpowered character would make it that more interesting. I clicked on the powers button one last time, and got a doozy.



http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Absorption
The user can steal powers from others, usually this is temporary and the victims naturally regain their lost power, but some users may be able to steal powers permanently.


This...oh my gosh this changed everything. 

The ability to change to a powered up form, a synthetic limb, and the ability to absorb powers. This was...this described...

"It's freaking Megaman!" I shouted, leaning back in my chair. It all fit. Well. Kinda. The power form would make this a ZX type Megaman. But other than that, robot canon arm, Megaman power stealing, it all fit too dang perfectly.

"Indeed it does, doesn't it?" asked an oily voice behind me.

I whipped my chair around in a panic. How did someone get into my apartment? I locked the door! When I managed to wrestle my chair around, I was met with an odd sight. It was Discord, from My Little Pony. The new show not the old tripe. It was an okay series, it certainly didn't garner all the hate it had been getting for it's new-found fanbase. A certain character from the show was Discord. Voiced by John Delancie, AKA freaking Q from Star Trek. He looked... almost exactly like his cartoon self, same shades, textures and dimensions, just...3D. But not in a way that made it look horrible... like most variations of 2D to 3D designs somehow manged to do.

"I...Uh...how?" For all I knew, I could be having some sort of dream, having fallen asleep at the computer. I instantly threw that idea out the window though, with how the chair fabric was pinching at my leg after my wild turn.

"Quite simple. I am a god of Chaos."

I waited for a couple seconds, but he didn't seem to feel like elaborating. Just kept floating above my floor, grinning at me madly.

"Why-"

"I became aware of a certain fellow," he interrupted me, flinging a claw out to embellish his words, "who looked like he was having so much fun! Going around, giving humans powers and abilities, and then sending them to alternate versions of my world. And to think, he was creating such delicious chaos, and he didn't even bother to invite me. What a jerk," he huffed, crossing his arms and pouting.

"You mean... the merchant?" I asked, wincing as Discord drew up close and let out a 'hmmmmmm'. 

"The Merchant? You mean he has a title? And such a boring, uninspired one at that...How do you know of this though, human?"

"I... read on Fimfiction some times..." I trailed off. I didn't exactly know what Discord knew of MLPFIM, or even what I should be telling him regarding that. If he learned about Gilgamesh...wait, so did that mean Gilgamesh and all the other 'people' that were made up were actually real? Supposedly made up, I guess now. If the appearance of a certain cartoon character was anything to go by. I'm actually surprised I'm taking this so well...odd.

"Oh yes, the internet! such a delightfully chaotic innovation!"

He started going on about how the internet started out, and why it was such a crucial part in humanities evolution. I wasn't paying that good of attention.

"Why me?" I could only assume he intended to 'fictional story gary stu' me, but why me? Over 7 billion people on the planet and he chooses me?

"Meh." He flatly replied before snapping a claw at me.

~----------------------------------------------------~

I woke up leaning against a building, the bright sunlight glaring in my eyes. I raised an arm to shade my eyes, and was hit by an unwelcome realization. The limb that had been placed between my sight and the piercing harshness of daylight, was not an arm. It was a hair covered leg.

God damnit. He couldn't just give me some powers? He had to warp my body into an unfamiliar form? Bah. I'd read too many fimfic's to be thrown too badly about this. I didn't feel like I was struggling to move my ar-...leg, and it seemed to have all the dexterity of my arm previous. Sans the fingers, of course. At least since I had a new body I wouldn't have to deal with a fake leg, I'd have to thank Discord for that at the very least.

I set my new leg back down and immediately rescinded my opinion. My back legs were suspended in some sort of wheeled harness, my leg no longer replaced by a fake, simply the stub hanging free. At least my left leg still was intact, and moving it around seemed to indicate it was perfectly fine.

"Enjoying the new threads?" Discord's oily voice asked me from behind. I'd assume he had an infatuation with surprising me, but that would just be an assumption.

Regarding his choice of words, it seems I actually WAS wearing an outfit of sorts. White pants, with a giant plume of a brown tail poking out a slit in the seat. A single blue boot covering almost the entirety of my left leg, with yellow trim covering the top and some sort of springy black material making up the bottom of the boot. I was wearing a shirt, blue and yellow trimmed like the boot, but with some sort of form fitting blackened stocking reaching down my front legs and up my neck. The 'shoes' on my front legs weren't as impressive all things considered, just these blue and yellow cups that looked like they could be slipped on and off with minor hassle.

"What did you do to my prosthetic?" Quick and to the point. The sooner I got straight to the point, the less chance Discord would have to twist things out of whack and lead me on a phrase driven wild goose chase.

"That musty old thing? Quite frankly, they just don't have something like that here, so I had to make some modifications. I hope you don't mind?~"

Quite frankly, I did. But far be for me to claim the title of 'stupidest individual on the planet' and start pitching a fit towards one of the strongest beings in the universe. As a certain iteration of the Jade Giant said, 'the best way to annoy a prankster is to ignore them'.

"Not at all. Not in the slightest. Thanks for the fancy wheelchair. So whats the deal here, am I in Ponyville, am I going to have to befriend the elements of harmony and fight a big bad monster that you conjure up every other week or something?" Honestly it wouldn't surprise me. But what he did next, did surprise me, slightly.

He let out a whooping laugh, before magicking a water bottle out of nowhere and sucking it all up into one eye. Plastic bottle and all. I didn't have enough time to read the label, but I bet it read 'tear'. Wouldn't put it past him.

"Oh no no no no! I wouldn't do that to my new, bestest friend ever! I gave you a bit of a background, so to speak. You work at the Equestrian Post Service, Ponyville branch. You're already good friends with one of the elements -where else did you think you acquired such a sensational outfit?- and I don't need to be sending monsters, this is Ponyville," he declared with two outstretched limbs flung outward. His head and his left leg, if you were wondering. "They literally have the worst luck when it comes to disturbances around here. So you see, I'm actually doing my part to help out around here, in my own little way."

Jerk. Could fix everything with a snap of his claws, but everything has to be some form of entertainment for him. Reminds me of my boss.

"Allright then...so was I doing something before you zapped me here, or do I just start tomorrow or something?" A little bit of forewarning would be nice.

At this, he got a little bashful look on his face, and I knew something was up. Didn't know what, but it definitely was something, the way he was scuffing at the ground with his previously outstretched leg.

"I...uhh...got kinda bored waiting for you to wake up. So I started without you. Beat up a timberwolf, broke a building, got into a fight with a certain captain of the guard... so you got Shining Bubble now, congrats, tata!"

And with that he winked out of sight. Like, he winked one eye, and then the rest of his body spiraled into nothingness, right into his eye until there was nothing left, simply vanished.

And with that, I came face to face with a group of irate ponies, running around the corner of the building. 

Seven guards, the aforementioned captain of the guard (Shining Armor, Twilights brother), Twilight herself, and a random background pony I didn't recognize.

"...Hello there...what seems to be the problem?" 

What. You try to think up a better icebreaker.





> 2- Settling In
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What seems to be the problem?"

Not my finest opener, I will admit. You try thinking up better on such short notice.

My awkward opener didn't seem to stop a certain purple tinged unicorn (So I was before Magical Mystery Cure. That's good to know.) from closing the distance and engaging in conversation.

"Aren't you Rarity's friend, Rock Light? Did you happen to see a pony wearing strange armor come this way?  He's extremely dangerous, he has some sort of energy canon on his foreleg, and he attacked my brother!"

Well. Rock Light. Rock I assume from the original name of Rockman(changed to Megaman on localization outside of Japan), and Light from Doctor Light, Megaman's creator. Quite clever for such a sporadic fellow like Discord.

"Can't say I have, honestly. Do you happen to have a better description, say, a coat color or cutiemark?" I was stalling for time, but they obviously didn't recognize me as the 'one who attacked her brother'. So maybe I could figure out the extent of what they knew.

She took a second to think on my question, "No, he was wearing some sort of flexible grey armor that covered up his cutie mark, and his helmet had a visor which covered most of his face."

"His coat was the same color as your friend here Twily. I got a good look while I was fighting him." Armor stated, stepping forward. I had a brief moment of panic, but the fact that he wasn't outright accusing me was a good sign.  Seems being a handicapped gimp turned out in my favor.

"I hope that doesn't make me a suspect, captain?" I said sarcastically, showing a slight grin at his sudden red faced expression. "He doesn't deal with a lot of handicapped individuals, does he?" I whisper shouted past a raised forelimb to the rest of the guards. I managed to get a few choked giggles. It was always a fun time seeing people fall over themselves trying not to say or do something that would be insensitive to a cripple. The only thing better is putting a big mouthed friend in the middle of a bunch of black guys. They immediately go quiet, and act all polite.

"No, no sir. While this individual is an earth pony like yourself, with your coat color, he had...all of his legs..." He trailed off, his voice growing quiet at the end. 

I decided to test the waters, see what type of technology was available in Equestria. "Couldn't I possibly have some sort of...magical prosthetic limb? To make it look like I had all my legs and move around as such?" I waited a few seconds, and was rewarded by a round of laughter. 

"If there really was such a medical breakthrough, wouldn't you already be using it?" asked Twilight, the tension she had worn as she first ran around the corner visibly gone.

"Oh, you never know, I could be gallivanting around as some sort of wannabe superhero, and this could just be my mild mannered secret identity," I teased, waggling my eyebrows at the nameless pony that had yet to be introduced. I managed to get another round of restrained laughter. 

"Right, and I'm an alicorn, " Twilight joked right beck. If only you knew Twilight, if I was right about the time frame, then this was some time right after they got Discord to reform, so this was only a few episodes before she gets her wings.

"Well try to stay safe. Just inform a guard if you see anything, allright Rock?" Twilight asked, sweeping past me with the rest of the group.

Well that was something. At least Discord hadn't been cruel enough to flop me down in the middle of this with false charges. That being said, I really had no idea what to do.

Maybe I should explore? With some inspection, It seems I had some bits in a pocket, so maybe I could get something to eat. I walked through the town, greeting those I came across. Most were background ponies I'd seen on the show, but a couple were recognizable. Cheerilee and Applejack, specifically. All that I greeted referred to me as 'Rock', or 'Mister Light'. So it seems I was well known, in some capacity. Apparently I worked at the post office, so maybe I was a mailman?

I found myself back at the market square, buying a couple apples from...Carrot Top. I kid. Of course it was Applejack selling apples. Apparently I was a repeat customer, because she gave me a discount. It was slightly disconcerting to know Discord had basically brainwashed the entirety of Ponyville into believing a lie.

It was once I was finished with my second apple that I became aware of someone trying to get my attention. Not somepony, but someone. 

"Ashe? C'mon Ashe, I'm stuck in here, lemme out!"

It was a petulant, slightly female voice. I immediately recognized it from the second ZX game, this was definitely biometal Model A.

~-----------------------~

"So... this guy Discord, he decided to have a laugh and send you and me here?"

"Yes." I explained to the hovering chunk of metal encapsulating the consciousness known as Model A. Originally made by Master Albert, she lost her memory and became good, eventually working with Ashe(or Grey, depending on which character you chose at the beginning of the game,) to stop an evil maniac using another type of biometal, biometal model W. Well that's the bare-bones explanation anyway. Seeing as I'm pretty sure all the other fimfic stories are of real people now, I can assume this is being read by someone or something. Just go read up on it on wikipedia or something, you peeping tom.

"And...we aren't tracking him down and punching him in the face, why?" 

"Because he can literally reshape reality as he see's fit. Punching and shooting him isn't going to work. We'll have to play his game till he gets bored, allright?" It was the best solution I could come up with. Not like I could force him to send me back. And to top it off, now I had to look after this temperamental little floating hunk of metal as well.

"...fine. But I wanna smack him upside the head, at least once. Okay?"

"You have my blessing. Give him one from me as well, would you?" I snarked, grabbing her out of the air and stuffing her back in my wheelchair pocket thingy. She gave a couple protests, but I didn't know if people...ponies around here 'knew' about her like they did about me. Might prove disastrous if they didn't. "Look, we don't want to start a panic, so just try to stay quiet, I have to assume I have a place or something so you can float about to your leisure once we get 'home'." 

Regardless of my wondering, my wandering turned up nothing. This town was confusing to get around, and I had no idea where my supposed abode might be.

I found solace in the appearance of a pegasus flying overhead. And promptly crashing into a wall, to slide down with a curiously cartoonish sound effect. You know who I'm talking about, our very own resident Derpy Hooves. Or Ditzy Doo. Whatever you wanna call her.

"Hey, you all right?" I asked, rolling up and reaching down to help her up. After she picked up her hat(it had gotten knocked off in the crash) she gave me a wide, goofy grin.

"Heya Rock, didn't see you there!" It was kinda weird to be called by a name that wasn't mine, but when in Rome, I guess.

"I'm sure the wall just got in the way. Hey, I know this is a bit weird," I swear I heard Model A say something about that being me in general from the confines of the wheelchair pocket, "Do you know where I live? I ran into Discord earlier, and I think he might have done something memory related. I have no idea where I live." Sounded safe enough to me, and I technically didn't lie. He did do something memory based. Just not to me. 

"That jerk. Just because he's now Fluttershy's friend, we're all supposed to put up with him? It isn't fair. All he does is prank ponies. Just the other day, he made a giant muffin appear on my front lawn, but when I tried to eat it it disappeared!" So she was muffin obsessed in this version of this world? I wonder what other characters had their own little traits as designed by internet nerds.

It was cute, though.

"Come on, I got one more delivery and I'm done for the day, it's right near where you live," she suppressed a giggle, and continued, "I was also wondering if you might be able to cover me for tomorrow? I gotta pick up something for Dinky in Cloudsdale, but I spaced and forgot to ask for tomorrow off..."

"Sure, I don't see why not." Actually, seeing as I had no idea where anyone lived, so I wouldn't be able to accurately deliver anything, I could see a lot of reasons why not.

"Thank you Rock!" and with this she led me to my 'home'. I apparently had my own house, right in the middle of a row of houses. It looked ridiculous from the outside, just as much as the rest of them. I had freaking hay as a roof, for goodness sakes.

Turns out the package Derpy/Ditzy ( I never did ask, and she never supplied it) had to deliver was to me. Hence her badly suppressed laughter. We said our goodbyes, and I rolled myself inside 'my' home. Opening my package, I was greeted to a sack full of gold, and a badly flickering old movie hologram of Discord.

"So, you made it home? Good, good, kinda forgot to tell you about that."

"Gee, really?" I muttered.

"Yes really, now pay attention. I'm not going to just give this to you on a silver platter, where would the fun of that be? Anyway. There's a bunch of weird things that have popped in ever since I brought over our adorable little friend here," he paused as Model A zipped back and forth, trying to smack into the little hologram version of Discord. He even did slo mo Matrix dodges. "So you have that to contend with. My bad. Sorry about that. Wish I could help with that, but I wouldn't want to step on your hooves. So yeah, that's that out of the way. Good luck Rockman Kenobi, you are their only hope!"

With that, he flickered and vanished again, as quickly as he came.

"What a jerk, can you believe that guy?" spouted the hovering wad of metal, having given up on her current attempt to smack some sense into our favorite being of chaos. "He probably meant that mavericks or other biometals from my world ended up here. Why doesn't he just zap us back, if he's so powerful, whys he gotta put all these innocent people in danger?"

I shrugged my shoulders, unhooking myself from my wheelchair thingy and reclining on 'my' couch. It was pretty comfy. "Some people are just bored. Some of those people are super powered gods. Not much one can do." I leaned my head back, and closed my eyes.

"Hey! Are you just gonna go to sleep? There's bad guys out there that need beating!" Model A belted out, zipping about my head.

"Look, I got turned into a pony and shot across to another dimension. On the tail end of working a double-shift. And here, it's only... 4, according to the clock on the wall. If it's accurate. So I'm tired. Would you honestly begrudge me a nap, seeing as I don't even know where to start looking for these aforementioned 'bad guys'? I don't even know how to fight, we'll have to put in some major practice megamerging off where no one can see us," I reasoned, closing my eyes again.

"Goodness gracious, this is going to be a long trip, isn't it?" she forlornly asked the rafters above our heads.

~--------------------------------------------------------------~

"She what?!!?" shouted the reedy looking pony behind the desk.

"She...asked me to cover for-"

"I heard what you said the first time, Light, it was a rhetorical question," She responded, settling back into her chair and resting her head on her hooves. "You do know she is a pegasus, right?"

"Ummm...yes?" I replied, shuffling on my hooves. I had managed to find the post office when I got up, even managed to change into the uniform with nary a problem. Well, the uniform didn't have pant's, so I just supplied my own, and hoped I wouldn't get asked to take them off.

"Wouldn't that mean that we give her a slightly different schedule and route, based on her innate abilities?"

Oh. I could see where this was going. Apparently she had a more difficult delivery route, and because I was just a helpless cripple, I couldn't possibly  be expected to be able to contribute as much.

"Sir, could I just give it a shot?"

"Light, I won't lie, this is going to be almost impossible for a pony of your...talents. But if you feel up to trying to bail Ditzy out of a pay cut for this latest stunt, you're welcome to. AFTER you finish your own route, got it?" She gave me a slight grin, the sardonic type you give someone when you think you know more than they do.

I might not have a clue as to what I was supposed to do. I might not have half a clue exactly what all Ditzy did. But I sure wasn't going to give this wrinkled old bird the satisfaction of seeing me fail. 

O.D.D.

Oppositional Defiance Disorder, you mean old crone. I was gonna hit this out of the park!

"Yes sir."

"And stop calling me sir. You've never called me that before, and I really don't like the sound of it. If you must call me something besides Mrs. Parcel, then just call me ma'am. Sir just sounds weird."

I nodded, and backed out the door to her office. Having everyone remember stuff about me was dangerous, if this interaction was anything to go by. Sooner or later I was going to say or do something that to them was totally out of character, and then I'd get accused of being a changeling or something. Make no mistake, I had no intention of hiding the entire time I was here. That NEVER worked. Discord said I was already good friends with one of the elements, and based on his comments that was either Rarity or Fluttershy. Most likely Rarity, but Fluttershy had shown some minor talent at sewing...ness. I couldn't really gauge the quality of the clothes all that well, so it could- Wait, what was I thinking? Discord may have simply hinted at it, but Twilight all but screamed it in my face!

I looked up, and noticed the door I had stopped in front of. It seems I had managed to hitch myself up to a little delivery cart/wagon/thing and find my way to a house with the same address as was on the package I had first picked up. Huh. To test a theory, I picked up a completely different package out of my cart, and almost immediately I felt my attention gravitate to the left. Picking up another resulted in a sort of magnetic pull to an entirely different direction.

So...Either the post service had some reaaaaaaaally good GPS, or Discord had actually managed to come through for me once again. Surprise, surprise. Well that was a load off my back, I didn't have to know where everyone lived, I could just follow the invisible pull. This was going to be a snap. Besides the having to walk everywhere thing, but that was kinda unavoidable. After having dropped off two more packages, I returned to my previous line of thought, confident in my level of autopilot.

So, Rarity was my 'good friend'. How good, though? Did we go to the spa, just hang out, was I simply a friend in the sense that I bought clothes from her, or was it much more serious in that I was actually in a relationship or something? I kinda wish I had pestered Discord for an owners manual, or at the very least a cliffsnotes dossier of my 'history'. 

So. Step one, after work find Rarity, give her the same line I gave Ditzy about Discord, and just explain that I don't really remember all that much about her. Hope that doesn't make her too sad, maybe even get her to talk to Fluttershy about getting Discord to play nicer with the ponvill...ians. Ponyvillites? Dang, how DID they refer to themselves? Doesn't matter.

Step two. Figure out where White Tail Woods is, and go there to practice megamerging with Model A. Wouldn't want to accidentally find myself in the Everfree, and have to actually fight right off the bat. Baby steps.

Step three. ????

Step four. ????

Step five. Profit!

Okay, so I skipped a few steps with a crappy meme. But I really had no idea how to fight, and I was probably going to have to learn, REALLY quick. Megaman games may have the happy go lucky (and frankly awesome) soundtracks, but it never truly hid the fact that Megaman was going around, killing people. He was fighting, to the death, with hundreds of flying baddies and finally a big bad boss every single stage. If every other lohav fimfic I've ever read has taught me anything, it's that shit is going to go down, whether you want it to or not.

I didn't want to kill anyone.

But I didn't want to die, either.

Fishing around in my cart, I realized something. I had delivered all the packages that had been assigned to me. It wasn't even noon yet, that couldn't have taken me more than an hour of walking back and forth! Man, my background Discord memory self must have played up on the cripple thing a LOT if this was all they were giving me on a daily basis. Or maybe he was just really slow.

Disregarding fictional memories of nonexistent people, I trotted back to the office, and made my way to the warden. And no, that isn't some sort of subtle in joke or something, that was what the name tag on the front of his jacket vest thing read.



The Warden



I don't know whether to laugh at this, or be terrified by it.

He was the one that had shown me the cart to take earlier, so I had to assume he was like the manager or something, kept people from taking the wrong packages or something. Something odd I hadn't noticed before, there were at least 20 different ponies milling about in here, all wearing similar uniforms to myself. Yet I hadn't seen a single one of them on 'my route'. Just seemed a little odd to me.

"Hey, Warden, I'm done with my route, I'm now supposed to take over Ditzys?" 

His eyes glared out over the clipboard he had been reading, a big bushy eyebrow creeping upward in an incredulous expression. 

"You're done? Already?" he grated out in a guttural tone. "Did I give you a half load today?" he turned his attention back to his clipboard, and flipped through a couple pages. "No, Stamped Parcel had you marked for a double load today...Well I don't see anything left in your cart, so unless I get complaints I guess you're done. I've marked Doo's load over there, the locker with her cutiemark magnet. If you need help loading up, just get somepony to help you with it. And Light?" he asked, giving me a critical look.

"Um, yes?"

"...you aren't eligible for a raise until you've been working here for two months. So if this is an attempt to make yourself look better for evaluation, just don't. Wouldn't want you to build up a reputation and then not be able to deliver." With this, he returned his attention once more to his clipboard, and walked away.

I found the locker, and loaded up. Unlike my previously pre loaded cart, I experienced disorientation with each thing I picked up, each one wanting me to go in a specific direction. Once I was done, I was left with a load nearly twice as big as my previous one. This might actually take me a while.

So what did that say about Ditzy's performance? I guess she was really good, to get saddled with such a large load.

It took me longer than it had previously, the different packages leading me across town and back due to how unorganized I had thrown all the packages in my cart. I had no one to blame but myself. All the while, Model A kept on griping and mumbling when she thought I wouldn't be able to hear her. Mostly about how cramped her little pocket was. But soon enough, when the sun had passed it's highest point and started coming back down again, I was done. I returned the cart (much to a flabbergasted Warden's amazement), and headed out to the east of town. 

I hadn't been ambling around completely on autopilot, I had asked around a bit, too. I found out where White Tail Woods was, so I wanted to go there, get some practice in, before returning to town and trying to piece my current status with Rarity together.

When I was certain I had gone far enough into the woods, I unzipped Model A's pocket (a bit mean, but she thwacked me in the noggin so I wanted to get even.) and let her out.

"Uggghhh! Finally! Feels like I've been stuck in that dark pocket for the entire day!" she crooned, zipping about wildly. "And not cool, zipping it closed. you do that again and I'm not talking to you, forever."

"Sorry. But you almost got us found out. You can't just come out whenever you want, Whatever Discord did before we got here has Twilight, one of the lands leading bearers of a powerful magical energy source known as the elements of Harmony hot on our trail with vengeance in her heart. I may be exaggerating, but I'd rather get settled before we get outed."

"...how do you know so much about this place? Have you been here before?" she asked, coming to a stop a few inches in front of my face.

"No. In the simplest answer, This world, Equestria, is fictional in my world. As is yours, which is how I know of you, Ashe and Grey."

"Grey who?" she asked, tilting her body slightly to the side.

Well the was interesting. In the game, depending on who you picked, they would both find it on the train, while the train was being attacked.And then the other character would never appear in the game. Did that mean that Grey literally didn't exist in this version of Model A's world, or that he was still stuck in his cryogenic tube thing, waiting to be woken up? Hopefully it was just the first one.

"Never mind. If you don't know Grey, he might not exist in your world."

"...You say some really weird things sometimes... whatever. Are we going to do this or what? Hurry up and yell out 'Megamerge', as loud as you can!" she exclaimed, floating slightly above me.

"I know how to do it, I just hope it'll work..." I muttered, squaring my three legs, before bringing my right foreleg upward to reach for Model A.

"Megamerge!"

~--------------------------------------------------------------------~

"That'll be -NFGH- two bits." Pinkie Pie said to the young colt across the counter, simply smiling at his confusion as to her mid-sentence outburst. The colt took his bag of sweetbread after plonking two bits on the counter, and walked out of SugarCube Corner, slightly confused but looking forward to his sweet treat.

"Pinkie?...Dear? Are you feeling alright?" a slightly concerned Mr. Cake ventured, restocking a shelf behind the counter.

" What? Oh, sorry mister Cake. I've just been having a REALLY weird feeling all day. Its like I want..." she lowered her voice, leaning in close before whispering, "-to throw a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party."

Mr Cake was understandably confused, how exactly was this an 'odd' feeling for Pinkie Pie, -Party Pony Extraordinaire- to be feeling?

"The thing is, I've already thrown him a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party! I set it up myself, I surprised him real good, and he even had lots of fun! You remember him, right?"she asked, looking to Mr. Cake with hopeful eyes.

"Pinkie, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be a bit more specific..."

"Oh! Right! Rock Light, he got here about a month and a half ago, he only has three legs...well, I guess he does have all four legs but one of them doesn't go far down enough to get a hoof, anyway! I made him a candy wheelchair, and he actually went home with it, and then he got an ant infestation and Fluttershy had to get them to give up on making a nest in his house? Remember him?"

"Oh, Mr. Light, yeah, he was just in here the other day, you just missed him-"

"I know! and it 'feels' like I missed giving him a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party too! But I know I didn't! And my Pinkie Sense says I did! So it just keeps prodding at me and prodding at me and it WONT STOP!" She exclaimed, holding Mr. Cakes shoulders and shouting the end of her sentence dramatically before turning back to the counter. "That's a cranberry muffin? That'll be one bit, thank you very much have a wonderful day!" she chirped, before returning her attention to an unwilling Mr. Cake.

"I just don't know what to do!"

Mr. Cake thought long and hard. Pinkie Pie had always been eccentric, but this was the first he ever heard of her feeling the need to throw a welcome party twice for the same pony. "Have you thought about just throwing him another party, just to see if the feeling goes away?"

Pinkie Pie gave him an over the top abashed look, "Why Mistah Cake! You wound me so! To abuse the sanctity of a party? How could you!" she turned once more back to the counter, and took the money for the purchase of an ironically pink pie. "All joking aside, that doesn't sound like that bad of an idea, I could just call it... a 'How ya doing since you got to Ponyville!' And then I could invite all the other ponies who have moved her over the past year, and it could be a super duper big party! Mr. Cake, you're brilliant I have to go can I go early today?"

"Sure thing Pinkie, but only if you take a double shift tomorrow, you know it's going to be busy once everypony gets wind of you planning a party."

"Will do C.K. Dizzle!" Pinkie Pie chirped, shedding her apron and leaping over the counter in one fluid movement.

She had a PARTY to plan!

~----------------------------------------------------------~

White Tail Woods is supposed to be relatively safe, with a subdued wildlife that DOESN'T want to kill you.

Supposed to.

Someone forgot to tell the Woods that.

"Just shoot them!" Model A shouted, her voice coming from...somewhere. I wasn't really sure where. 

"I already shot one of them, it just grew back!" I shouted back at the irate biometal.

Megamerging itself had gone off with only a slight hitch. I was transformed predictably into a ponified version of the blue bomber. That in itself was the problem. Model A should have given me a completely different loadout, but I ended up looking like megaman Model X from the start of the first ZX game. Would've been cool to have two arm guns. Oh well.

It was after that that I managed to somehow piss off a group of vine blob things. And by somehow, I mean I shot a tree, and then they started chasing us. Shooting one right in the middle of it's mass didn't seem to do anything, other than pissing it off more. I guess it didn't really grow back, it just didn't do anything right off the bat.

"Then shoot it again!" she yelled back at me.

"Fine! Come get some, you piss poor excuse for a ficus!" I yelled, spinning around on my back hooves(the megamerge gave me back my legs, I was going to have a hard time willingly turning back) and firing my arm...leg at the foremost vine creature. It didn't do anything, so I unloaded about 4 more shots into it in a panic, realizing I overspun and was probably going down.

It exploded, causing the other four to back off and regroup, giving me time to pry myself off the ground and look at what the hell I had just shot. It was a machine of some sort, with several tentacles coming out of it's main body and wrapping around to protect itself. I don't know why I was so surprised, obviously I was going to be fighting machines of some sort eventually.

With a low chittering sound, the other four vinebots clicked back and forth at each other, before turning tail and 'slithering' away at a fairly high speed.

"After them!" barked Model A.

"What? I almost got killed by ONE of them, and you want me to follow them back into a trap?"

"They're getting away, we have to figure out where they came from so we can come up with a plan! Otherwise, we'll just be wandering around out here trying to find them again next time and we'll be in the same situation!"

"Why is that a bad thing?"

"Do you want someone else getting jumped by those plant things? If not quit whining and get to it! We fight so others won't have to!" She spouted.

"Guh, fine. But for the record," I started, chasing the faint sounds of rustling branches, "I think this is a terrible idea."

"Oh come on, you already destroyed one of them, how hard could it be doing the same thing to a few more?"

"That's another thing, how come the gun is so weak? Usual case is, you shoot something, it dies. how come this thing takes five shots to kill one thing?"

Model A gave a low huff, "I don't know, I'm not usually this weak, but your friend Discord changed the megamerge, this is supposed to be much stronger..."

I cleared a trees and came out onto a clearing. I almost wasn't aware of this, seeing as a massive wall of green took up my immediate vision. It curved off to the right and left, and disappeared far over head, farther than I could make out.

"Is this a freaking plant tower? How the hell did we not notice this from town? We haven't gone that far in..." We DEFINITELY should have been able to see this massive thing before we entered the forest. There was no way this thing was physically possible.

"Shhh! Look there!" Model A hissed, not pointing at anything due to how we were merged. "Turn your head, no, to the left, there! Back a little, there! There's an opening!"

I stood there in shocked silence for a few seconds. "You want me to go inside that thing?"

"Duh! How else are we going to put a stop to it?"

"Should we even? We don't know if this isn't just some eccentric plant mages house..." I weakly supplied.

"Right, and I suppose these harmless plant mages have mavericks running about with all the plant themed doombots. This is something fishy, we need to get to the bottom of it!"

"We already technically are at the bottom of it. Does that mean I can go now?"

"You know what I mean! Go on, get in there, blast some stuff up!" 

I grumbled a bit, then resolved myself to my fate. Fine.

"If we see a hentai tentacle monster machine, I tell you now, I am going to be running like hell from it. No If's And's or But's."

~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

Zantedeschia couldn't believe how well things were going. It had all seemed so far fetched when he came upon this wood the week previous, so undefined. 

Until he had found the precious, and the precious had accepted him as it's bearer, everything was dull, and colorless. Zantedeschia couldn't believe he actually considered what he had been doing before living. How could he have been so blind? He had actually been traveling to go visit one of his relatives, a mare named Zecora who lived in a far off town called Ponyville.

How foolish. He, Zantedeschia, lord and master of all plants, stooping to relying on social ties with familial members? How ridiculous! He would grow his hybrids of machine and plant, and slowly but surely he would show them all. All the ponies of this world that dared to misuse or abuse the land, all those that tried to destroy the beauty of the wild, he would punish them all.

Every last one.

Memories of a foal flitting about a meadow, recklessly crushing grass and flower underhoof filled his mind. How could he have been so foolish? He watched her destroy the land around her, and he just stood there and marveled at how happy she was! He should have crushed her head like she crushed the plants underneath her careless hooves, and let her body become food for that which she destroyed.

Soon, soon he would have it ready. Then they would all suffer at the cusp of that which they ignored, the might of the plant would be shown!

It was at this point an annoyance decided to visit upon him.

Zantedeschia, in the first days before he had truly begun to see the full wisdom of the precious, had had the stupidity to have the tower built with stairs. A lingering fondness for the weakness he had left behind, he supposed. Unneeded with his current form, of course. And utilized by the arrogance interlopers that now stood before him.

"Dude, haven't you heard of this wonderful thing called Elevators?"

"Megaman, that guy has a chunk of Model W stuck in his neck, you gotta destroy it!"

He couldn't see the bearer of the female voice, but it originated from the same position as the blue shelled one before him. Model W? Could they possibly be talking about the precious?

And they had the nerve to think they could destroy it?

Fools.

With but a thought, vines lashed out from the floor, and threw the annoyance out an open window.

Zantedeschia turned back to his work. Nothing could destroy the precious. Nothing would postpone his almighty vengeance.

In the end, all an annoyance was, was simply that.

~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

"Are we alive?" Model A asked, as I hyperventilated from my suspended position.

That zebra asshole had flicked his tail, and suddenly I was falling out of the top of a million foot tower. I didn't have a lot of options, so I had tried the only thing I hadn't so far. I shot downward, ahead of our descent, all the while shouting 'Shining Bubble'. 

It actually worked. It formed a pink bubble around us, and when we initially hit the ground, we bounced and flew into a tree. Somehow. So there I was, my leg caught in a tree branch, my armor having shifted from yellow blue to white blue, but I was alive.

"Give me a minute, I'll tell you then."

"Oh, good. Well that didn't work. How are you supposed to destroy that chunk of Model W if the tower itself just throws us out?" she mused.

I was sore. I was upside down, hanging from a tree. But I let out a small grin as an idea came to mind.

"Simple. The megaman way didn't work. It's time to do it the human way."

"The human way? What way is that?" she asked.

I gave my biggest grin yet, as I loosed my leg from the branch and fell to the ground in a low crouch.

"We cheat."
> 3- Close Calls with a Thin Disguise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't often a stallion came in and bought an entire four QUARTS of hoof polish. And especially one with less than four hooves to put it on. Morning Glory couldn't quite fathom why he had bought it, nor was he willing to say, leaving her with a cryptic 'you might see, or you might not.'

Why did stallions have to be so weird at times?

"Hey Glory!" came from across the counter. Looking past her raised magazine (surprisingly few customers per day led to boredom very easily...still, it was enough to get by on) Morning Glory came face to face with one of the most recognized faces in Ponyville.

"Hey Pinkie, you here for your Sarsaparilla Pink? It isn't in yet, but it should be here by tomorrow..."

"Yeah, I know, I have it on my calender, but that's not why I'm here, Brushed Palette said she saw Rock Light come in here?"

"Stallion with the wheelchair legs? Yeah, he was in here, but you just missed him by a few minutes."

"Shoot!" Pinkie exclaimed, scuffing at the floor. "Do you happen to know where he went? I kinda need to give him his invitation to the  "Hows your Stay in Ponyville Going?' party. You're invited too, of course!" she trailed off on a giggle, passing a bright pink envelope across the counter. " Do you know why he was in here, by the way? Was he getting something for a fillyfriend? If he has a special somepony, I didn't know, and I'd hate to mess up the seating by sending his mare off to an entirely different table..."

"Fillyfriend? I dunno, honestly. He came in here, pulled out a sack of bits and bought four whole quarts of hoofpolish."

"Four quarts? Really? That's more than even Rarity would get...What could he possibly be using that for?"

"If it's any consolation, I saw him heading off to the right of the store after he left..."

"Oh! Thanks Glory, have a nice day!" Pinkie chirped, exiting the store and heading off to the right.

Pinkie Pie was throwing a party? It wasn't that big of surprise. It was sure to be a fun time, though.

~----------------------------------------------------------~

That was a good sale. It wasn't often somepony bought that particular item, something about the texture off-put ponies something fierce. 

"Hey! Mister Top Coat!"

"Hmmm? Oh, if it isn't another customer, and such a pretty one to boot my little Pinkie Pie~" Top Coat was honestly too old to be flirting in such a manner, and he knew it, Didn't change the fact that a smiling, giggling young mare was a welcome sight, indeed.

"Hiya! Hey, I was wondering if somepony in particular came in here recently? He's Rock Light, his back legs are in a wheelchair rig?"

"Oh yes! Quite an odd duck, that. Bought up a whole load of rust powder.  Don't get a lot of sale on that. We sell it most for the texture, but most folk don't like it all that much. Most times they just mix it up with their actual paint, but he didn't get so much as an ounce of primer." That in itself was particularly odd, he must already have a supply of paint. For what other purpose would he buy such a thing?

"Rust powder? What in Equestria could he be using that for?" Indeed, quite. "Anyway, do you have any idea where he went? I have to give him an invitation, and here's yours too!" With that, she slid a pink envelope across the counter. Top Coat put it in a bin under the counter, then scrunched up his brow in concentration. What had the little runt asked him?

"Oh yes, he asked me where one might go to buy fireworks of some sort. I sent him over to Skyflower's stall. If you hurry, you might be able to catch him."

"Thanks Mister Coat, see you at the party!" And with the tinkling of the bell above the door, the pink pony was gone.

~----------------------------------------------~

"Skyflower! Pony! Rock Light! Wheel legs! Was he here?"

Skyflower gave a start at the sudden appearance of the pink party pony standing in front of her stall.

"Uhm. You mean the stallion wearing the pants and shirt? Yeah, he was just here. Bought my entire stock of sparklers and fuse line. Only things he bought, didn't want any of my better stuff. His loss," she ended with a huff. He did buy a lot, so she couldn't be mad about that...

"Sparklers? Hoof polish, rust powder, and sparklers... is he..." Pinkie Pie suddenly let out a roaring gasp. "He's planning a counter party! I knew it! He's gonna throw a party to combat my own! So devious, how did he even know about the party so soon? I'll have to step up my game and blow his counter party out of the water!" Pinkie pie stated, rearing up on two hooves. "Or maybe we could combine them, and have a super awesome major mega party!"

"You gonna buy some more black powder? By my account, you should be running low..."

"Oh, you're right! I'll take a barrel!"

"Pleasure doing business with you Pinkie."

~------------------------------------------------------~

I suppressed a shiver as I left the Toy Shack and Mothball Barn. Don't ask, there were more than a couple odd store names around here. 

"Whats eating you?" Model A whispered out of her pocket. 

"Dunno. Just got a shiver down my spine, like someone walked over my grave," I whispered back.

"Whatever. Are you done with your shopping trip yet? If we don't hurry up and do something that guy's gonna do something awful, I just know it!"

Model A quit her grumbling as I finally got back to my house, unloading my haul and preparing a few buckets to begin the mixture.

"So, cheating involves all this random junk how? None of this stuff is gonna help us stop that guy, you've just wasted our time!"

I gave a low snort as I worked to crack open my latest acquisition.

"Model A, you wouldn't happen to know what happens when we make a mixture of powdered rust, and...rrrggggggh," I cracked a smile as the case on one of the thirty Etch a Sketch's I bought finally opened, "And aluminum powder?"

"Can't say I do. What, are we gonna decorate that chunk of Model W into submission?"

"Nope. We're gonna use his weakness against him," I said cryptically.

"His weakness is tacky glitter mixture?" she snarked back at me.

"You'll see."

~--------------------------------------------------~

Zantedeschia slid back on a wave of viny protrusions. He was finally done. He had done as the precious asked, building the perfect alter for it. It was glorious, all sleek edges with leafy finishes. It was perfect. There could be nothing less for the precious. All that was left was to put the precious in the alter.

As the precious left it's place from around his neck, Zantedeschia was hit by a wave of disorientation. What was he doing? Where was he, for that matter?

He had been... Oh no, that thing...it had latched onto his neck while he was traveling through the forest, whispered things, promised him things...

What had he done? He had built something for it! It told him to build it, the... Zantedeschia stopped, a powerful smell hitting his nostrils. strong, acrid, artificial...hoof polish and...smoke?

Looking toward the doorway connecting to the stairway, Zantedeschia saw a figure standing there, a pony illuminated from behind by flickering flames.

 The tower was on fire.

Zantedeschia knew then, in glorious certainty. He was going to die. If the stairway was aflame, that meant the lower levels of the tower were as well. As tall as the tower was it would be impossible to scale the outside, even if one weren't worried of the flames.

"Does he look different to you?" Asked the pony, his body covered in a thin blue/yellow/white set of armor. Zantedeschia couldn't see anypony else with him, and why would he willing drag another pony into this death trap? Perhaps he was simply a bit loopy from the smoke.

"He doesn't have the Model W in him any more!" replied a female voice from the same location as the stallion. Perhaps it was Zantedeschia himself that was getting loopy from the smoke. A lingering memory sparked, wasn't that the same voice that had called the pre- that disgusting thing Model W before? Why, why did thinking hurt so much?

With but a light gasp, Zantedeschia fell into a dead faint. 

~------------------------------------------------------------~

The zebra tipped over, slumping onto the floor.

"So... does that mean I win?" I asked.

It had taken a while, carting the foul smelling gloop to the tower. Even longer, painting it one the various walls up the stairway, all along the outside. To an extent. Maybe I should have added in some glue. Tying the fuze to the line of sparklers all the way up the stairway had been relatively easy, and all it took to light the fuse was a a single buster shot. Thank goodness nail polish is so flammable. 

You wanna know what you get when you mix powdered rust and aluminum powder? An extremely hot burning chemical reaction called thermite  . They use this shit to burn and melt metal in forges. It didn't matter that all the stuff the tower was made from was green, make the flame hot enough, and even the ground will burn.

"You idiot! That poor sap built it a body, we gotta get outta here!"

"And your suggestions for that that are? We sure aren't getting back down that stairway..." Maybe I should have thought this through better. Given myself an exit strategy.

"Just go out the way you did last time!"

So she wanted me to jump out the window. Again. Well not quite again seeing as I didn't willingly exit it the first time, but you know what I mean.

"Fine," I muttered, grabbing the limp body  of the zebra and leaping out of the burning tower.

~-----------------------------------------~
"Twilight! Ya gotta come quick!" came the rushed tones from a particular multihued pegasus.

Twilight raised her attention from the half written letter in front of her, gazing with tired eyes of one having spent the entire night awake. There hadn't been hide nor hair of the mysterious armored pony after he had run off, so the frustration of her failure had driven her to try to compensate. Taking over the finance and property forms for replacing the building the newcomer had destroyed, was one of the ways she had found to help. It wasn't all that difficult. It was simply really boring, and time consuming.

"Rainbow Dash?" she choked out past a yawn. "Whats up? Did Pinkie accidentally turn her tail into a snake again? Somehow?" It was a valid concern. She kept on doing it, and nopony knew how she was doing it, including Pinkie herself.

"What? No! White Tail Woods is on fire!"

Twilight blearily stared at her hovering friend for a few seconds before responding.

"By fire, you mean-"

"THERE IS A GIANT PILLAR OF FIRE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST, TWILIGHT." Rainbow Dash stated with as much ferocity as she could without yelling, before dragging Twilight to a nearby window.

Looking outside, Twilight was greeted by a harsh source of light that tried with all of it's might to drown out the gaze of the sun. Indeed, a tremendous pillar of hungry flame reaching from the treetops and ever skyward. It was noticeably far away, which made the brightness of the flames and the width of the pillar quite worrying.

Twilight wiped the sleep from her eyes, turning to her loyal friend, "Rainbow Dash, go gather the others and tell them to meet us out there. After that, gather every pegasus you can find and see what you can do about that fire, I'll gather the guard and we'll meet you there."

"On it!" Rainbow Dash stated, a hoof raised to her brow in a salute before flying out the window.

Twilight gave a quick look back to the raging fire before turning to leave with a huff.

~-----------------------------------------~

"Hey."

"Hey, hey Ammy?"

"Aaaaaammy,"

"What?" Amethyst replied, looking up from her desk at the pegasus with a muted yellow coat, and a red tinted mane and tail.

"The forest is on fire." She stated glibly, gesturing towards an open window.

Amethyst gave a low sigh, pushing her fedora back on her head as she got up to look at whatever her friend Ember had decided needed her attention. It had been a slow month, with nary a single job to line their pockets. Amethyst had been forced to take a part time job at the quills and sofa store, to pay for the office and other expenses. Why couldn't ponies bring them some mysteries to solve? 

Upon reaching the window, Amethyst was greeted by an odd sight. Huh, the forest is on fire.

Amethyst turned and gave her companion a cold look.

"What? I didn't do it, I swear!" she claimed, splaying her ears in indignation.

Amethyst turned back to the blaze in the distance, silently cranking though some mental calculations.

"Distance... the curve of the flames...Hey Ember?"

"Yeah Ammy?"

"I don't recall ever seeing a tower reaching about the height of two hundred and thirty seven town hall's coming out of the middle of White Tail Woods, do you?" Amethyst asked with a tilt of her head.

"No, there's never been anything out there taller than the trees themselves," Ember replied.

Odd. So somepony had been trying to hide a giant tower? Before somepony set it on fire, of course. That's not all that energy efficient, especially for a structure going straight up. How did they manage to hide the tower from sight, as well as making it so a random pegasus didn't fly into the side of it? It had to be a unicorn, but nopony in the area fit the profile. Twilight Sparkle, maybe. She certainly had the magic punch needed to hide the tower, although the aesthetic of a giant tower didn't really fit her personality. She willingly lived in the old town library. It was certainly a stable abode, but with the scent of must and-

"Ammy! Wake up!"

Amethyst gave a start, coming out of her thoughts to an annoyed Ember trying to get her attention.

"Sorry, what? I was thinking of something."

"I said, 'do you think we should go check it out?' but you were just standing there, staring off into the distance and drooling."

Amethyst raised a leg to check, much to Ember's amusement as it was proven to be a false claim. She then gave Ember a long, thoughtful look.

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just used to it being me that keeps us on track. You're right, there's something going on, and I intend to get to the bottom of it."

With a shared smile, the two mares set off for White Tail Woods.

~-----------------------------------------~

It surprisingly went better the second time around. As well as one can do, jumping out a window from a ridiculous height. The tower continued to rage with crackling flames, yet surprisingly none of the flames spread beyond the tower itself. 

"I think you overdid it." Model A stated smugly.

"Jerk threw me out a skyscraper, I let him off easy," I replied haughtily. "Is he all right, you think? That chunk is back up in the top of the tower, right?" All the better, let the damn thing burn to cinders with the rest of its tower.

"I can't tell for sure, but he looks fine," Model A stated, shooting some sort of pinkish light towards the downed zebra, "his pulse is reading steady, and I can't see anything wrong, aside from the minor lacerations around his neck where Model W was grabbing on..." her inspection of the zebra finished, the pink light winked out.

"I thought Model W just sat around in giant chunks and sucked the life out of anyone stupid enough to walk too close. Why was this particular chunk having this guy make it a body?" I asked, turning my back on the zebra and gazing back up at the top of the tower. 

"I don't know, I'm still learning this as I go along, alright? Hey, I got multiple life forms, coming from town in a hurry!" she cut off, flashing some sort of radar HUD in front of my eyes.

"Can you tell when they'll be here? Like, how long before they get, 'here'? Just asking."

"What do I look like, a stopwatch? They'll get here when those five red dots touch the green and the red dot!" she snapped.

I was apparently the green dot, and I have to assume the red dot next to me indicates the zebra...If it had been six red dots coming for me, I would have been positive that it was the mane six, coming to check out whats happening. Typical. Giant tower that's apparently invisible until you get right up next to it? Meh. Fiery tower? Yeah, lets go check that out. Although I guess the whole 'invisible' thing might have put them off the scent a bit.

"Henshin!" I called out, causing a rush of sparklies and light to whirl around me in a tight circle, before revealing me once more to the world. Minus one leg. I couldn't take the chance it might be Twilight, out on the hunt for the 'grey armored pony', so I decided to meet whomever it might be with my normal face. Model A hovered around me, quickly ducking into my wheelchair pocket as I moved closer to the zebra, hopefully disguising my apparent intentions. Me? 'Oh yeah, I was just trying to help this guy out.' Maybe they would buy it.

Out of the dense trees came...no other than the mane six. Without Rainbow Dash. A little ways behind them however, were a smattering of official looking guards. THANKS Model A, for warning me about THOSE. What ever would I do without your backup? Oh look, even MORE trailing along behind THEM! Radar was useless. At least they were less threatening than those that came before them. A blue unicorn wearing a fedora of all things, followed closely by a pegasus with dull yellow coloring. Dark red hair. Didn't recognize either of them, they had to be background ponies.

"Rock? Is that you?" Came the dulcet tones of the mane six's resident fashionista. Crap. I had forgotten about wanting to talk to her alone, figure out where I stood with her.

"Rarity, hi! Hello...there..." I spouted awkwardly. I think I managed to disguise my faltering speech with my next sentence, "Do any of you know anything about medicine? That armored pony flew down from the top of the tower in a pink bubble, set this zebra down, and just left him here. He's breathing, but he wont wake up!" I strained my voice, trying to add in a hint of compassion. I mean, sure I cared what happened to the guy, I'm not heartless. But I already knew from Model A's assessment that he was apparently fine, and I kinda wanted their attention off of me.

"Armored pony? Was it the grey one I was talking to you about yesterday?" Twilight exclaimed, pushing past her friends and getting up in my face. Completely ignoring the downed zebra. Priorities, Twilight...

"Uhm, no..."I said, scrunching my face up in what I hoped was an expression of contemplation, "He had blue, white and yellow armor. He asked me earlier to get some supplies, and when I brought them, he mixed them all together. He took them inside the plant tower, and soon after that it started burning. And then he jumped off the top with the zebra, who might I again point out won't wake up." I stated forcefully at the end, getting my involvement in all of this out of the way, while simultaneously trying to get her attention back on something that wasn't me, or mega-me.

"What? Yes! I can do that! I know a few medical diagnostic spells, just give me a second," Twilight brushed past me, lighting up her horn and casting a pale light on the unconscious zebra.

"Rock, what about you, are you alright?" Rarity asked, moving closer. Pinkie Pie had during my explanation pumped a hoof in the air, and then settled back down with a shit eating grin. God only knows what was going through her mind. The others each gave me a nod, -or in Fluttershy's case, looked at me past a wall of pink hair. Guess that tells me how well we 'know' each other.- and walked over to stand next to Twilight. The guards had dispersed, running around the still burning tower.

"I'm fine. Still a little loopy from Discord, but that was yesterday, I'm sure it'll go away eventually," I said, giving her a smile.

"Discord? Oh, I bet he's behind this whole thing," she flouted, giving Fluttershy a look. "This positively reeks of his foul clutches! Fluttershy, why can't you keep that ruffian in line?" Fluttershy actually came out of her hair fort, and gave Rarity an even stare. Rarity reluctantly backed down.

"Yeah, he did some sort of memory thing, and I couldn't even remember where I lived, I had to flag down one of my co-workers to help me home. Speaking of, I remember some things, and not so well other things. Like, I remember you," I gestured at Rarity, then to the rest of them, leaving out the two newcomers who were staying back, and silent. "But I don't remember all that much. We're...friends, right?"

I goofed. I have no idea what I did wrong, but at the word 'friends' Rarity got wide eyed, and broke out into tears. She turned and ran off before I could so much as ask what was wrong. She actually managed to get a fair distance away before I heard her scream "DISCORD!" at the top of her lungs.

"You don't remember anything, sugarcube?" Applejack asked, a shocked look upon her face. 

"Ummm...no? Is there something in particular I should be remembering?" I asked the increasingly shocked cowpony.

She actually went through several stammering starts, before clamming up and giving me the cold shoulder. To her credit, it seemed like she was trying to figure out what to say.

"You're...Fluttershy, right, you go to the spa with Rarity," I stated, directing my attention to Fluttershy. She retreated almost immediately back into her hair fort, refusing to talk to me. Bollocks. I wouldn't be getting any information today, seeing as the primary source of information ran off crying, the secondary source has her orange lips sealed tighter than a lasso round a bulls horns, and Fluttershy was being Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie just looked confused throughout all of this, so I don't think she knew anything. Dashie was STILL nowhere to be seen, and all more the shame(Rainbow Dash best Pony! Seriously though, RD was my favorite, and I hadn't seen even a hair of her. Major disappointment.)

"Huh. What about you Pinkie," I started, directing my question at the pink hued pony, "Do you know why she ran off like that? Or why Applejack's sitting there, shaking like a leaf and trying to ignore me?"

Pinkie Pie gave me a long, hard look before submitting her opinion.

"Nope!"

~---------------------------------------------------------------------------~

This whole situation was fishy. Thankfully Ember had heeded her advice, staying quiet and simply observing with her from a distance. Ordinarily, simply asking a question was the best way to accrue an influx of information, but luckily they were graced with a loose lipped suspect.

Rock Light. Amethyst had immediately remembered him from his initial 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, but didn't know much else about him besides the fact that he was a mail delivery pony. Slightly hard to forget the only pony in Ponyville with three legs. 

That in itself brought up some crucial questions. Why had he been out in White Tail Woods in the first place? Why, when confronted with a mysterious pony asking him to buy 'supplies', did he actually comply and acquire the goods for him? 

It might be as simple as just Discord sticking a paw inside his head and turning him every which way, which he hinted at. But Discords pranks are always temporary, and this stinks of something much more lasting.

Amethyst snapped out of her thoughts, focusing on the retreating white mare with the purple mane. If she wasn't mistaken, that had been Rarity, proprietor of Carousel Boutique. Something the handicapped stallion had said caused her to run off crying. Something about memory?

It was time to try to get to the bottom of things. It was going to be flashy, tiring spell , but it was easier than checking out every single leaf in the area. Amethyst gently pushed Ember away, concentrating on the beating of her heart. With a minute surge of effort, the telltale azure glow of her magic slowly wrapped it's way around her horn, bathing the area in its light.

The forest was...noisy, for lack of a better word. magical beasts and critters roamed these woods, spreading their influence with each touch upon the trail, with each slight brush against the side of a tree, or even each mote of sunlight that managed to make it's way past the treetops, striking the ground and giving the vegetation life.

Amethyst tightened her awareness, focusing on the clearing directly before her.

She was nearly overwhelmed, the magical backlash equivalent of looking at a particularly bright light. Each of the mares standing before her overflowed with energy, drenching the area around them.

The pink haired pegasus exuded an aura of... gentleness. It was soothing to concentrate on her,  but Amethyst continued on. The orange pony wearing the stetson had this... feeling around her. Like if she said something, you could be one hundred percent certain it was the truth. Pinkie Pie was... it was slightly intoxicating to focus on her for too long, a sense of happiness that washed over her the longer she stared...

The zebra...a dark, foul odor came from his neck, like a skunk had sprayed him, but it was coming out of his neck instead of being layered on the outside.

Twilight... It hurt to look at her for too long. The variety of spells she had done in the last day alone was enough to make Amethysts eyes water.

From each of them though, the faint sounds of echos could be heard, lingering whispers that strayed just outside her reach, evading her understanding.

From each of them...except Rock Light. From him, was almost nothing...nothing but the faint scent of petunias...

"I!" Amethyst nearly yelled, cutting off the magic to her horn. "I forgot my oven! It's still on!"

Without a single glance to see if anypony had believed her bluff, Amethyst quickly grabbed Ember and headed back to town.

"...Gonna tell me whats going on?" Ember pressed, looking at Amethyst worriedly, "Cause I know full well the office doesn't have an oven. What did you see?"

"It wasn't so much what I saw, but what I heard, and smelled. That stallion, Rock Light wasn't lying when he said Discord did a 'memory thing'. But he was definitely leaving something out." Amethyst finally stopped, confident in the distance the two of them had put between the group of ponies and themselves. "Out of everypony in that clearing, only one pony wasn't affected by a memory spell of some sort. You and me too," Amethyst cut in, interrupting Embers shocked comment. "In fact, the only magic I could get a feel on from him was the briefest scent of petunias."

At the now confused expression of her friend, Amethyst elaborated, "It's chaos magic."

"Chaos magic...smells like petunias?" Ember asked, trying to stop a giggle from erupting.

"Yes."

"...Why?"

"Exactly."
> 4- Hesitation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Megamane."

I stared at the daily paper, it's title proudly declaring that a mystery pony had braved the horrors of an evil tower located just out of Ponyville, and defeated an evil artifact that had attacked a relative of Zecora. According to the paper, not much was known about this 'evil artifact' other than the fact that it had stripped this zebra of his free will, consuming his mind. The article went on to describe how the fire had apparently spread and covered a good chunk of land before the weather team was able to drown it in a downpour.

"You called me Megaman once, and that zebra barely hears it, and now they got a pony title for me." I threw the paper at the wall, watching as it fluttered down to the floor. "I'd like to blame you, but I have to accept this as simple bad luck."

"If it bothers you that much, you could always just go and ask them to change it~." Model A teased, floating aimlessly near the ceiling.

"Right, and while I'm at it, I think I'll go and tell Twilight who I really am, and have Celestia make me a cake or something. If she wouldn't mind."

"Ooh, ooh! That's that solar goddess you were talking about, right?" she replied. "Think she could make me a completely sunlight cake?"

"What is your obsession with sunlight?" I asked,

"I'm solar powered, gimmie a break."

"Wait, you run off of sunlight?" I asked.

"What, did you think I just went along on nothing but happy thoughts and smiles?" she retorted.

"Honestly, I thought you had a nuclear battery or something. So what exactly are we supposed to do with the rest of the chunks of Model W? It's not like I can just randomly walk around the Everfree hoping I stumble on another piece of it..."

"I've been putting some thought into that," she replied, hovering slightly above my head. "I've been trying to restore myself to full systems capabilities. Whatever your friend Discord did to me, its disabled me to bare bones functionality. I can barely do megamerging, let alone A-transe..."

"A-transe," I interrupted, "That's where you completely copy the form of a maverick, right?"

"Well, yeah. I haven't even been able to get my radar working properly, they could be in the house next door, and we wouldn't even know! Can you possibly think of anything more frustrating, to be so close to your goal and not even know it?"

"No, I really can't. How about we instead focus on what we do have working? We can megamerge, there's that. Is there a time limit on that?" I asked.

"There shouldn't be, but with my systems scrambled like this there might very well be power drains that could result in a megamerge failing, or cancelling out before you want."

"Well that blows. See if you can't prioritize that, at the very least make it so we can tell when it'll happen, if at all." I didn't like the idea of losing my only card due to Discords meddling. Especially if it happened during a battle, more-so if it happened out where anyone could see me.

"I'll see what I can do, but I'm not making any promises, it's not like I'm going to repair any of my systems overnight-"

A red light flashed out of her forehead jewel thing, bathing the room in its light.

"The hell was that?" I asked.

"My radar and location systems just rebooted. I'm reading a Model W signal, off in the forest again!" she said happily, zooming around the room.

"O... kay. So what now? We go out there, and hope we don't get 'malfunctioned'? I for one don't relish to think what will happen if I become stuck out there, without you I'm pretty much screwed in a combat situation."

"And don't you forget it! I say we do recon. Go out there, see what's happening. Regroup if it looks like we're outmatched. Maybe we can pull a feat of cheating like last time, it was pretty dang impressive, and effective."

"Speaking of, Shining Bubble. How'd we get that? Did we get anything from destroying that chunk of Model W? Anything plant related?" I better get an attack called vine whip. I could use something like that to swing from trees or something.

"I don't know specifically... Shining Bubble appears to be stored under a file titled 'Megaman X Copy'. There's nothing else in the folder, and I don't have any records of anything being absorbed or copied from the chunk of Model W." She stopped in front of my face, and if she actually had features I have the feeling they'd be worried.

"Maybe we just didn't get anything from it because we were too far away? Discord apparently got us Shining Bubble by beating up the guard captain, so we obviously don't have to kill someone or something to acquire new powers... " I mused on the subject. Could I potentially get telekinesis or something else magic related if I fought Twilight? Maybe I could get a form with wings from Rainbow Dash. Super reality breaking powers from Pinkie Pie? 

"I guess we better get going,"  I said, reaching up and tucking Model A into my saddlebag. I rolled my way out of my house, and she let out a hoarse whisper.

"Why aren't we starting off megamerged?"

"Oh right, cause Megamane coming out of the house of the crippled pony isn't that suspicious. I'm sure people would just assume we're friends," I snapped.

"Okay, jeesh," Model A replied, clamming up.

I walked along the streets, looking at the populace. They were all so happy, so naive and tranquil. Most of the megaman games focused on a time of strife, even times when the world was on the brink of destruction. How would all of these bright, happy, smiling little ponies react if a robot came out of nowhere and tried to hack their faces off? It wasn't exactly a happy thought.

"Rock! Rock Light! I need to talk to you!" I heard calling from behind me. It was Rarity. God damnit, what did I do to deserve this?

I stopped, the wheels hoisting my back legs above the ground skittering to a stop on the dirt. 

"Rock! Oh, I am so glad I caught you! Listen, we need to talk, can we go somewhere real quick?"

I really had hoped to avoid this, for as long as possible. And the fact that she was distracting me from going out and finding out if this shard of Model W posed that much of a threat, that was even worse.

"Can I get a rain check?" I asked, wracking my brain for an excuse. "I kinda was going to see if I could get an early lunch."

"Oh that sounds wonderful, I'll join you!"

Damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit.damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit. 

"I... okay." I resigned myself to the fact I wasn't going to get rid of her without simply telling her to buzz off. And that would only make her more suspicious.

We walked to a cafe -Rarity leading the way, and jabbering on and on about the food they served there- and sat down at an outside table.

"So... what did you want to talk about?" I asked.

She had a torn look on her face, trying to find words to say out loud. It was obvious several thousand words she wanted to say flashed through her mind, but none of them made it past her lips.

"You don't... remember, do you? Remember... us?" she asked, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"I'm... afraid I don't really know what you mean," I replied, trying to keep my tone as neutral as possible. "It's obvious that you're upset though, so could I ask of you to explain?"

She pulled a handkerchief from her saddlebag, dabbing at her eyes. Once she had composed herself, she started on her little monologue.

"We met in Trottingham, remember? I was there displaying my newest fashion line, and you approached me..." she trailed off, nervously rearranging a napkin on the table. "You said just one word. Beautiful. I thought you were talking about the fashion line, but then you said... you meant me~" A blush overtook her cheeks.

Okay, so it was as I suspected. Discord had made her believe we were an item. Wait, maybe if I could poke some holes in her story, she'd question it enough to drop the whole thing.

"Wait, so we met in Trottingham? But I live here, in Ponyville. What are the odds you and I would meet in Trottingham instead of here?"

She had a far away look on her face as she replied. "Don't you remember? You were living in Trottingham until recently, but the long distance relationship wasn't working out, so you moved here to Ponyville to be closer to me! So romantic..."

Well that backfired. I guess Discord put in safeguards to make the memories stick. Or I was just horrible at convincing people of anything.

"But that still doesn't make any sense," I argued, "If we're together, why are we living in two different houses?"

"Oh Light!"she called out , reaching across the the table and wrapping her hooves around my neck in a hug. "Is this your way of saying you want to move in with me?"

"No. That is not what I'm saying." I pried her legs from around my neck, wincing as she gave me a hurt look. "Look, I barely know anything about you, besides the fact that we're friends and what you've told me. Until Discords memory thing wears off, how about we just take it slow?"

Rarity got a look of sudden enlightenment, "Ideeeeea!~ Twilight will know what to do! She has all kinds of spells, I'm sure she'll have something that can restore your memory!"

She plopped down a couple bits on the table, gave me a peck on the cheek, and was gone in a flash.

"High strung, isn't she?" Model A whispered from her pocket.

"Oh shush. We'll figure out what to do with her later. Make a note, we need to figure out how to negate magic, or otherwise magical energy. We don't want to get stuck hanging in midair or something. And perish the thought if Twilight tries to mess with my memory  to restore it," I said with a slight shudder.

I finished off the food I had gotten, putting down a couple coins the same as Rarity had.

I got to my hooves and wheels, and ambled off towards the forest.





"He's leaving the cafe," Amethyst said to her bored compatriot.

"Gaaaah, this is so boooring, Ammy," Ember whined, having been roused from her sleep too suddenly to get all of her entertainment supplies. All Amethyst wanted her to do was keep quiet, keep still, and not draw the wheelchair pony's attention.

That in itself didn't seem to be a problem however, as the pony was oblivious to those around them, and especially to Amethyst and herself. He had left his house after SEVERAL boring hours of just watching the front of his BORING house, meeting up with the white coated pony known as Rarity. He then traveled with her to a cafe, where they each ate an extremely BORING salad. How was a pony with wheelchair legs so uninterestingly BORING? He was like, half pony, half cart! He should have been off doing some sort of extreme stunt with roller blades on his front hooves, not trundling along at a mediocre pace down a dusty town road.

"I know this isn't the most thrilling job Ember, but I promise we'll take a break soon." Amethyst assured her.

Her words tumbled through her head, and suddenly she remembered what she had forgotten. "Oh my gosh Ammy, I'm going to be late! I was supposed to be at my job almost twenty minutes ago!"

Amethysts mind started at the implications. "I...by Luna, I have to get work too, how could I forget about that?"

"Maybe it was cause you were so excited to be back on a case?" Ember suggested, checking her reflection in a store window to rearrange her mane.

"I... I guess you're right, I... No! Where'd he go?" she asked, her eyes desperately moving to find where their target had gone.  

"Guess he walked off," Ember said, starting off down the street. "It's not like we can continue this right now anyway, I've already been late twice this week. I know your employer sure as hay won't like you skipping out on work."

Amethyst ground her teeth, but didn't say anything in response. It was true, she had received concerns that her mind wasn't on her work. She wasn't going to get a raise any time soon, that was for sure.

She cast her gaze back to the last time she had seen Rock Light, the stallion that smelled like petunias. She turned her gaze to follow the swishing tail of her closest friend as she walked down the street, out of sight. 

Amethyst started to follow, organizing her thoughts. She would have to prioritize her time more efficiently, create a better schedule so that this wouldn't happen again.

She let a ghost of a smile touch her lips. Next time, she would find out everything there was to find out about this stallion, who smelled like chaos.





I tromped through the forest, my metal covered hooves breaking twig and crushing leaf underhoof. 

"We close?" I asked, dodging under a overhanging branch.

"We are," Model A responded. "Just a couple more minutes, and you should be able to see something."

Sure enough, soon we came across an abandoned house in the middle of the woods. One of the walls had fallen inward, and the main of the structure looked like something you'd find in a a history book. All logs, about the size of a small shed.

"What are we supposed to be looking for? All that's here is a dead house."

"Over there," she said, tugging my head off to the side. "The signal is coming from over there, and... downward?"

I followed her prodding, and came across a well beside the house. It was as ramshackle as the house itself, in a state of disrepair from years of abandon. 

"This it?"

"And straight down," she affirmed, both of us looking into the black, inky depths.

"How the hell am I supposed to get down there? I have no idea how to swim in this body. I probably won't be able to with all this metal armor, and I definitely won't be able to with my wheelchair." I thought I saw movement in the water, but there was nothing further to suggest that I had.

"Can't you just try?"

"And what if I can't get out afterwards?" I asked, peering at the sides of the shaft. "The water doesn't go all the way to the top, it barely reaches five feet from the surface."

A sudden movement flashed in the light, and I barely managed to move my head to the side before a powerful spray of water shot up from the well, trying to take my head off.

"The hell was that?!" I exclaimed, trying to catch my breath.

"Well gee, it might have just been a weather anomaly. Maybe it was aliens. Perhaps it was just breakfast!" Model A helpfully contributed.

"I get it, I get it. Model W, duh. So he's just camping in the bottom of the well, it's not like we can just -"

I was cut off by another spray of water. This one however, wasn't aimed at me, and preceded a giant fish jumping out of the well. It was seriously as large as a pony, and it had a twisted mass of metal and wires hanging off the side. It peered at me with a mad eye as it slowly flew through the air in a slow flip. It almost looked like it was going to fall outside of the confines of its well, but it shot another burst of water from its maw, propelling back to land in the well.

I stood there for a moment, having barely dodged the water spout. As it was, it had careened past me and destroyed what remained of the house.

"SCREW YOU!" I called out, trying to flip the well and the fish inside the bird. Impossible without fingers, but the outburst still made me feel better.

"Screw that thing," I stated, turning to leave. "Screw it's fishy ass, its piss filled water and its freaking water pulse of doom."

"You can't just leave!" Model A screeched in my ear. "C'mon, it's right there!"

"What exactly do you expect me to do?" I shot back. "As it stands, the only thing I can do would be to go and drown down a well, as a fishy machine chews on my remains. Its not like I can Shoot at it from up here, and even if I do managed to get it out of the well I highly doubt it wouldn't go and become some sort of mutant spider fish or something."

I wracked my brain, trying to think of a way around it. It wasn't like I could just leave it down there...

I stopped, whipping my head back to the ruins of the abandoned dwelling. "Or can I?" I asked.

"Can you what? Go back and kick its scaly butt? Yeah!" Model A yelped joyfully.

"No, I have a better Idea," I chastised her.





"So to clarify," Twilight asked the salesponies. "An earth pony wearing weird armor came, and bought a large stock of your product from you?"

"Why yes miss Sparkle!" Flim stated with a smile.

"Indeed you are!" Flam added.

Twilight raised a hoof to massage her brow. Dealing with these two always brought on a headache.

"Did he say what he was using it for?" Twilight asked. If she could get a simple answer with a simple question, she might be able to put these two clowns behind her, and concentrate on more important things.

"Don't know, he didn't say, did he brother?"

"No he didn't, brother of mine!"

Twilight hadn't had her eyes open during this interaction. She wasn't sure which pony had spoken at which time, but she figured it didn't really matter.

"So you just sold that stuff, without even figuring out what he wanted with it?" Twilight asked.

"He paid with coin."

"The golden coin!"

"Isn't that kind of irresponsible?" Twilight queried. "What if he ends up hurting someone with what he bought from you?"

Both brothers looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"How on Celestia's green Equestria would somepony hurt another with our patented mixing and building solution?"

"Indeed! Unless the poor chap started throwing the bags around, but each bag is what, eighty pounds?"

"Indeed! Unless he was spectacularly stupid, he could definitely find much easier ways to hurt somepony!"

"Quite right!"

"Indeed!"

Twilight walked swiftly away from the troublesome duo. They weren't going to be any help, and she wasn't going to find the blue armored pony by standing around talking to ponies like those two.





I shot a couple more balls of yellow energy down the hole, watching with satisfaction as they caused the grey mixture to grow thicker.

"I like this plan!" Model A chirped.

"I told you you would," I said, firing a couple shots down into the hole.

I watched as the mixture settled back into a silent state. I had found someone selling something similar to concrete mix back in town, and had eagerly bought up their entire stock. I had initially worried that I wouldn't have enough money, but it turns out the sack of bits Discord had given me refilled overnight. He just kept coming through for me in non douchey ways.

"Hey... hey, I got something!" Model A called out.

"What is it?" I asked, whipping my head around, looking for unseen dangers.

"A new program was added under that file I was telling you about, the Megaman X Copy one," she replied, and I could hear a slight buzzing. "Gushing Geyser? It has a tag on it saying its a water element type attack..."

"Wait, does that mean fishy down there's already dead?" I asked, looking down the hole. The concrete hadn't even begun to harden, it was still a gloopy, gloppy mess. 

The Model W fish had tried shooting it back out of the water as I poured it in, but its bursts of water served more to mix the solution than my megabuster shots had.

"I guess? But I didn't download this data, it was like it just appeared!"

"Forgive me for I believe my ears deceive me, Not just one, but two could you be?" a thick, feminine voice asked from behind me.

I turned and saw a Zebra standing there, looking at the well in fright. She seemed to be alarmed that I was as close to as it as I was. Instead of replying right out, I decided to wait a couple seconds to formulate a proper reply.

"There are the two of us here," I said, hesitant in my verbal cadence as I tried to form a rhyme. "If you listen close, you can hear her voice so clear. Did you know about the well? And from within, the fishy smell?" What? I tried my best, you try to think up a better rhyme on the spot.

She didn't glare at me, but she didn't smile either. "I did, tis true, and that's no lie. Within that well, has the fish died?"

"I don't really know, honestly," I said, abandoning the rhyming format. "I filled it with cement, so at the very least it shouldn't be able to get out. Do you live in the area?" I asked.

"I do, good sir, but might I ask? Who are you to achieve such a task?"

I puffed my chest up, and took a heroic pose. Or maybe it looked like I had constipation, pony bodies are weird. "I am, Megaman!" I called out.

She didn't look entirely impressed.

"Megamaaaane~" Model A trilled from my helmet.

"Oh hush you."

"Megaman, quite an odd title, I'm sure those of evil do not dare trifle," She said, walking over to look in the well.

"Welp, I don't want to be rude, but I really better be off, I gotta get back to town and... do stuff," I trailed off, unsure as to what to say.

"I will not keep you from your day, but please, strange stranger... Do not feel you must stay... away."

Well with that awkward passing, I made my exit. As I walked back to town, and odd thought occurred to me.

"Hey A, ramp up your radar thingy again, is there any more traces nearby?"

"I don't read anything in range, why?"

I let out a grunt of discontentment. "Nothing else in that file? the copy one?"

"No?"

"Shit."

"Why, whats wrong?" she asked, a worried tone in her voice.

"We didn't get anything from that one chunk of Model W. The one from the tower. Obviously we still get a power even if there's a great distance between us when they... er... 'die', so that one's still alive."

I looked up to treetops above, and voiced my concerns.

"And if you can't see it on your radar..."

"That means it moved, got out of range...' Model A supplied.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep."

That first chunk of Model W had gotten away. I burned an entire tower around its circuity ears, and it still managed to skedaddle. And that freaking zebra dude went and built it a body.

I let out a low sigh. 

"Next time, we burn it to ashes."
> 5- New Additions from a Travelling DM
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What is that?" Model A asked, hovering tentatively above my head.

"What is what?" I asked, unsure as to what she was referring to.

"That!" she exclaimed, jutting her metallic body towards the floor behind me, before returning to hide behind my head.

I turned to look at what was freaking her out so much. To my surprise, there wasn't anything. No wait, that wasn't quite right. There was something, just nothing that should be freaking Model A out like it was.

"It's just dice, Model A. Calm down, it's just a normal piece of plastic.."

"It wasn't there a second ago! There was a shimmer, and it just fell out of the air!" she protested.

I picked it up, balancing it on the flat of my hoof.

This is for anyone who needs help or just wants a friend. Summon the Dungeon Master of Equestria if you’re ever in need.

The voice echoed around the room, causing Model A to shift around wildly, looking for the voice.

"Interesting," I uttered, reaching up with a hoof to snag Model A out of the air. "Do you know what this means?"

She twitched about in my grasp, before shifting her face to look directly at me. "Your house...is haunted. We're going to have to look for a new place," she snarked at me.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. What this means, is that I was not the only one Discord decided to pick up off of Earth, if my guess is right. Maybe. Going off the 'Dungeon Master' title. That's something local to my area. If we can band together, we might be able to stand a better chance," I explained.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Model A asked, breaking free from my grip and floating overhead.

I held the die up, and said, "Dungeon Master! I, the Megaman of Equestria-"

"Don't you mean Megamane?" Model A teased playfully.

"Oh hush you." I paused, trying to get my train of thought back. "I, Megamane, er, Megaman," I stumbled over the wording, shooting a dirty look at Model A, "-call upon you! Nothing going on really, just wanted to talk. If you wouldn't mind."

I heard a voice from nowhere say, “Okay then, just roll the die.”

"Don't!" Model A pleaded, "What if it's a trick? Discord could just be screwing with us again! Won't you feel foolish when you just up and INVITE him into the house? He should stay outside! In the doghouse or something!"

I gave her an incredulous look, before tossing the die to roll across the floor.

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't need our permission to come inside, Discord isn't exactly a vampire, you know."

In a flash of light, a humanoid figure appeared in the middle of the room. He was tall, his head bumping the ceiling at 6'2". The skin on his face was pale, unnaturally so, almost to the point of being translucent. He wore a brown cloak that went to about his waist and had a metal collar around it. Besides that, he wore a shirt made mostly of leather and some cloth, as well as some cloth pants, leather boots, and leather fingerless gauntlets. He had a bandolier on him that had a few pouches on it, as well as a bunch of vials with different liquids in them and a dagger. A large sword was strapped to the bandolier. He had silvery hair, and ears peaked like an elf. Looking into the rescesses of his hood, I noticed that his left eye was white, while his right eye was a dark green hue.

He just stood there in the middle of the room, standing imposingly tall. Almost radiating an aura of intimidation... until he stood up straight and bonked his head on the ceiling. His first expression was that of slightly veiled pain, followed swiftly by minor confusion.

“Uh, hi,” he said as he eyed me warily. “I’m looking for the guy that summoned me. Goes by Megaman, or I guess Megamane, I don’t know which.”

So... Discord had changed me into a pony, but let this guy look like a freaking elf? Where's the fairness there? He should at the very least be a gryphon or a diamond dog or something. Did this world have elves normally? If so, why couldn't I have been one? A Megaman elf could have worked... although that does kinda sound like a fanfiction version of Legolas.

“Hi,” I said hesitantly, trying to figure out a way to introduce myself without coming off as a douche. “Are you...okay." I stopped, an idea at the forefront of my mind. What if this guy wasn't even from earth? I was actually assuming quite a lot based solely on his name, now that I thought about it. "Trivia test. Star Wars or Star Trek?”

“What?” Model A asked wildly, circling around my head in frustration.

“The hell?” he exclaimed,giving me a sour look. “Are you nuts? That’s a nerds worst nightmare for a question! There have been wars about that freaking question! Flame wars!”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” I said calmly, scratching at my chin. “I was only trying to figure out if you were from earth without randomly cluing some weird … ‘Dungeon Master’ into a world of over six billion people without magic.”

“I’ve seen beings like him before, he looks kinda like the people from where I’m from!” Model A stated excitably. She stopped circling my head, hovering in place with her 'face' pointed towards him.

“He’s a humanoid, this is what ‘I’ normally look like as well,” I told her, gesturing to the 'Dungeon Master'.

Model A flew closer to inspect him, almost less than an inch from his face. After a few seconds, she floated lazily away. I assume she found out all that she had been trying to find out about him, seeing as she was barely paying any attention to him.

“Weird...I really can’t see you with fingers,” she tutted.

“Oh shut up A,” I retorted, my irritation peaking in my voice. What did she know? Hands are awesome. Much better than stupid hooves.

“Um, what?” the 'DM' asked. “What the hell are you two talking about? I only came here because I was summoned. The guy said he wanted to talk, so do you know where he is or not?”

“Uh,” I started, holding up a hoof. Was he really this dense? “I’m the one that called you. I found your dice, and just wanted to say hi. Not every day you get flung across reality into a tv show, right?”

“Yeah,” he said. “So wait, you called me? And you were flung here?....”

“I got jumped in my apartment a couple nights ago," I explained. "I was just surfing the web, and suddenly, Discord. Scary as hell, and he just plopped me down here. Along with the current...casing,” I gestured to my ponified self, and then to Model A, “Model A here seems to be from the actual Megaman ZX games universe, at the very least she seems to be very convincing.”

“Of course I’m convincing, I’m not going to just up and lie about my home, am I?” Model A chirped, fluttering around the ceiling. “Speaking of, Discord brought you here too, right? You wanna smack him in the face just as much as we do, right?” she asked, eagerness biting into her voice.

“U-uh,” he stammered, “No. Um, I got transferred to Equestria through different means. I got sent here by some guy who calls himself The Merchant." Ooh, I could almost feel the capital letters in that. What kind of snob names himself 'the merchant' though? "I still don’t know why he sent me, but what I do know is that he did it after I bought something from him. Other than that, I’ve been here ever since. On the subject of Discord, my Discord is actually a nice guy. Got imprisoned recently, and I’m trying to figure out how to get him out.”

“Hmph,” Model A snorted, losing interest in the conversation.

“Don’t mind her...she just has people she needs to get back to." I explained, "So, Discord. ‘Your' Discord. You’re telling me there's more than one running around this crazy world?” I took a moment to consider my own words. “Actually, that makes a lot of sense.” A lot. Personification of Chaos, why would I ever just assume he was bound to one body, singular?

“Yeah, pretty much,” he said, stifling a cough, “I’m kinda wondering something… actually, a couple things. First of them, how are you a pony?”

“Short answer, Discord." I expressed, gesturing with a hoof to accentuate my words, "Long answer, Discord is a jackass.”

“I am not a donkey!” I heard coming from the open fireplace. Well that's not creepy in the slightest or anything.

“Oh, now you’re listening in on my calls? Weak, man!” I called out, before turning back to my visiter. “Sorry. Introductions. My name is David Everson, But the name everyone around here knows me by -due to Discords meddling- is Rock Light. And then the papers are calling me Megamane, so thats yet another name,” I ended bitterly.

“Heh,” he chuckled. “That’s honestly kinda funny. Now, here’s the other question. Do your ponies know about other Displaced yet? Or about the existence of humans?”

As far as I knew, they had no idea whatsoever. Everyone would have been panicking if they even had so much as an inkling. “I don’t think so. Discord did some huge memory thing on the entire town of Ponyville, everyone here thinks they already know me. And I have had yet to see any evidence of humans, or even heard anyone talk about them.”

“Ah, okay then,” he said. “Now, surprise final question before I do anything else. Do you know anything about changelings?”

Before I could answer, he... changed for lack of a better word. Where once stood before me was an elf, now stood what looked like an unicorn. Almost as big as I wagered Celestia was compared to myself, but something about it was... off. It was unnerving to see a 'normal' human looming over me, but it was far by far weirder to see a pony do so as well.

“...On...ly what I know from the show," I stuttered. "Were you turned into a humanoid changeling? Cause frankly that's freaking awesome.” If I had that ability I'd never have to deal with Rarity ever again.

“Pretty much, yeah,” he said, “But I’m not a changeling from MLP, I’m more like a changeling from the Eberon books for D&D." Yeah, I had no idea what the source material was. He might as well be trying to recite 'The inner workings of a combustion engine', for all the information that got across. "What you saw earlier was a base form. Thing is, I’m not sure why my clothes change with me, they’re honestly supposed to stay the same. I also shouldn’t really be able to change sizes, or go from biped to quadruped. Oh well, it helps with any disguises that I can make.”

“Dang, wish I had rolled that, that's much more helpful than what I got…” I looked up at Model A, “Not that I think I could do better than you, you are hands down awesome!”

“Hmph,” she replied.

“Wait, roll?” he asked. “Wait a second, you’re one of those power lottery guys! I heard about you guys! Not much though. That’s honestly pretty cool if you ask me.” Heard about? How in blazes could he have heard about...'us'. Seemed odd to me.

“Wait, so how many of us did Discord strand here?" I asked, an ill spike invading my inflection. "How have we not run into each other, it seems to me that if there were a bunch of guys with super powers running around pony-land, the ponies would be freaking out, right?”

“I know what you mean,” he started, “But here’s the deal. Apparently we’re all in different universes, ya know, multiverse theory. And I can’t really tell you how many Discord stranded, ‘cause I don’t know. I do know that there’s a lot of us that got stranded by the merchant, though. Still don’t know how many.”

“Oh.” I said, trying to wrap my head around that. But wait a minute, that would mean- “Ooooooooooooh. That makes sense. So you ‘aren't’ from this Equestria?”

“Nope,” he said, “Any other questions?”

“Wanna help me search for biometal? I can see you’re packing,” I pointed at a sword slung from his waist, “So you probably have some combat experience, right?”

“Yeah,” he elaborated, “In fact, I beat Tirek quite recently. Although, I think that was just me getting lucky and having a little bit of help, myself.”

“Tirek...the big red guy from the end of the series?” I asked. If he was talking about who I was thinking about, then I hit the freaking jackpot!

“Yep,” he replied. “My world was done with it, but apparently things are still going on. Like, we all think someone freed him. And I think it’s pretty evident someone did. Ya know how he was about twice as big as Celestia when he went up against Twi?”

“Yeah?” As far as I remembered, anyway.

“Well,” he started. “He was about three times the size of Celestia when I started fighting him. The last time I checked, that only happened after he absorbed all the magic from the normal ponies, Discord, and the alicorn magic. So yeah.”

“Daaaaaaaaaaaamn," I let out, "That must have been awesome! All I got from Discord is a new body and a wheelchair instead of my prosthetic. Although the more I think about it, a prosthetic wouldn’t really work on a ponies back legs…”

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” he agreed. “I do have a new question, though. If you’re called Megamane, then why aren’t you like a pony Megaman?”

Now that was a question I could get behind. time for me to strut my stuff! I walked to the side, looking out my curtained windows. Drawing them up tighter together, I raised a hoof towards Model A and spoke in a normal, room volume, “Megamerge.”

Standard (by now) transformation sequence, and once the lights died down he had a look of minor amazement stamped across his face. I know, it probably looked awesome as hell from the outside of all the spinning, blinding lights.

“That is why I’m the Megaman of Equestria-” I started, as Model A cut me off.

“Megamane~” Model A trilled, her voice echoing from my helmet. Apparently she had figured out an external speaker function or something?

“Oh shut it," I chastised, "Henshin.” 

“Ow. My eyes,” he complained. “So, why do you stick like this? Why not just stay as Megaman, or Megamane, or whatever.”

“Twilights on a warpath,” I started, “Apparently I didn’t wake up immediately when Discord brought me here, decided to take me out for a test drive. Ended up destroying part of town, and attacking her brother. Now she’s attached that to the ‘grey armor pony’ and thinks that ‘Megamane’,” I took a second to glare up at Model A, who was barely containing her laughter. Cheeky little chunk of scrap. “Knows something about that. They’re apparently dissimilar enough to not be recognized as each other, but still, every time Twilight sees me its just another step closer to whichever episode it was that she tried to figure out Pinkie Sense. I have no intention of being looked at like a science subject.” I would sooner carve off my own flesh with a rusty spoon.

“Ah, okay then,” he said. “So, you said something about finding some metal or something earlier? You wanna do that and then maybe we can mess around a little?”

I looked up at Model A, and gave her a quizzical glance. “Nope, nothing doing, I don’t read anything in the area,” she claimed, her voice tinged with disappointment.

“Oh well, its not like I would have wanted to brazenly start running around Ponyville with a humanoid battling some sort of pottery biometal or something.” I quipped. Maybe I'd come across a basket enemy. Beware my woven strands that allow me to hold stuff! Like picnics! All beware the picnic holder!

“Alright then,” he said, “Let’s get to it.”

We made our way to a deli of some sort, just a generic outdoor 'restaurant' that probably had cheap food. I'm only guessing though, the price variant for things seems to spike wildly from item to item. I decided to graciously pay for his meal, it wouldn't be very polite if I made the guy come all the way over to another dimension, and not buy him a bite to eat.

“So, I didn’t really ask earlier,” he started, "But what does this biometal stuff look like?”

“Like me!” Model A called out, her voice muffled from the inside of my wheelchair pockets.

“Yeah,” I confirmed, “Kinda like her. Chunks of metal, but different configuration, different designs. Easy enough to spot a floating chunk of metal, but apparently there aren’t any in the area. Although I guess that's a good thing, means we don’t have to deal with fragments of Model W for a while,” I said, sipping from a straw out of the cup in front of me. I ordered tea, a blend called Zebrican. Whatever the heck that was, but it had a sharp taste to it, almost spicy.

“Okay then,” he said, sipping on some pony version of soda. It honestly smelled kinda weird, but even weirder was the fact that I could smell it from across the table. Maybe it was normal for ponies? “So, if there isn’t any here, why are we hanging out here? Shouldn’t we be looking around for some of it? I mean, I kinda remember the games, that stuff isn’t the best to just leave around.” Oh gee, really?

“Its not like I can just up and go,” I explained, gesturing to my wheelchair, “I have no idea if the megamerge has a time limit yet. I don’t want to get all the way out in the jungle, halfway out to butt@*%& nowhere and have the only thing going for me to suddenly switch off. And I technically have a job here, I can’t just not show up one day, that would make people start looking for me.”

“Ah, I see,” he said, “Luckily for you, I can teleport. Although… There are limitations. Can you pinpoint one of the pieces?”

“Honestly, no. Model A’s signal range is actually pretty large, but she hasn’t picked up anything from here to Canterlot. And a fair ways into the Everfree forest. The thing is, with the last two they were basically just chilling right outside of Ponyville, one of them in a giant invisible plant tower, the other at the bottom of an abandoned well.”

“Okay,” he said, “Any idea why it chose those places? Any at all? And another thing, does that signal reach into the Pony Sisters Castle?”

“Yeah, and beyond it," I confirmed. It was only this morning I had conferred with Model A, checking against a map of the area, helping us match up landmarks and figuring out her range. "I don’t know why they chose those places exactly, but the first one was plant oriented, and the other one was water related.” I let out a short coarse laugh at the pleasant memory of winning without even having to hit it with a single buster shot, “I poured cement mix down the well and filled it up."

"So, it's after something," he supplied, "Obviously it has a plan. Did you notice how they kind of follow a theme so far? I mean, plants and water. Plants depend on water. Now, I'm not sure if that's part of the theme, but if it's not, I have another idea. You know the robot masters?"

"Yeah, that is a Megaman staple, after all," I replied. It wasn't like this was anything new.

"Well," he started, "I'm pretty sure that the pieces are trying to act like the robot masters. I'm not completely sure, I'm just pretty sure. So, if my hunch is right, we need to look for something related to a robot master, like an area or an element or an object. The only one I can think of is Flame Man and his location. The equivalent here, would be Saddle Arabia. So, I guess we could look there, like I could try and teleport us."

A voice broke out of the crowd, hailing me from afar. Or at least as much me as-

"Rock! Rock Light!" called my unsuspecting stalker.

"You know what, I'm down for that," I stated, groaning into my salad. Anything to get away from her for at least a while.

"Rock! Its good to see you up and about, I thought about dropping by later with a bowl of hay noodle soup~." She said, in a tone I have to assume she thought was seductive.

"Er...thanks, I guess. Rarity, this is my friend, Lone Traveler," I pointed to 'DM' with an outstretched hoof.

"An...er...old...friend?" she asked, her gaze drifting sadly between us. Yet another thing to distance us in her mind. Hopefully she wouldn't take it as a challenge.

"Uh, yeah...sorry. He just drifted into town, and we figured we'd shoot the breeze, try to catch up. He just recently came from Saddle Arabia, and was telling me about the landmarks."

"Thats... thats wonderful," Rarity said, obviously unhappy but her tone and voice betraying nothing of her inner feelings. "Well...I guess I'll just leave you to it... I wouldn't want to... intrude..."

Rarity swiftly walked away, rubbing at one of her eyes.

"She gonna be okay?" 'DM' asked. "Also, I'm sorry I didn't give you my name earlier, I'm Dox."

"Huh, good to meet you, Dox," I said, munching at a stray piece of lettuce from his salad. I can't believe we actually went this long without my getting his name. Did I just space on it? "As for Rarity...Well remember about how I told you how Discord made it so everyone remembers me as Rock Light?" I asked him, my voice dipping down to a conspiratory whisper. "Well it turns out with Rarity he... complicated it a bit. She thinks we're...involved," I choked out with a sheepish cough. "According to everyone I've asked, apparently I 'moved here' to be closer to her. Turns out she thinks we're engaged." I munched forlornly on the salad I had ordered, a small tomato falling to the ground in my carelessness.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting a girlfriend for literally no effort, but I definitely don't know her well enough to even consider being her fiance. I am definitely gonna throttle Discord the next time I see him," I said, shooting him an apologetic glance, "my version, not yours."

"Dude, don't worry about it," he said, "You can just get to know her all over again." Ha. Very funny Dox. Maybe, but maybe I wanted to get to know one of the other ponies. What if I had a hidden crush on... er... Cloudkicker! Yeah! What about her? Should I deny her my magnificent presence all to sate the needs of major McPurple hair?

"And how could we do that?" he asked, directing his attention to a pair of dice he had pulled out.

"Well I assume that if we found him," I started, assuming he was talking about Discord, "We couldn't really do anything anyways. He is Discord, after all. It's not like he would just let us have a free hit or anything."

"And why not?" he said, ignoring me completely. "And if I were to grab him?" he continued, "Alright then," he said and then placed a hoof on my shoulder.

"Uhhhh," I let out, looking at the hoof he had placed on my shoulder like it might bite me, "Freezer dono, yamite?" he asked in a childish tone, referencing a certain abridged series.

"Oh, shut up and listen," he snapped.

Hello David. Can you hear me? This is god. You're in heaven.

"You are not god DM," Dox whispered softly.

You can't let me have ANY fun, can you?

I looked at the dice in his other hoof, and gave them a sharp jab. "Is there...someone inside your dice? Bummer, at least with Model A she can move around when she wants to..."

"I think it'd be better to explain by showing you," he said impatiently, "It'll just have to wait until after the food."

At this, I heartily dug into I salad, finishing it in under a minute. He also tucked into his, but not as...freely as I had mine.

"Okay," he said after I had given a few bits to the waiter pony. "Let's get somewhere where we won't be seen."

"Back to my house, I wager would be the best place," I said, "That way we could just lock the doors. I even have a basement we could use, no windows to peep in through."

"That's perfect," Dox assured me. He then turned to the waiter pony. "Do you mind if I teleport in here?"

"Sure," he said. "No skin of my bones."

"Thank you, sir," Dox said before placing a hoof on my shoulder once more.

We both then faded into shadow.

We reappeared in my house, in the exact same room Dox had initially appeared in.

"So, we're here now," he said, "Where's the basement?"

"Over here," I stated, pointing at a closed door. I opened it, revealing a staircase that went down to the basement. With that, I flipped open my pocket satchel, and pulled out Model A. "Megamerge," I stated briefly. "What?" I asked, gesturing down the stairs, "Did you think I was going to try going down stairs in that freaking wheelchair thing? Its already hell enough, what with the four legs headfirst thing I have to do..."

"No, no," Dox said. "It makes sense."

We made it down the stairs quite easily. The second Dox and I reached the bottom, however, he grabbed me before we disappeared.

We reappeared in an empty void, floating in front what I assumed was the voice from befores astral projection.

"Hello, gentlemen," it said.

"Hey big guy," Dox said, waving at it.

"Uhhhh....hello?" I said, trying to swim around the void with paddling hooves. What I wouldn't give for a pair of booster rockets.

"David, this is the Dungeon Master," Dox stated confidently. "Dungeon Master, you know who this is."

"Yes."

"Now, before you say anything about my token being false advertising," Dox cut me off before I could voice my criticism, "I did not know this guy existed when I made it. Plus, he is kinda still me. I mean, the body I'm in is based off of a homebrew rule that I made up, and is directly connected to him. We share the same soul, apparently....."

"Wait, so is it like a split consciousness thing or something?" I asked. If it was, that seemed like it could be damned confusing.  "Or is it like you're the same person, but part of you is the player character while the other part is the overseeing game master or something? Avatars, how does they work."

"Well, basically," Dox started. "I'm here, but he's my soul. I'm just a version of him that can enter the physical realm. Dungeon Masters can't leave their realm or else the entirety of reality will be destroyed."

"So I can create or select a body to be a vessel of sorts to carry out what I couldn't do in the physical realm. Such as interacting directly with 'players'. I could do this to them, but it must be in the void. The void isn't part of reality, and I'm still not here, but I can show a common representation of me here. Oh, and let's not forget what happens when I lend Dox some power."

"Yeah," Dox agreed, "Last time, I redirected a blast of energy that was about eighteen feet tall, just by holding out both my arms. It was intense as hell. Although, that did wear off, and I have pretty much no idea how to do that normally. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can't."

"He can't," the DM whispered to me. "I honestly took over his body so he could do that."

"Huh, still sounds impressive. So, what are we doing here? I mean, I don't want to be rude seeing as apparently this is the only way you can talk to me normally, and I understand how annoying it is to be left out of the loop while two other people just talk around me, but I thought we were heading to Saddle Arabia," I said. I felt it was a perfectly reasonable concern, it wasn't like I actually knew what was going on.

"I've been pinpointing a good location to send you two to since that genius can only teleport to places that he's familiar with, and not places he's never been to."

"Hey!" Dox yelped.

"In fact, I'm sending you in..... Now."

And with that, we were no longer in the void.

We reappeared in a dessert. It was night around the area we were in, but that makes sense, considering Saddle Arabia was probably on the other side of the world. Off in the distance, there was a town that had a few lights on in the buildings. If it weren't for the lights, neither of us would have noticed it.

"Well, we're here," Dox said. "Can you get Model A to scan now?"

"Scan mode, activate!" I called out. After several seconds of apparently nothing happening I asked, "Please? Model A, Hellooooo?"

"A please is all I wanted," Model A chirped. "It wouldn't hurt you to appreciate me a bit more."

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry. Will you please activate Scan mode? Or whatever it's called?"

""Already did, and I'm reading a Model W signal...and a Model P signal, in that direction!" she jerked my head off to the left, causing me to almost fall over.

"Alright, let's get moving then," Dox said, looking out towards the sands.

I felt him roll something on my back, and he let out a happy laugh.

"Hey, you said it was coming out that way, right?" he asked, pointing off into the distance. "Is it any bit muffled? 'Cause I see a pyramid."

"I just know that the signal's coming from that direction, I can't tell if it's in it or beyond it. But there does appear to be a sloping surface in the path, mainly made of sandstone," Model A replied.

"Alright," Dox said. "Man, I love perception checks.... Hey, I see a guy! No, wait, he ran inside the pyramid. Odd."

"I can't even see the pyramid," I stated, straining to see what the hell they were talking about. "It's in this direction, right?"

"Yeah," Dox said. "Let's get moving, we only have so long before it's noticed that Rock Light is missing. My best guess is that we have about three hours minimum, five at best."

"Ehn," I replied, "I can do whatever I want till morning, if I end up missing from work the post office will end up worrying. Plus I'll end up missing a days pay..."

We continued on, and in about five minutes I was finally able to see the Pyramid. About ten minutes after that, we were finally at the very front, a suspiciously visible opening right on the front.

"So I didn't just see it," Dox said suspiciously.  "Someone did enter the pyramid. But who?"

"Well, going off of the obvious element styling, I'm gonna guess sandman. Or Pyramid man. Or Egypt man. Something like that. And seeing as this is cartoon world logic, look out for booby traps. We're bound to run across a trapdoor, maybe an Indiana Jones rock..." All things considered, we really should try to be prepared for anything.

"Alright then," Dox said. "In other words, this is gonna suck."

"Sharp rocks at the bottom?" I asked, shooting Dox a comedic grin.

"Most likely," Dox replied.

I looked into the dark recesses of the pyramid, then flashed him another wide grin.

"Bring it on." And with that, I took a step into the ruin. Seeing that I wasn't immediately dead from rocks raining down on my head, I continued till I was completely inside the doorway.

To combat my cautiousness,Dox did something stupid.

"Oh come on man," he said. "Ya gotta just run in! Like this..... LEEEEROOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIINS!" And with that, he just ran in..... Blindly ran in..... me trailing behind like a jilted puppy.

About three seconds later, a trap set off and we had to run even faster. Turns out someone decided to rip off the Indiana Jones rocks. Lucas should sue somebody. What I didn't suspect -and really, how could I have ever predicted this?- is that it went inside the pyramid with us.

I stumbled over a dart trap, forcing us to leap in awkward formations to avoid the firing paths. It didn't seem to stop the giant boulder of copyright breakingness, which kept rolling after us without even slowing from the cramped corridor. We turned a corner, and the boulder crashed to a halt. Dox turned to me to say something undoubtably inspirational regarding our escape, but a grinding of rock pre-empted his victory gloating.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," I muttered, pointing up at the ceiling, almost right above us. The CEILING was sliding open, and it looked like...yeah, it was another boulder. "RUN!" I yelled out, breaking into a gallop.

As we ran, we came upon the end of the hallway and....

"Oh, COME ON!" Dox roared out, "The doors are closing now?! This! IS! BULLSHIT!"

"Gushing Geyser!" I called out, knowing that Shining Bubble would probably burst just like a bubble if it got pinned between a giant boulder and a wall. I wasn't able to pay specific attention to it in the split second it activated, but the white accents on my armor became a deep blue as a cannon of water sprayed out of my mouth. It almost knocked me to the floor, as well as knocking the stone doors off their hinges. We continued to run, a slight discomfort coming from my gut as we dove inside the doorframe just as the boulder slammed to a halt behind us.

"And who," called a voice from the inky blackness, as torches lining the walls burst to light, "Are you? Disturbing our home, disrupting our sleep, leaving WATER all over the ground?!!?"

"Hate to tell you dude," I said with a groan, holding my stomach. With my free hoof I wiped a trickle of bile from the corner of my mouth. "That ain't one hundred percent water. I doubt its even thirty..." I'd have to figure out how to negate that, if possible. I hated the thought that I had gotten a power that gimped me mid battle.

"Silence!" The voice yelled, revealing the speaker. It was...I am not even joking. It was a Pharaoh pony. Funky hat and everything. He was sitting upright -in a position that seemed like it would be quite uncomfortable- in a gigantic royal throne, all accents of gold and jewels poking from every orifice. In one leg, he held a wand of some sort. Attached off the left side of his face, a grotesque configuration of wires and metal were visible.

"There's the chunk of Model W!" Model A called out.

"SILENCE!!!" he yelled once more, the very sound pushing us back a step. "Retainer, what is the meaning of this?" he asked, once more in his normal voice.

"My master, please forgive me..." sniveled a dry sounding voice off to the side. A camel of all things ambled out of the shadows, covered in a black body stocking, as well as red and white armor plates. A giant x of a blade covered his back, I think it could still be called a shuriken... "I activated the traps, but they bypassed them, please don't punish me..."

"You jackass!" Dox screamed as he unsheathed his sword and took a vial out of his bandolier. "You're gonna get your ass kicked!"

He rushed the Pharo pony, only to get smacked in the face and knocked to the ground.

It took me a couple seconds to realize the camel was quite literally sitting on top of Dox, pinning his sword to the ground with a knife directly attached to the armor on his leg.

I had to do  something. I tensed my legs, imagining myself coiling them to collect power for a tremendous leap. I unleashed the built up tension, cannonballing me forward. I did a half forward flip, 'landing' sideways on his face. I pushed off with all my strength, flinging him backwards with a grunt. This in turn actually propelled me backwards, so I tried to do a backflip. Surprisingly, I managed to do it effortlessly, regardless of the fact that I had never so much as done a backflip in my life.

"I got Pinky," I called out, landing on all fours, "You get the Brain!"

"Hit Stream!" Dox yelled, swinging his sword and sending out a wave of energy towards his opponent.

I focused all of my attention on my own opponent, who before I could blink slung the giant blade off of his back at me. I was barely able to dodge, and it sunk almost halfway into the sandstone floor where I had stood literally less than a second before. I leapt forward, slamming an armor clad hoof directly into his midsection. He shrugged it off, grabbing me and throwing me against the wall. The stone cracked from the impact, before I slid to the ground. 

"Get your head in the game!" Model A called out, "You have a megabuster, shoot him with it!"

Pretty sound advice. I whipped the megabuster up and drew a bead on him. I let loose a flurry of yellow tinged projectiles, each of them dancing tantalizingly close to him. He dodged with inhuman ease, flinging a few small kunai as retaliation. They each bounced off of my armor, but one got scarily close to my face.

I couldn't hit him with the way he was bouncing around, making me feel inept to a degree. He managed to hit me, with freaking knives, for goodness sakes. And I couldn't even hit him ONCE with a freaking energy canon? No fair! 

I kept shooting, wondering what I was doing wrong. I was leading the shot, I was waiting till breathing out for each shot, and I never let him out of my sight. So why, couldn't, I, hit, HIM?!

He rushed me, thrusting forward with his hoofblades. With the barest thought, I somehow managed to activate Shining Bubble without saying it out loud. He bounced off, looking mildly surprised. A hatch opened in his hump, and he pulled out an unfolding giant ass shuriken. He then threw it at me. Thankfully, that bounced off too, to which he let out a dissatisfied grunt.

I wasn't about to give him more chances to attack me, so I did something reckless. I shut off the bubble, and let out a shot at his hooves. A cloud of dust sprang up, obscuring his view. I charged forward, leaping in the air. I caught his shoulders with my front hooves, flipping over him and using my momentum to fling him bodily into the wall. While he was stunned, I wrapped my legs around his waist, and jumped straight up into the air.

"Suplex!"

We reached the height of the ceiling, and he tried to shrug me off. I tightened my grip, and pressed off the ceiling with a powerful kick. 

"Of the-!"

I tried to add as much spin as I could, shouting all the way down.

"Lotus!!!" I called out, our bodies jarring to a halt as his body collided with the floor. My grip failed, his impact softening my own to the point where I only felt dazed. I got back up shakily, walking back to downed camel. He let out a groan, and started to rise.

"No. No you don't. No. You! Don't!" I yelled, rushing forward and grabbing one of his legs. "You!"

I started to spin on my back hooves, his own body adding to the fulcrum.

"Stay!" 

My grip started to slip, the prolonged activity taxing my reserves.

"DOWN!"

With that I let go, and he rocketed through the air.

The camel collided with the throne, neatly snapping it in half, nearly missing Dox and an apparently 'de-Model W'ed' pony. A bright light surrounded the prone form, coalescing into a tiny chunk of purple, red and white metal. It clattered to the floor, inert. I went trotting up to Dox and slapped the chunk of Model W out of Dox's hand, letting it clang to the floor in a jumble of metal and wires. Was he stupid? He saw what it did to the pony, did he honestly think him holding it would have a different result?

"Trust me, you really don't want to be holding that so close to bare skin," I said, holding my megabuster up and pointing it at the chunk of evil metal. My leg unfolded with a familiar whirring of clicking machinery, transforming it into its wide barreled canon form. With several blasts of warm, yellow tinged energy that roared out the end of my leg like laser blasts the chunk of Model W was no more than dust.

I then grabbed up the purple chunk of Model P, balancing it on top of my head. "Hey Camel guy, you allright?" I called out.

"Mmmmmmmmnnnnnn," a dry voice moaned from the rubble.

"He'll be fine," muttered the Pharaoh turned regular pony, "His hump is harder than his head."

"Oh shut your face, Shahid," the camel mumbled, dragging himself from the rubble.

"Make me, Malik," the pony replied.

"Both of you shut the hell up," I snapped, tired of their inane back and forth. Did they just forget we were fighting for our lives only minutes ago? "Unless it escaped your attention, both of you were very recently the victims of a device which basically brainwashed you. We saved you. Show your damned respect."

Both of them were cowed, and gave each of us a a slight bow.

"You have my thanks, I am El Presidente of the Republic of Oasis, and this," the camel waved a limb at the pony as he continued to brush the dust from his coat, "Is my close friend, Shahid. He acts as the main dignitary between us and Saddle Arrabia. If it weren't for you two...Oh my Faust..." he whipped his head between Dox and I, shock filtering across his face. "We were going to destroy the main Oasis!"

"No problem, El Presidente," Dox said. "Just doing our job. Let's get outa here Megamane."

Just as I tried to correct me him with the choice word of 'Megaman', we teleported back to my house in a poof of shadow stuff.

We reappeared in my living room, with Dox hitting his head on the ceiling, again.

"No! No its MegaMAN, not Megamane! God damnit, they can't hear me anymore, can they?" I complained, carefully placing the purple chunk of Model P down on a workbench. "At least we managed to find another Biometal. Henshin!" With that I returned to his handicapped form, instantly missing my full mobility. You try going from being able to jump around like a mexican jumping bean to having heavy wheels ATTACHED to your legs. Transforming back allowed Model A to fly about over my head freely, which she did quite gleefully. "Can you scan it? It isn't going to go mental and attack someone else if we just let it roam free?"

"No, Model P was just being controlled by the fragment of Model W," she explained, bathing Model P in a beam of pinkish light. "Once he recharges sufficiently, he should be back to normal."

"Hey, what was with that?" Dox asked. "They were just possessed by the freaking metal? And why is it called biometal? What would happen if I touch the 'Model P' as you call it?"

"Absolutely nothing," Model A snapped harshly, flashing a pinkish light over him. "For starters, you're incompatible. A megamerge would not be successful with you. Second, Model P has been temporarily drained of energy. Until he reboots he will be little more than a block of biometal. Third, from what I remember Model P is a bit antisocial. He'll probably try to fly away from you, making it so you can't touch him," she explained.

"So he'll just recover naturally?" I asked. Maybe once he was all better he'd be able to boost Model A's abilities.

"Yeah. Maybe prop him up in a window," she suggested, "We do run off solar power, after all."

"Okay, that sounds like a plan," Dox declared, grabbing Model P. He set Model P down in a window before noticing a bit of metal dust on his hand. "Uh, guys? What's this stuff?"

"Biometal dust," Model A replied, flying close and blasting his hand with heat from her face. Jumping away and shaking his hand while dancing a merry little jig, Dox unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the pint sized joy. "What? Better safe than sorry. Don't be such a baby, I only burned off the outermost epidermal layer, it's not like you've never been sunburned, have you?" she trilled happily.

"Just watch it next time," Dox said, sheathing his sword. "So, it's been..... about three hours since we left. Wanna go mess with some ponies?"

"If you can do that 'teleport back here' at any point in time, I thought you'd never ask. I say I'd rather fancy another bit of food, just one course of salad never quite fills me up." I raised his hoof towards the fluttering Model A, "Megamerge!"

"Again? You're going to wear me out if you keep this up..." Model A chastised.

"Oh hush, I just figured I'd put on something snazzy," I retorted. I then turned to Dox, "Do you think you can just teleport us to the cafe again?"

"Sure thing," he said, grabbing my shoulder before teleporting us.

We reappeared in the cafe. Dox looked a bit winded, it seems a bit of food would do him some good.

"Whew," Dox whined, "So much teleporting in one day. Plus that huge one. I'm tired. I really need a drink now. Hey waiter! Can I get some coffee with cream and a ton of sugar? Oh, and a salad for my friend."

The waiter just stood there slack jawed, not sure what to say.

"C'mon sah!" I called out in a ridiculous English accent, deepening my voice to further disguise it past the minor alterations megamerging seemed to have on it for some reason. "We just popped o'er tah Saddle Arabia, saved El Presidente of the Republic of Oasis. We need drinks to sate our dry, sandy tongues," I turned to the rest of the cafe, trying to think fast of a verbal continuation to make it so less ponies kept staring at us. "Looks like everyone could use a refresh. Drinks on me!" I called out, sending the waiter off with a scuttle in his step. 

Saying I was going to pay for everyone's meals wasn't that smart of a thing to do, but I should have enough bits. If they took me up on it.

"Perfect way to grab attention, while simultaneously diverting it," I assured Dox.

"Great job," Dox said. "But if you listen closely, you can hear him exit through the back door and start screaming for the guards."

Yeah, I did hear that. Probably better than Dox did, with my freakishly large pony ears coupled with the megamerge's enhanced tech. He called Dox a 'deformed minotaur'. And then he proceeded to assure the guard that 'blood was flowing from his broken mouth, and he was wearing the hide of a pony!' Pretty dark for a 'normal' pony waiter.

A few seconds later a guard popped in. Literally popped in, like teleportation. Few seconds after the first guy, another guy pops in, then another, then another. In the end, it ended up to be about ten guards and a curious Twilight flanked by an angry Shining Armor.

"Dude," Dox said peevishly. "How many ponies are after your metal butt?"

Right after he said that, they tried to rush us. Instead of that, Dox teleported us outside. And thus, the chase began. Well, chase as much as a relaxing walk could be.

"You can do that at any time, right?" I asked, refusing to run but continuing along at a measured pace. "Just keep walking, all peaceful like, and get ready to teleport us to the Everfree when I say 'Doctor Who'. Don't give me that look, that's a classic reference, it will NEVER die."

"I may be able to teleport us whenever," Dox started, "But I can't teleport both of us constantly. I'm used to teleporting myself, and even then, I don't teleport too far. Plus, my teleportation is based on Shadow Walking, so it's easier in shady areas. We're out in the broad daylight. We're honestly lucky that I was able to teleport us away from Saddle Arabia."

"Hey! Hey, stop!" came a voice from behind us. I didn't quicken my pace any, the quickest way to determine if someone is guilty is if they act guilty. I did however alter our course though, directing Dox and myself into the overhanging shadow from the buildings we were passing. "Wait a minute!" called Twilight from behind us. As if I was actually going to stop because she asked me to.

"Sorry my dear," I called back in my impeccably English, low voice again. "But seeing as you chased us away from a snack and a drink that I was fully well going to pay for, I really don't have any patience for you. Add to that the fact that I am busy entertaining a guest from out of town," I gestured to Dox, "I must ask that you leave us alone."

"You will stop in the name of Equestria," Shining Armor demanded, coming up alongside us and giving me the stink eye. He was more than likely inspecting me for details to link me to the 'gray armored pony'. 

Ordinarily I would have let this slide. Not now though. I was tired, I was sore. I was freaking hungry. Beware my wrathful tongue, Shining Armor.

"Seeing as I am a sovereign dignitary from outside of Equestria, no, I will not," I claimed, thinking quickly. If I could put myself above him, he might back off, if even temporarily. "And if a lowly captain of the guard such as yourself demands as such again," I stopped, trying to stare down the irate unicorn as best I could. "I will personally bring my concerns to Celestia herself that her subjects are throwing their weight around, acting in an EXTREMELY inharmonious manner. Even somepony as high a rank as you can be demoted if they make a big enough mistake," I threatened.

"We don't mean any disrespect," Twilight claimed, waving off the guards who retreated to a safe distance. I noticed they still stayed close enough so that if they needed to jump us, they could. I really hope I knew what I was doing. I really didn't, but I'm sure we could take on a group of freaking guards... even if my body was starting to feel like I had been running around all day without stopping.

"You...you're the one the papers are calling Megamane?" Twilight asked.

"A translation error from the original language, but I suppose it rolls off the tongue better," I spouted, never breaking from my immaculate accent. "You may call me Megamane if you please. I am third in line for the throne of Prairie, and my friend here is Master of the keep of Lankmar," I said, trying desperately to remember what I could of D&D. I then took a second to glare at Shining Armor, "And if you even think of insulting my friend by daring to refer to him as a 'deformed minotaur' like the impolite waiter, I will be forced to defend his honor. Even if I have to make a fool out of myself to do so," I said proudly.

"Shining," Twilight hissed, "Back off!"

With a harumph, Shining Armor retreated to walk with his guards.

"So...my eternal apologies, but I have some questions, if you could possibly find the time to answer them..." Twilight pressed. Dox looked like he was about to go tell her to stand by her brother and leave us alone, so I cut him off.

"Ask them if you may. I may or may not see fit to answer them," I answered, falling into the role of 'snooty royal'.

"Well...okay then, what are you doing in Equestria? You set a large area of the forest on fire-"

"I disabled an array that was being set up by a fugitive from my country. The fugitive was last seen in this area-"

"If there's a refugee criminal, that would have been -" interrupted Shining Armor. I quickly interrupted his interrupt, making it a double interrupt. I wonder if I could make it into a quadruple interrupt?

"Tell me, Captain. Are you the highest authority of your land?" When Shining Armor did not reply, I decided to let out a low bark of a laugh. "This is need to know information, and obviously Captain," I fixed him with a triumphant grin, "Those above you decided you didn't need to know. Go along, back to your squad," with this I shooed him away, watching until he was back with the rest of the guards.

"I disabled a piece of technology which had attacked one of your citizens," I claimed, stopping under the shade of a tree. Dox leaned back on it, letting out a pleased sigh. Upon seeing that the guards decided this to be an opportune moment to group around I let out an angry shout. "Oy! You lot! Back, all of you, at least to there!" I pointed at a house, at least thirty feet away. "If I wanted you crowding us, I would have asked as much. Back, I say!"

They sheepishly complied, acting like a bunch of children who had been caught with their hands in a cookie jar.

"Ah, much better. As I was saying, I also filled an old well in the Everfree with cement mix, to trap another shard of the mad stallions delusion." I know I was eventually going to be called out on my bullshit, but I was on a roll. "The female zebra knows of where I speak. If you lot want to do anything useful," I directed to the group trying to eavesdrop on us from beyond the shade of the tree. "I'd suggest looking into that."

"Um," Twilight started, clamming up when I glared at her from beneath my helmets visor. "Mad...Stallions delusion?"

"As I was saying, bearer of Magic," I stated, causing Twilight to gasp in surprise at my familiarity of her, "A fugitive from my country escaped to this area, he is mad, and goes by the title of 'Albert'. His technology...well you've seen and heard the proof of it, talked to the Zebra from the tower, I wager."

"Yes...I have," Twilight started. "This...mad stallion...he wouldn't happen to wear an armor similar to yours...but gray?"

I couldn't really think of a response to that, so I instead closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the breeze.

"Um...Megamane...sir?"

"I know not what garb the fugitive wears," I finally settled on, "I only know him to be in the area. If you would not mind, I would now like to enjoy my friends company, not yours."

"I...I...I..." she stuttered, trying to get words to form properly.

"I tire of this," I said turning to Dox with a smile on my lips, "My good friend, as the good old Doctor, Who would say, I believe it is time for us to be away."

"Later," Dox said cheekily, giving a two finger salute before teleporting us off in a poof of shadow stuff.

We reappeared in the basement. I was about to throw a hissy fit over his choice of destination before he cut me off.

"You're lucky my teleportation isn't easily tracked," he said. "Shadow magic is really hard to track, due to the fact that it leaves virtually zero magic residue."

The initial feeling of panic was swept away, and I let out a low sigh. "I guess that fixes my initial complaint of 'why didn't you teleport to the forest?' For a second there I almost had a fit. Henshin! Sorry we couldn't have had more fun, but now Twilight and her brother are going to be on the war path, searching high and low for us."

"Lucky me, I have another universe to go back to," Dox said. Lucky bastard, I wish I had an entirely different world I could retreat to. "Don't worry though, if you need me, you can just call me. You do still have the die, right?"

"Right here in my bag," I said, patting at my wheelchair bag. "I'll be sure to call you if I get in a jam, but I do have a bit of a question. How did you make it? I assume magic, but do you think you can make me one as well?"

"Well, I learned from someone else," Dox said sheepishly. "Basically, you take an item and say an oath that you believe in. Or at least, that's what I got from the guy. Man, I hope Wade's doing well."

That name sounded familiar. Did I know a Wade? I didn't think so, but the name stuck around longer than it should have. Bet the guy was a jerk.

"Wade?" I asked. "I assume yet another poor fellow who was kidnapped by Discord or...who did you say got you again?" I asked, momentarily forgetting what he had said previously.

"The merchant," Dox confirmed. "He's kind of a dick. Don't get him confused with Avarice, though. Both are merchants of the same type, but Avarice is nicer."

"Merchant. Got it," I replied with a huff. "So I just wish really hard?"

I went over to a cabinet and opened a drawer, pulling out my sack of bits as I had earlier. I gave Dox a sheepish grin, "One of the only things Discord left me with. A sack of unending gold coins. Man, I would have killed for something like this back on earth...hey, you want any of this? It'll just be refilled in the morning..."

He didn't give me an answer, so I reached into the sack and took a handful of the coins, holding them in my two front hooves. I closed my eyes, trying to find whatever combination of concentration was required to pull this off. I felt... something deep inside, pulsing, struggling, fighting to be released. I opened my eyes, staring at the golden coins before me. I shoved my presence into them, and I felt words leap to my lips unbidden.

"I am Megamane. If ever you fight against the forces of evil, when ever you may need a guarding light to light your path, call upon me." I took a couple seconds to let that sink in before adding in at the end, "Also, I happen to have the form of a pony. If a question of how discrete one may be is ever a question, fear not."

The gold coins glowed in my hooves, slowly transforming into a metallic blue X, small enough to fit snugly over the back of someones hand.

I peered at my newest acquisition, staring in awe as Model A flew overhead and scanned it with her pinkish light.

"You turned gold...into biometal?" she asked, confusion seeping into her voice. "Quick, wish for a portal back home, for all the other biometal to be here, wish for ANYTHING!!!"

I was startled out of my reverie by her outburst, and turned my attention back to the metal x in my hooves. After a few seconds of nothing happening, I gave up and shot her an apologetic grin.

"Sorry Model A, guess it's a one time thing. So Dox," I asked, holding up the x, "What do I do with it now?"

"I take it," he replied, grabbing it from my hooves. "And that's it. I have a copy of it, and since I travel through the void to leave, it should automatically be sent out when I go. Also, why the x? Does it do anything?"

"Not that I know of?" I said, looking at it in his hand. It looked... wrong. It needed... It needed to be in a different placement. "For some reason though...the way it looks in your palm looks...wrong. Can I?" I took it from his palm, flipping his hand over with my other hoof. I fiddled with the x, placing it on the back of his hand.  Nothing seemed to happen. It was still incomplete, I just had to...- "That looks...right? Almost like its a button, for cosplay or something..." I looked further at it for a couple seconds, before pressing it down.

It clicked into the flesh like it was a button actually ON his skin. A flash of light momentarily blinded me, and when my sight returned it seemed the thing had turned into a...blue...canon thing. It made his hand look like Megaman's. Big surprise there, right?

"The hell?" I exclaimed, poking at his new armored appendage. "Is it permanent? If it is, I am sooo sorry..." I explored the surface of the megabuster, until I pressed the x in where it lay exactly where it had been on his hand. Another flash of light proceeded the metal x returning to normal. "Or it could do that. Cool, I guess." I shifted my hand to get a better look at it, and it fell off onto the floor. Guess it wasn't permanently fused to the back of his hand. Oh well, I guess.

"Dude," he said, picking it back up and clicking it on again. "That's cool. Hold up, there's a power meter.... and it's empty. This thing is solar powered, I assume?" I guess? The rest of them apparently were, so I guess another chunk of biometal might as well follow the curve. "Anyways, I can't just leave you with my crappy token when you got something cool. Hmmmm...." -he pulled up the his dice in his free hand- "Hey, DM."

"Anything you can think of to do to make something cool for David here?" he asked, once more talking to himself like a loon. "Okay then," he continued on, oblivious. "Hey, Model A. Mind if you come over here for a second?"

"If you scratch my paint job, it's coming out of your hide," she quipped, floating close enough for him to grab.

"Alright," he said to Model A.

When he brought up left left hand with the die in it, they started glowing brightly. When his hand was right next to Model A, the dice floated out of his hand and started floating around her.

"Whats with the light show?" she asked, spinning in place to track the dice. "If this hurts, I'm gonna make you feel it and more, just warning you," she muttered.

The dice that were spinning around her began spinning faster and faster, so fast that it became hard for even Model A to keep track of. They kept spinning until they were nothing but blurs of light. Just then, they stopped glowing before a flash of light appeared in the area they once were. The dice then fell to the ground, done with their mission, leaving a mystified Model A just floating there. When she started looking around however, she, and everyone else in the room, noticed that there was now a new biometal that looked like a black and brown version of Model A floating along with her. Although, it looked like a small cubic piece was missing from it, as it just floated there lifelessly.



Dox's dice started glowing visibly. He picked them up and presumably listened to what the big guy had to say.

"Okay," he said, again presumably to the DM. He then looked over at me. "Hey, can I see my token real quick?"

"Sure," I dug into my wheelchair satchel, and pulled out my token copy of the dice.

Dox took the die from my hand and put it in the place on the biometal where it looked like something was missing. It was a perfect fit. Just as it became snug, the biometal reacted, coming to life. The eyes lit up and the little being started floating around freely.

"WOO!" it stated. "What a rush!" -it looked around before finally setting its... eyes? It directed its full attention on me- "Oh! You must be Megaman! Or should I call you Megamane? Heh. I am Model DM and a direct contact to Dox over there."

I stared at it in a daze for a few seconds, before giving the... biometal a nod. "Uh...hi. Welcome... to life, I guess..." I turned my attention to Dox, drilling him with a questioning glance, "Do you do that often, just create new life forms out of nothing? Wait... does that make you its father... or its mother?" Wait... does that make you its father... or its mother?"

"Well, I don't," Dox stated confidently, "But the big guy does. And I guess it'd make me the father.... Meaning Model A is the mother."

"Mommy!" cried out the newest chunk of biometal to clutter up my house, buzzing around Dox's head. "Mommy mommy mommy!" Its voice shifted and changed, until it sounded quite similar to Dox's own.

"Well, he sure is excitable,"I stated dryly.

"I am not his mother," Model A griped.

"You're not mommy, Dox is mommy!" Model DM belted out.

"Damn it," Dox complained. "Kid, I am not your mommy. If anyone is your mommy it's the astral being known as the Dungeon Master. And no, that's not me."

"Don't worry mommy," Model DM spouted, fluttering in front of Dox's face, "I know you aren't going to be staying long, daddy filled me with information when I was born. I know you're going to go back to your world, and I have to stay here. I know that...You'll still visit though, won't you?"

"Of course I'll visit," Dox assured him. "But can you stop calling me mommy?! I ain't your mother! I didn't give you life, I just helped the process! Seriously, if anything, the DM's the mother!"

"Okay then," Dox continued, "Well, I need to get back. to my world. But, I can't really do that myself. Summoning rules and all that. No, I need you to do something."

"Fire away, kinda wish you'd told me before we went on adventures and all that," I chastised, "What if something had happened to me, would you have just been stuck here or something?"

"Well, I mean, sometimes portals just open," Dox said. "But it's not always certain. Anyways, I need you to say, 'Dox, our contract is complete'. And if you need me again... Oh wait."

"If you need him again," Model DM started. "You can either Megamerge with me, or Double Megamerge with me. I should be compatible with at least Model A, I'm not sure about the others though. Model X, definitely, but again, not sure about the others."

"Okay," he said. "You can do that if you need me."

"Good to know," I stated, "Don't be a stranger Dox. If you can come over on your own, don't just wait on an invitation from me." I gave him a wide smile. "Dox, Dungeon Master penultimate. Our contract is complete."
> 6- Lunch Hour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tore into my salad with healthy abandon, greedily scarfing down the plant matter A and DM had packed for my lunch. Model P still had yet to wake up, but I couldn't risk leaving him at home. Instead of leaving him in the window sill like I had this morning, he -or she, I honestly couldn't remember its personality all that well- now rested in the bottom of my sack, watched over by DM and A as I made my rounds.

My 'employers' -they gave me money, they made me work, but they had never actually hired me- saw my previous work from the days before and apparently decided to 'gift' me a larger workload. In a society that didn't have phones, the mail service was more than booming. It was a freaking monster in and of itself. Carriages arrived daily, touting trailers stuffed to the brim with messages and packages. All in all, it was frankly surprising that the mail service hired as few individuals as it did. I only really saw twenty different people, anyway. Including 'Warden'.

Anyway, my new workload took me considerably longer than my previous attempts had. I was left far longer running around than before, but at least I had the forethought to categorize my deliveries into sections dependent on where they tugged on me when I picked them up. That way I wasn't running back and forth willy nilly, backtracking for every single package like an idiot. Still, the extra work took its toll, gradually. The wheelchair chafed me around my midsection, and I was fairly certain pants were now the work of the devil. They rode up, wedging in places best not mentioned in civilized company. To boot, they collected sweat like no ones business, clinging to me in a most uncomfortable way. I was on the verge of swearing them off like so many around me obviously had, and just committing myself to the life of a shameless nudist.

When in Rome, right? Horse Rome, but anyway. I digress.

"So, heard you've been givin' the Warden a bit of a stir, eh?" a voice claimed, bringing me out of my reverie. It's not like I had sat down alone, but in my bout of introspective thinking I had become quite mobbed by my coworkers. The silent call to lunch had not gone unanswered, as more and more ponies had decided to take a break to sit down at the provided tables and chow down on whatever food they had brought with them.

More than a few had decided to encircle me, filling my space with chatter and the scent of other meals. The mare that sat to my left, a short earth pony with a calico coat of black and blue hilariously had a name tag on her chest that read 'Black Anne Blue'. Bet she loved her parents for that. She was the one who had spoken to me, so I quickly responded once I had mulled her words over.

"I figured it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself," I started, carefully swallowing the food in my mouth so I didn't inadvertently spray it across the faces of those I was trying to talk to, "Stop doing the bare minimum. If I let my disabilities define who I am," at this I paused, slightly unable to process the words passing my lips.

Wasn't that what I had been doing in my day to day life? Feeling sorry for myself just because I lost a leg... and other things... 

I had made it out of that with more than the others had, and afterwards had done relatively little with my life. Nothing more than feeling sorry for myself, I'll admit. Had a simple change of venue really been all I needed to finally get my ass in gear?

Nah, I'm sure it was unrelated.

"...If I don't live life to the fullest, won't it simply pass me by?" I finally ended, masking my moments hesitation with a gulp of water.

"Well said!" trumpeted a griffin with the name-tag of 'Thrash' as he slung what looked like a leg of cooked lamb in front of my face. The others didn't so much as seem to think this was an affront as simply rude, as evidenced by Black Anne sinking her hoof deep into Thrashes side. He let out an indignant squawk, dropping his food as he tried to form a protest.

"Don't wave your stinky food in my face, you feathered windbag," Black Anne stated dismissively with a smile on her face. A pegasus with the name-tag of 'Balaan' scooped up the leg and tossed it back over to Thrash with nary a protest. He then wiped his wing of the grease on Thrashes hindquarters.

"Agh! Dude, do you know how hard that is to get out?" he yelped as he tried to rub it clean with a napkin.

"Yes," Balaan replied, almost emotionlessly. "That is why I wiped it off on you. Much easier to clean from fur, than feathers."

"Trust you to think of it logically," Thrash griped, seemingly satisfied with how clean he managed to get his butt.

"It's Balaan, all he does is think logically!" Black Anne joked, prompting the trio to devolve into a gaggle of giggles. Even Balaan seemed to find it funny.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask," Thrash started, gulping down a strip of flesh as he used his beak to tear it from the bone. "How did you lose your leg?"

Black Anne landed another solid strike to Thrashes side, causing him to shoot a glare at her. "Gosh, have some friggin tact, huh? What birdbrain here is trying to get across between the massive amounts of understanding and compassionate thinking is that for all intents an' purposes we basically know next to nothin' about you. So spill! A whole freaking month you're pullin' paper right alongside us, and the most we actually know about you is that you used to live in Trottingham, and that you weren't in 'our' line of work before," she stated with a pointed look. "So c'mon, spill! What else is interesting about a pony with the hilariously contradictory name of 'Rock Light'?"

"Uhh..." I stuttered, masking my pause with a prolonged chew before I swallowed. "Nothing much to tell," I stated, trying to figure out what I could tell them.

So they knew nothing about me. That was good. I could very well tell them basically anything and it had relatively little chance to return to bite me in the ass.

That being said, I didn't want to have to think up some entirely new fictitious life I would continuously remember despite my having no actual recollection of it. Best to supplement my lie with as much truth as I could shove into it, then.

"I..." I started, trying to think on how best I could translate this, "I used to be in the guard."

"No shit?" Thrash asked, earning another hoof to his side.

"Language, you cretin," Black Anne said in a well meant tone. "No reason to embarrass yourself further than you already have..."

"You have the shoulders of a guard," Balaan stated in what might have been an amused tone. "I can not admit to claiming you have the legs of one, however."

Black Anne gave him a disapproving glance.

"What, I say a single word and you hit me, and then Balaan says all that and gets away with a dirty look?" Thrash said in an offended tone, sucking the marrow from the center of the bone.

"Balaan means well, he just doesn't know any better," Black Anne retorted, giving Thrash a dirty look of his own at his loud slurping.

"I mean well too..." he argued, letting out a low huff.

They fell silent once more, awkwardly prompting me to continue. "Well... I uh...I was in the guard. For a few years before... this," I gave my stump a shake, drawing their gazes as a consequence. "Believe me when I say that I made it out... better than anypony else that was there. So I would appreciate if you wouldn't ask any further on this particular subject, if you don't mind." It was a touchy subject, even as watered down as I had made it. They seemed to be able to catch on to that at least. 

It wasn't that I didn't like them, having more friends to help take some stress off would be nice. But they were delving into some very... personal territory. I didn't like talking about that, not with anyone. The sooner we could move past that particular conversational point would make me all that much more happy. 

"Suffice to say, I was... let go. An honorable discharge, mainly due to my condition. After that, I moved to Ponyville, and now I work here. As to why I moved here, apparently it was over a girl."

I got a couple of 'oohs' and a blank stare from Balaan, as well as a sharp shoulder from Thrash along with a knowing wink.

"Apparently? How can you 'apparently' move for a girl? Are you just not sure?" Anne stated with a knowing smirk, swishing her tail back and forth behind her.

"Ehm. Short answer, Discord," I responded, sipping at a box of juice I had bought at the workplaces personal concessions stand. They had all sorts of little goodies.

I got a round of hisses from my answer. Again I was struck by familiarity regarding my previous conversation with Derpy. Ditzy. Whatever. Who, by the way, was also sitting down at my table. She hadn't said anything yet, one eye fixed on me and her other off examining the wall. She seemed content to simply sit and listen to us, even with the glances that were thrown her way by my new 'friends'. She gave a nod and a frown as I mentioned Discord, so at least I knew she was listening and not spaced out.

"Seriously? That two faced jerk?" Anne Blue muttered, shaking her head. "What did he do?"

"Messed with my memory," I muttered, trying to consolidate my story. "Kinda messed me up a bit, and I'm still kinda muddy on some things. Ditzy had to help me find my house," I admitted with a half truth. Ditzy gave an affirmatory 'mmf' at that, but didn't add anything more. "By the way, just in case I truly screw something up, I'm just sorta friends with you guys, right?"

Glances were traded at that, to which Thrash immediately said "You owe me twenty bits, remem- GAH."

Blue cut him off with yet another hoof expertly placed within Thrashes side, giving him an acidic glare to boot. "Nah, nah, we haven't talked all that much to be honest."

"We have had precisely three conversations take place between you and this one," Balaan added. "This one has noticed that you have been... reclusive. Better to respect your privacy as opposed to making you feel uncomfortable, yes?"

"And this?" I asked with a smirk, giving the table a gesture along with all its occupants.

"You seemed more open today. Thrash suggested we extend an... orange branch, as he called it?"

"Which by the way, the real saying is 'olive branch', not orange branch. Friggin dummy," she punctuated her last word with another strike in Thrashes side as Balaan wore a look of confusion.

"Olive... I do not get it." Balaan admitted with a sigh. "The statement made more sense when it involved an orange."

"Made about as much sense as you do," Black Anne Blue joked with a wide smile.

"Thank you for your kind words," Balaan stated, much to Thrashes amusement.

"So this maaaare~" Anne trilled, twitching her tail mischievously. "Anypony we know?"

"Uhhh," I responded, "I don't really know if you know her. She's one of the element bearers? Her name's Rarity. She's a white unicorn with a purple mane, and runs a clothing boutique."

"Ah!" Thrash exclaimed, drawing Black Annes' unbelieving gaze. "I know her! Oh don't look at me like that. I socialize! She made me this totally kickin' scarf that makes me look totally hot. Hotter even than I do now! I know, I know what you're thinking, Thrash is already so unspeakably hot there's no way he could possibly get any hotter. Well let me tell NYEEEAAAWK-" he cut off with a high pitched squawk, as Black Anne Blue buried her hoof in his side once again. "Geez girl, cut it out with all the hitting... You're gonna tenderize me if you keep that up..."

"Just get to the point, you giant turkey. It's already a sunny day, we don't need you to make it worse with all the hot air you're filling the room with," she responded dismissively.

"Fine, fine. She made me a scarf. It makes me look even more awesome by accentuating my feathers. Happy you ruined my story?"

"Immensely," Black Anne Blue admitted with a smile.

"This one can not explain why, but the ceasure of your tale causes this one happiness as well," Balaan stated with a low cough.

"Low blow, dude," Thrash griped.

"What? No. This one did not blow, what you heard was a cough. Apologies for your confusion."

"I... damnit Balaan, I can never tell when you're joking," Thrash let out with a sigh. "She also clued me onto this shampoo that works on both my fur and my feathers. It even works better than the stuff I'd been using for years!"

"I've seen her at the spa a couple times, but we've never talked. I think she's scared of me," Black Anne Blue admitted wistfully, before earning another squawk of pain from Thrash. "Can't imagine why," she stated with a smile. "I mean, it's not like I exactly 'exude' the type of class she's used to," she added with a pair of airquotes. "She always buys the super expensive spa package, at least she has every time I've been there and seen her."

"This one has not met her," Balaan stated, noticing everyone looking at him for his two cents. "She sounds... lovely."

"Lovely... yeah..." I muttered with a sigh.

"Whats the matter big guy, trouble on the ninth cloud?" Black Anne Blue said with a knowing smile.

"Well... I mean. She's a nice enough mare, I mean..." I fixed them with a wry look, "You've seen her, she's definitely pretty. I can't complain in that regard. It's just... well I don't remember her. At all in a meaningful way. I know her, I know of her. But I don't remember the relationship I'm supposed to have with her. According to her the whole reason I moved here is to be closer to her, so I have to assume I was at the very least heavily interested in her."

"Ah. Sounds complicated. Can't say I have any suggestions for you mate," Thrash admitted, shaking his head in defeat. "I mean, the longest relationship I've had is with -NWAAAWK," he let out another squawk, glaring at Black Anne Blue as he rubbed at his side. "Yeah. We don't exactly have the most normal kind of relationship by most ponies standards. Ain't normal by gryphon standards, either. Any advice we could give probably wouldn't help you all that much."

"Just because you're absolute rubbish at romance doesn't mean you can lump me in with you," Black Anne complained with a grumble.

"Love you too hon," Thrash muttered, planting a kiss on top of her head as she continued to grumble at the  public display of affection. She let out a low cough, obviously trying to fight down a blush.

"A...anyway, your memory isn't going to be gone forever, right?" she finally asked after she had fought down her blush.

"Eh, no. Rarity said she was just going to ask Twilight for a spell or something-"

"She is Princess Celestias' student," Balaan blurted out suddenly. "If there is any such pony who could reverse a spell of Discords', it would be Twilight Sparkle. The princess' student has to be strong."

"She helped with the parasprites..." Ditzy added.

"Yeah!" Thrash agreed.

"So basically, no, this shouldn't last for a long time. Discord himself thought it would wear off soon," I lied, "But in the meantime it's all kinds of awkward. I feel like I'm going to inadvertently insult her over something really stupid. I mean... look at me," I gestured at myself, and I could swear I hear DM and A giggling away in my bag. "I'm not exactly her level of class either. What if I completely screw myself over, make her not like me and completely depress myself when I finally get my memory back and realize I drove my own girlfriend off? I can't think of anything more pathetic, to be honest... And it's not like I can just fake the level of intimacy she obviously wants, for me it's like I just met her. For her we've been together for months. I was just trying to have a pleasant conversation yesterday when an errant word made her think I was asking her to move in with me. The mare is absolutely head over hooves for me, and I honestly have no idea why."

A complete lie, the long and short was that Discord brain bamboozled her. The real question was whether or not she would still be... pleasant after everyones memory was returned to normal. There was no way in HELL Discords patchwork memories would stay indefinitely, he liked chaos so odds were good that he himself would take it down just to kick off the 'liar revealed' plot-line. I wouldn't put it past him to find something like that pretty hilarious. As overused as such a plot-line is.

My lunch continued in relative comfort, allowing me to have an enjoyable conversation with a group of people I didn't want to stab my ears out after having listened to. They even apparently accepted Ditzy into their little group, they didn't have anything against her. Since she technically came in attached to me, they didn't have any problem grilling her with questions. 

Overall, it was a nice day. No having to go out into dangerous forests, scorching hot deserts or anything of the kind due to the fact that neither A nor DM picked up a model W signal. I didn't speak to Rarity, and she didn't try to contact me. I have to assume she was busy.

I managed to prep myself as best I could, draining the two thousand bits from discords' sack into a drawer so I wouldn't lose the excess in case I needed it to buy more stuff to 'cheat with'. I really had to look into preparing contingencies for all the various elemental baddies I was sure to run into. I'd come across a plant, a water and a sort of... 'sand' themed boss. Not to mention the ninja themed Model P. That left plenty of potential elements and various bosses I could still come up against.

I had yet to fight someone flame themed, but I already had my water attack so it shouldn't be that hard of a fight. I hope, anyway. Electricity would be a difficult sword to face, I really wish I had managed to finish off that plant tower boss when I had the chance.

It was just before sundown, when Model P finally woke up.
> 7- Model P
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The air was heavy with thrumming energy, the very walls pulsing with a sinister glow. The sky above was thick with the discarded waste of burning fuel, permeating the are with a rancid stench. Not that most of the areas inhabitants would have minded.

Not much use in adding olfactory sensors to a bot designed to fire a full compliment of rockets and lasers from its face.

The journey had been fraught with danger, the path they blazed littered with the broken remains of the mavericks that had stood against them. In all shapes and sizes they had challenged his megaman, his chosen wielder. They had pushed him to the brink of death, and sometimes beyond it. 

And still they failed.

Their remains had only served to strengthen his bearer yet still, aiding in his quest. The weak fall, and pave the road for the strong.

And his bearer was one of those strong few.

He had taken his enemies apart piece by piece over the course of every battle, and had added what had made them strong to himself. Over the course of the path he took, his bearer reunited him with his various brothers and sisters, and they had thrived in their bearers embrace. He had cared for them, protected them, had made them feel alive.

It was no wonder they all willingly fought for his cause, to rid the world and its inhabitants of the twisted biometal scourge known as Model W. None could fully rest easy while its influence still tainted the lands. They would not rest until it had been eradicated, burned to the quick, and left as nothing. It was as it would be. 

They were their megamans strength, and he was theirs. Together, their reach was almost as monstrous as those they faced, and yet more twice as strong.

The sight of their quarry swam through the air above, a writing mass of Model W which had decided to finally take notice of them. Its form was that of a tremendous serpent, its head a horrendous combination of bared mechanical parts and burnished biometal. It had but one eye, that glared out the bottom of its head with ire so great that he almost felt himself draw back in fear.

Almost. The driving force behind them did not back down.

The Megaman would not be quashed down into submission.

So neither would they.

The Megaman leaped forth, to battle. They surged around him, reveling in the strength, the energy, the life he exuded. He outstretched his limbs as he sailed forward, his body arcing through the darkened air. They heard his call, and danced in delight to tone. Their lights shone in the darkness surrounding the Megaman, carving forth his path.

"All models!" he called out, and let them know of their overwhelming right. "MEGAMERGE!"





The purple tinged chunk of Biometal lurched off the table I had placed it on, impacting with the ceiling and clattering down on the floor.

"Excitable, ain't he?" Model D chirped, getting a few seconds of air as he continuously bounced up and down on my sofa cushions. Little booger was lucky the basement had no windows, with the noise he was making I bet anyone walking by would suss out my little secret as quick as you could say 'He's Megaman!'

Err, 'megamane', I guess. Sometimes I hate this place.

"Who are you?" the violet laced chunk of living metal demanded, hovering roughly at eye height as he swayed from side to side. "Where am I? How did I get here? Where is the Megaman? Where is Grey!??!"

I froze at his words, the implications hitting me straight in the face. Grey. Not Ashe. It couldn't possibly be, I had to be missing something important, an errant word or obscure meaning.

"A!" he crowed suddenly, spotting the warily floating Model A that had decided to place my head inbetween herself and Model DM. I honestly don't blame her for that, DM is boisterous. Little brat already broke five vases. There's nothing worse than a broken vase you never even got the pleasure of breaking yourself. If someone else gets to, it's just no fun. "Where's Grey?" he repeated, slightly softer this time as he invaded my personal space to orbit with Model A.

Why they decided to orbit all of a sudden, I don't know. If I had the ability to fly, I wouldn't waste it by circling around someones head...

"Who?" Model A finally decided on letting out, quirking herself at a curious angle, reminiscent to a dog cocking its head. "Wait... Grey?" she turned the word over in her mouth, slowly bobbing up and down. She then turned to look me straight in the eye. I think. She could have been staring at my nose for all I really know. No pupils to follow, after all. "Didn't you say something about... yeah! You asked me if I new a Grey, right?"

"Who... is this... creature?" Model P ground out, his callous tones sounding slippery and caustic.

Damn, 'creature'. Don't think he likes me. But I'm so lovable! A regular furry four legged Fonzie, friend to everyone!

"This is David!" Model A crowed, defending me as she hung protectively over my head. "He's our current megaman! Listen..."

Model A leapt to explain the current situation, detailing how Discord was the cause of our problems, the bane of our existence. Model P was understandably pissed, even thought he didn't curse or try to break anything I could see him literally shaking with barely restrained rage. As Model A eventually got to the parts where we had contacted help from another world in order to find him in the desert, I could hear him strangling back a growl.

Whether the growl was in reaction to us finding him acting as an impromptu battery to a random individual who he couldn't rant against due to them not actually being evil, or was in fact due to the very incomprehensible idea that I, a 'so called megaman' had been able to save him I couldn't tell.

It was clear he didn't really like me. You didn't get much in the way of facial emotions with the biometals, but even someone as feasibly slow as me could not only decipher the underlying hostility in his voice but very well recognize the 'subtle' way he scoffed every time Model A noted a competent point I had accomplished. It was quite clear we weren't going to immediately mesh like Models A and DM had. They were likable. P was an arrogant little shit. He was absolutely convinced that I wasn't 'good enough' for him, and I'll be honest that I don't currently look that intimidating.

A teetering tripod covered in hair with eyes larger that most plates. I REALLY didn't look that scary.

That being said, I didn't appreciate the fact that he just took one look at me and then judged me unfit. See if I let him megamerge with me. Model A was pretty badass on her own, I didn't need... 'ninja' powers or whatever Model P had. Flinging shuriken, seeing through walls. Grapes probably being sour and all that.

The scarf probably would have been cool, though.

"My functions are... impaired," he... whined? Complained? Mentioned in a tone so salty I wouldn't be surprised if everything spontaneously tasted of lemons. "I don't have time for this, I have to get back to Grey, we were so close! One final battle, and then it would have been over! This... is intolerable."

"Look," Model A tried to console him, "I can't say what functions will restore or when, but from personal experience I can say that they will eventually come back. Remember, I started off without most of my telemetry or other basic radar capabilities when I woke up here..."

"Thus eventually leading to how you found myself," he noted, his tone refusing to deviate from his perpetually morose drawl.

"Yes," Model A responded whilst DM let out a chirpy 'yep!'

"And what... are you?" he switched gears, placing the brunt of his attention on DM. Surprisingly, Model DM momentarily lost his 'bounce', freezing under the dry gaze of the newcomer. "I have been around... for quite a while. I have seen Megamen come and go, and I have seen those that stood bright in the darkness leave behind their legacy as my brothers and sisters. And I must be completely frank... I do not recall you."

Another short description as to 'where' and 'how' Model DM came about from Model A saved me from having to phrase it myself. Thank goodness for her. It's not that this new model scared me... he just gave me the heebies.

"Another Model," he hummed as DM seeked sanctuary behind one of my ears. Big, useless floppy things they were, I guess they worked well as a temporary shield. "I will not baby you. I will not puff up whatever fragile sense of self worth you may have. Prove yourself and I will grudgingly accept you as worthy to fight beside me. You may even yet be worth adding your strength to my Megaman. And you," he snarled, placing himself an inch away from my face and causing DM to flee to the far side of the room. "You are not my Megaman. I do not trust you. I do not acknowledge you. I will use you for my own goals, to recover my lost brothers and sisters so we may return to our true Megaman. If you don't prove useful, I will leave you behind for one more so. Understand?"

"Yeesh, dramatic much?" I quipped, snorting a breath of air into his face. I wasn't going to be one to quail before a dinky little piece of sentient metal. Little jerk wanted to insult me to my face, I'd give as good as I got. "Try to keep up with me, and I may end up using you, if you somehow end up being as useful as Model A. Doubt it, but stranger things have happened," I joked. "So since the princess is now awake, I'm going to take a walk. Get some fresh air. Who's coming?" I asked, giving Models A and DM the chance to get some breathing space between us and the blowhard.

I'd have to figure out a better way to blow off some steam than going for walks. If his current demeanor was any indicator, I'd soon become a marathon walker if I went that route.

"I'm good," DM spouted, surprising me. The way he was acting, I would have thought he'd want to get some distance for a bit. 

"I'm coming," Model A declared, unsurprisingly. Model P refrained from talking, giving me what was probably a disapproving glare.

Once up the stairs, DM settled back on the windowsill that Model P had previously occupied whilst he had been 'charging'. No further words came from him, maybe he was taking a nap.

"Are there any current signals?" Model P asked, somehow managing to still sound entitled despite the inquiry.

"No," Model A stated simply after a short pause. "Although I might not even tell you if I had found something. Look, I know David here's not who we're used to dealing with. I know you probably have some high set of standards you're holding him to. I get that. But do you have to be such a brat about it? My version of you'd kick your ass if he was here."

After a confused pause as Model P drew back as if slapped, Model A continued unabated.

"Yeah, that's right, my version. My P is quite like you. But he is nowhere as stuck up as you. I don't get what you've been through to get that metaphorical stick stuck up so far in there, but David doesn't deserve it. He isn't the best," I tried not to grumble at that. Not quite successful, but still, "But he's not incompetent. I've seen him walk forth, head held high. He didn't have to, he could have stayed in relative safety-"

Oh, so now I had a choice? I seem to remember her goading me on that first time... and then with the fishbot in the well...

"But he's chosen the path of strife. Our path. The path of the Megaman. So give him a chance."

He didn't respond, hanging silent in the air before us as I quietly gathered a few bits and placed them in my bag.

I got to the front door when I heard a subdued, almost chagrined, "Fine. We shall see."

That got a slight smile from me. Point to Model A, seems she had a way with words.

I opened the front door, stopping as I noted an eggshell off-white hoof extending to where the doorknob was before I opened said door. Connected to the hoof was a predictably eggshell off-white leg, torso and complete body with a swirl of perfectly quaffed purple hair.

"This is the one you said was your mate, correct?" Model P asked snidely.

Rarity stood in the open doorframe, gaping wide at the words of the floating, stupid, dumbass chunk of biometal. I told him not to let anyone else see him. I told him not to talk to anyone else. I DID. And whats the first thing he does as soon as he gets the chance?

"Mate?" Rarity stated in a bewildered timber, her eyes darting back and forth from myself to the traitor.