The Wubs Begin

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I stretched my arms wide over my head once I finally got off the bus. Me and many other anonymous people stood in front of a large building, everybody all dressed up in some fashion. I saw one guy that had a modified robe with fists on it, he looked like a muscular wizard. It was pretty funny honestly. I looked at other cosplayers and noted the good ones, the great ones, and the bad ones. I shrugged my shoulders, adjusted my sweet sunglasses and strutted towards the building.

I should probably give an introduction. My name is Mitchell, no last name as I don’t wanna be stalked, and I have come to comic-con all dressed up as well. But not as a wannabe anime character or simple minded game character, oh nono no. I am here… all dressed up… as the wubly Vinyl Scratch from Equestria Girls.

I decided to go all out for my very first trip to comic-con. Had everything custom made, with the exception of the headphones Vinyl had in the' Music to my Ears' thing. I was saddened that I couldn’t get ahold of one, but I figured regular headphones would do. Of course, I’m dressed up as a girl but at least it’s not as bad as those huge pony costumes some of the fans wear.

I pulled out my iPod; yeah I still had one instead of using my phone during this day and age, go figure. After putting on my headphones I put on some sweet, sweet music. I adjusted my white and blue backpack and danced around a bit while I walked alongside people. I got some stares and weird looks but those just made me grin wider and dance more, it has always been a hobby of mine to make people feel weirded out. My friends call me a passive troll, though I must disagree.

I mellowed out a bit with the dancing as I got to the more crowded part of the inner building. I’m weird, but not much of an asshole thank you very much. I looked around at all of the sweet stalls and even took a few pictures with my phone when I saw a particularly good cosplay. I just finished a conversation with someone using my Nowacking impression and fist bumping a fellow brony when I came across an interesting stall.

It was not just any stall; it was a stall that sold the most random assortment of goods that I had ever seen since I got here. I won’t list them because, honestly, I completely forgot about all of them once my eyes laid upon the one thing I desired most since coming here. A perfect replica of Vinyl’s headphones, and judging from the wires it may even work.

“How much for the headphones?!” I nearly shouted as I yanked out my wallet.

The very trustworthy man behind the stall, who was cosplaying as the merchant from one of the Resident Evil games I never bothered to play, chuckled, “Eager, I take it? Very well, the headphones were cheap to make so forty dollars is fine.”

I didn’t even think before replying, “Deal!” I practically slammed two twenties on the stall's table and picked up the beautiful work of art. I start to walk away and plug the headphones into my iPod when the merchant called out to me.

“Hold on, you’re forgetting something,” said the awesome merchant before reaching down behind the stall and pulling out a small roll of tools.

Confused, I asked him, “What do I need those for? I didn’t even pay for them.”

The, still incredibly trustworthy, merchant replied, “Oh, no charge for these. I just figured you’ll need them later. You never know when something will come up.”

Still confused, but not put off, I took them from his grasp and put the roll of tools into my backpack. After I put my backpack back on I shrugged and since I got something for free I went back to my impression and said, “Thanks man, don’t know what I did but whatever. Later dude.”

After fist bumping him for good measure I left the stall. With my new headphones plugged in and a beat in my ears I danced around a bit more, and then everything flashed white and I immediately went black.

♫♫♫

“And that is the story of how I got myself into Equestria,” I telepathically said to my fellow stoned neighbor. Not stoned as in drugged up but, you know, literal stoned.

I could practically feel his figurative eyes roll, “Yes miss Scratch I know, you have told that same story to me over and over for the past millennium.”

I mentally sighed, “Well, not like we have anything better to do now, do we?”

“We could play eye spy?”

“No! Not again! We’ve done that so much we managed to point out every blade of grass here!”

“Hmph! Well excuse me- Oh, hello there...” I tried my best to notice what he was seeing but unfortunately being encased in stone doesn’t allow for much freedom of movement. But, in any case, I didn’t even need to see it to know what was happening right now. Seems like season two is starting.

In case you haven’t figured it out already, or don't know what season two is, it was the CMC and their natural chaotic behavior. They had a bit of a spat about what Discord represented until Cheerilee broke it up. Before they had a chance to leave to do whatever they were going to do though, Sweetie Belle spoke up.

“What about this one?”

Cheerilee looked up at me and recognition soon showed on her face, “Ah yes, now here we have a statue depicting the, as she called herself at the time, “Wub Queen”. Legend has it that one day she appeared out of nowhere and upon first arriving in civilized society she immediately began playing horrendous noises and tortured everypony with it. But that alone wasn’t what made the Princesses defeat her. The legend continues to say that she created a terrifying weapon that almost completely destroyed Cloudsdale.”

All of the pony children oohed and awed as they stared up at me.

“Yeah, I am pretty awesome huh?”

“Humph, she looks stupid. My dog is better looking,” scoffed Diamond Tiara.

Discord laughed as I seethed, “Oh, it’s on you little bitch.”

Cheerilee rolled her eyes and said, “Come on now class, on to the next statues.”

Once they left, cracks immediately began to form on Discord’s statue. They continued to spread until a certain breaking point was reached and Discord was finally freed in a rather impressive explosion of stone.

Discord immediately began stretching and doing yoga poses, “Well, miss Scratch, it has been quite the entertaining thousand years but I believe it’s time I retake my throne now.”

“Wait! Before you go, you think you can do me a solid and free me?” I politely asked.

Discord stroked his goatee and ponders my request for a bit. Then, he snapped his fingers and I, for the briefest of moments, thought he freed me until a stereo appeared out of nowhere and landed in some bushes out of sight.

“That stereo will free you at some point in time. Maybe in the next few minutes, or maybe in a few years, who knows? I’m certain it can make enough wubs to break you out of your shell, so to speak. Well toodles!” And with that, he reached behind his back and pulled a Looney Tunes black hole out of hammerspace. He then proceeded to throw it on the ground and gracefully swan dived into it.

“Hmph, well if I can wait a thousand years I guess I can at least wait for a few more. Time to count the grass again...”

♫♫♫

It’s been a few days since Discord’s second defeat and he wasn’t in a very talkative mood. It could be because he was defeated again, by six regular ponies and shiny trinkets no less, or it could be because I have been doing nothing but making rock jokes since he came back into service as a garden gnome.

“Hey chin up buddy it's not that bad. Schist happens ya know?”

“Come on, you haven’t hit rock bottom just yet.”

“You know it’s usually guys who throw rocks at girls and not the other way around, right?”

“Well your rule wasn’t quite concrete just yet.”

“Don’t take imprisonment for granite, you can come up with a better and more rock solid plan now!”

“I’m a pretty bold person myself but you? You’re boulder.” Maud and I would be the best of friends I’m sure.

“Yo-“ I was about to start my next pun until I heard some sick beats coming from the bushes. The music got progressively louder until the very ground was pretty much shaking. Cracks appeared on my statue and then the stone exploded away from me in a similar fashion as Discord. I immediately began to bob my head and dance.

“Sweet! Oh yeah! Yeeeeaaahhh!” I shouted over the music. Then the song abruptly ended as the stereo exploded from the pure bass flooding out of it.

“Awww dude that’s weak. Can’t just cut off the wubs like that. Not cool,” I sighed and sulked at that, but got over it quickly. I pulled out my iPod, that has never run out of power for some odd reason, put on my headphones and turned to Discord’s statue.

“Later dude, I’m sure you’ll get out again soon. Till then have a gneiss time, hah!” And with that, I turned on some new tunes and began to strut out the garden like I owned the place.

Until I heard, “Stop right there, criminal scum!”

Exposition Wubs

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I groaned in discomfort as I slowly began to wake up, something pointy was jabbing uncomfortably into my back. Shakily, I pushed myself up with one hand as the other held my head. I opened my eyes and blinked a bit in confusion when I realized I was in some bushes. Still confused, I tried to get out of the bushes, alas a twig caught my leggings and I tripped ungracefully out onto a dirt road. After getting back up I dusted myself off, and as I cleaned my shirt I noticed something that wasn't there before.

Well, two somethings actually.

My eyes widened in disbelief and I shakily bring my hands to my chest and grab. I felt a squishy feeling and I let out a strained gasp when I realized the mounds were real. I nearly started to hyperventilate and I frantically looked around to find something that showed a reflection. I noticed a small lake not too far and I sprinted towards it. When I got near the edge I carefully put my backpack down and fell to my knees next to the water. I looked down into the shimmering water and saw the perfect image of Vinyl Scratch from Equestria Girls staring back at me.

I slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream of shock and horror of suddenly not having a penis. After several minutes of trying to stop myself from hyperventilating again, I calmed down and just stared at my reflection. Eventually, I formed an epiphany when I finally let the shock and horror settle in and dissipate itself.

"I have boobs," I softly whispered to myself. A grin appeared on my face, "I have boobs!" I immediately grab the suckers without letting the grin drop from my face.

"This is so cool! Squeeze squeeze bitch- Wait why does my voice sound like Nowacking? I'm not doing an impression," I sat there staring off into space with my hands still on my chest as I contemplated the fact that as of right now my voice is now a fan voice of an animated pony. Eventually, I came to the decision that that is not nearly as important as everything else that is happening right now, which would be the boobs and lack of a male instrument.

I looked around to see if I could find anyone living near here. When my immediate sight didn't yield any results I looked behind myself and saw some smoke rising a little ways away.

"There must be people over there," I deduced with my amazing analytical and tracking skills. "But before I head there I need to see if anything is missing from my backpack."

I went over to my bag and rummaged through it. I pulled out the tools that I got as a gift from that nice merchant guy and my phone, iPod, and computer. I turned my computer on to make sure it was still working. When the desktop showed up I noticed a shortcut to an application that wasn't there before.

"What the hell? PonyMixer DJ? Never heard of that before. I'll check it out later."

A random thought about what amps I should use with my computer went through my mind as I went back to see if I missed anything in my pack. My hand brushed up against something and I pulled it out confused. It was a circuit board.

"What? I don't even...what? I don't even know how to use a circuit board-erk!" I dropped the piece of electrical equipment to grip my head in pain as information just suddenly flooded into my head. Circuits, wires, jacks, other assortments of items and how they all worked pieced themselves together into my brain. They formed thoughts and experiences I never knew or understood before. I let out a pained squeak that I will forever deny I did, as the flood of information quickly sped up. Finally, I was given a reprieve as I hung my head down and gasped for air.

I don't know why but I suddenly knew how to make DJ equipment. Amps, turntables, the works. I felt dizzy as the knowledge burnt itself into my brain forever. Among that collective library of mental books was the new knowledge that my backpack can make equipment related to DJing and music. Up to a limit, of course, the item being taken out can't be wider than the opening of the pack and any decorations that aren't part of the bare necessities and coverings can't be created and there is a cool down relative to the quality and size of the item taken out.

"I hope that never happens again. I'd usually think this would all be a dream, but I won't be reduced to denial and my imagination is not this good. Still, I can't wait to bust out some sick beats in the club tonight."

I paused a bit as I processed that last line, "Weird, I never really enjoyed clubs before, or even DJ-ed once. Why'd I say that?" I muttered to myself.

Shaking my head I put everything away back into my backpack except my computer. I walked down the road to the town with my computer resting on one arm as I fiddled with my new DJ application.

♫♫♫

I finally reached the town after several minutes of walking. When I got there my eyes nearly widened enough to put the size of my glasses to shame. In front of me were honest to god ponies. Ponies. Ponies from Friendship is Magic. I grinned widely and broke off into a light jog, computer still in my hands and nearly forgotten.

Ponies everywhere stopped what they were doing to gawk at the strange awesomeness that was me. Many were nervous, although most were pacified with my smile. Of course, like how every first meeting should go, it should start with some ungodly screeching.

How did this screech come by you ask? Well, in my impatience to fully embrace the brony within me I did not notice the rock in front of my path. Luckily, I managed to regain my balance in time to not destroy my precious computer. However, my other hand had one of my fingers tap the touchpad that had my mouse cursor on one of the sound adjusters. My laptop, at full volume mind you, blasted this horrid noise instead of the music I was working on and every pony in the area immediately stopped what they were doing and went into full panic.

It was then did I notice that everything around me did not have quite a modern look to it, even compared to Ponyville. Before I could reflect on that bit of knowledge the ponies managed to gather some wits about them and formed a mob to chase me off. Like the smart person I am, I ran and thankfully they didn't chase me too far out of town. But I didn't stop 'till I found an old shack if it could even be called that. I sat down in a slump in the cleanest corner I could find with a huff. I rested my elbows on my knees and put my head in my hands.

The only thing I could say about this whole situation was, "What the hell is happening?"

♫♫♫Back to the Future♫♫♫

"Stop right there, criminal scum!"

I turned to my right to see a lone pegasus guard running towards me. I pulled my headphones off and respond in kind. "Yo yo, what's up my little pony?"

The guard snorted at my choice of words before looking me dead in the eye and saying, "By the authority of the crown you are to come with me for disturbing the peace of the castle. Any resistance will be met with due force."

Oh hell no, I'm not going back to jail. I already did my time. "Sorry dude, but that wasn't me. That was him," I pointed my finger to Discord's statue a ways off into the garden. I mean, it was true in a way.

The guard rolled his eyes and I could feel the condescendingness come off him in waves, "Of course ma'am. The statue of the recently defeated Lord of Chaos broke out again to make some annoying noise and gleefully returned back to his prison. Now enough of this nonsense, come with me."

I fumed and shouted back at him with a totally not girly stomp of my foot, "It's true! He created a stereo before he was imprisoned again to make the wubs necessary to free me from MY stone imprisonment!"

It was, at that point after saying that sentence, that I realized I dun goofed. The guard's eyes widened and a spark of recognition and panic flared in his eyes, "Y-You're the Cloudsdale destroyer!"

Apparently, I'm a legend over there. The guard started to back up before he caught himself. He steeled himself for what was most likely an attack to ruin my day. It was at that point that I panicked and reached into a pocket on my weird coat skirt thing and pulled out one of my personal inventions.

A small round ball that I lovingly dubbed the Wubnade, non-lethal of course I'm not some psycho. I pressed the activator and immediately threw it down at the guard's hooves, quickly putting on my headphones that were still blaring one of my favorite songs. Just in time too, because the Wubnade shined in the face of the guard and blared out some wubs strong enough to cause distortions around it. The Wubnade made the guard pony lose all feeling in his legs and he promptly fell over.

I bolted away from the scene before he even hit the floor. That was my last 'nade and I didn't have enough time to make any more. Once I was out of the radius of my invention, only a few feet at the most and then the magic drastically reduces, I took off my headphones. I needed to hear the guards right now since I had none of my tricks with me. I heard some noises and quickly hid behind a pillar. A group of guards ran past me in the direction of the garden. Once I determined the coast was clear I left for the gates. Luckily, there were no guards present, seems like they all just left their stations to see what the commotion was all about.

"These are some shitty guards..." I thought to myself as I passed the castle gates.

♫♫♫

"Why in Tartarus did you leave the gates?! The criminal probably left by now!" Shining Armor shouted to the gate guards around the same time Vinyl was passing through the gates. He was in the middle of racing to the throne room to deliver this urgent news to Celestia, he didn't have time for this. "Get back to your stations! I already have a team searching! We'll talk about this later!"

The gate guards, thoroughly chastised, galloped back to their assigned posts. Shining Armor finally reached Princess Celestia's throne room and nearly tore off the doors as he raced inside.

"Goodness Captain, what seems to be the rush? Is it about the racket coming from the garden?" asked a faintly surprised Celestia, though you wouldn't be able to tell from her voice.

"A very familiar racket..." privately thought Celestia.

"Yes, your highness, it seems that another stone prisoner escaped. The tall two legged one, the Wub Queen."

Celestia nearly choked in surprise, "Shining! Send a search party immediately! We need to find her as quick as possible!"

"Already done your Highness."

"Double it! We must not let a repeat of Cloudsdale happen again! Go!"

Shining gave a quick bow before rushing off to finish his orders. Celestia bit her lip as she pondered what could happen in the next coming days.

"This could get ugly real fast. I need to warn Twilight and keep the elements ready," she quietly said, conjuring up a quill and scroll.

♫♫♫

Running to the train was actually easier than I thought it would be. Of course, there is a little thing called Murphy's Law, which decided to rear its ugly face in the form of three guards deciding to round the corner in front of me. I skidded to a stop and stood there in front of them. The guards and I exchanged stupid looks before they seemed to shake off their stupid. I turned and ran down an alley and they gave chase. After running myself ragged by taking tons of corners to make them lose sight, I was nearly at my limit. I'm not a fit woman after all. I still get a small shudder when I think things like that.

I had just managed to lose their sight, and after having enough of the running I decided to try a door. My luck turned out for the better as the first house I came across had the door unlocked. After quickly closing it shut I slid down its length with my back pressed against it with a loud sigh. It occurred to me that this house is probably occupied, and as if to prove my point I heard movement upstairs.

I should hide, but honestly, the pony probably knows someone is there. The hoof steps grew louder and I shakily stood back up, ready to meet my unknowing host. In hindsight, I probably should've hidden myself because what happened next won't be forgotten by either of us.

"Hey, Octavia you back already-" The sentence stopped with a start as the pony in front of me stared at me with wide eyes. Purple glasses resting on her horn and a wicked looking blue and light blue spiky mane.

Vinyl and Vinyl looked at each other and the only thing I could say was, "Uh, wubadubdub amirite?"

The First Wubstep Lover

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I woke up after, I assume, a few hours. Which was a bit weird considering I didn't even know I fell asleep.

"I must have been feeling more stress than I originally assumed."

But as the saying goes: "Assuming makes an ass out of you and me." So I picked myself off the ground and stretched my aching back. I could hear and feel the pops and my back immediately felt better. A corner in an old shack is not the best of sleeping arrangements. After a few more seconds of stretching my muscles, I put my backpack back on and walked out of the shack. Looking up into the sky I guesstimated it was around midnight, or it could not be, I honestly don't know. I need to get something that can tell time but with the current tech, I don't think a watch is in the near future.

As I was staring at the night sky a loud growl was heard and I finally realized how hungry I was. I contemplated how I was going to find food. A forest expert I was not and my hunting skills didn't go beyond random hunting games on my Xbox. I sighed as I knew what I had to do.

"With no money, a town of frightened ponies that I honestly doubt will help me now, and absolutely no knowledge of anything beyond what will happen really far into the future there is only one thing I can do. Though it grates on my morals I need to steal food." A growl from my stomach decided to give its input. "And fast too, the little guy won't shut up."

I straightened myself up and began to walk back towards the town.

"Might as well get this over with."

♫♫♫

It took me around thirty minutes to get back to the town. As I neared the town I took off my headphones and turned off the music I was using to calm my frazzled nerves.

On a side note, it turns out I'm actually in early Fillydelphia. There was a nice little sign not too far off on the road that I completely missed while I was dicking around with my computer.

When I got close enough I hid in some bushes off the side of the road. I scanned the, hopefully, empty streets with my red eyes. Naturally, I do not wear my sunglasses at night. Nothing seemed amiss and so I crept and inched closer, bush by bush. I finally got myself to the very edge of the town's buildings and pressed myself against one. I peeked my head around the side of the building I was pressed against and-

"What are you doing?" A voice suddenly spoke out.

I jumped three feet into the air with a small squeak, that I did not do, and landed flat on my face. I quickly shot my head up to see a small yellow earth pony with a light green mane staring down at me.

"I uh, I mean I was just- uh. Aren't you scared of me? I did make that noise that got the others all pissed and... it was an accident of course! But still-" I cut myself off when I realized I was beginning to ramble and saw the little pony looking at me with no small amount of concern.

I got back up to my feet and cleared my throat and said, "Er, I'm hungry. I need food and since I have no money and since the adults don't like me... I was gonna steal some." I admitted the last part with a guilty and sheepish look to the side.

For her part, the small filly looked horrified and for a brief moment, I thought she was gonna scream thief and bloody murder. That was until she darted towards me and wrapped herself around my leg.

"What the-" I managed to start saying till she sniffed. "Aww don't cry. Why are you crying?"

She looked up at me with pitiful eyes and said, "Nopony should be hungry and starving, that just ain't right! Now follow me." And with that, she detached herself from me and began walking off.

"Wait! How did you notice me anyway? Also, what's your name?" I asked the little pony.

She stopped and turned to look at me. "I saw you from my window over there." She punctuated that with a point of her hoof to a window one building over from where we stood. I briefly felt annoyed at how easily my sneaking plan fell apart. "My name is Golden Apple and my daddy helps our family bring in apples from the countryside. Now what is your name?"

And that one question actually gave me pause. On one hand, I felt no desire to try and change my identity into something that I'm not. On the other, I am not who I used to be. I am now a girl that happens to be the human counterpart of a pony that won't be born many years into the future, I have a magic backpack along with eldritch knowledge of wubs, and I'm in ponyland. Add to the fact that I've been mentally on my knees praying to any god that would give half a rat's ass that I wouldn't get any 'womanly issues', means I was in a right identity crisis.

With a shake of my head, I dispelled those thoughts and began to follow the filly. With resigned determination, I replied, "My name is Vinyl Scratch, but you can just call me Vinyl."

♫♫♫

"So uh, you sure your parents won't mind me being here?" I asked Golden apple as she pulled out some assorted vegetables and fruit. I gave myself a mental note to find a way to get some meat sooner or later. I tapped my fingers to one of my song's beat on the tabletop.

"Nah, don't worry. They ain't even here right now, they are at some boring adult party right now. They won't even know you're here, you'll be out before they get back." Golden Apple assured me as she set a plate of food in front of me, with thankfully no grass, hay, or flowers. I merrily dug in as I was too hungry to even care about the fact I was eating rabbit food.

"Well, that's good," I said around the last mouthful of produce. I took a bite out of a really juicy apple. "Damn, these are great apples!"

"Thanks! My family grows the best apples in all of Equestria!" said Golden Apple with a wide grin. She then adopts a curious look and asks, "What was that noise you were doing with your claws all about?"

I looked at the curious pony and said, "Fingers, not claws. And It was just a beat from one of my songs on here." With that, I pulled my iPod out and showed it to the filly.

"Whoa! How can this little thing play music? It doesn't look like it has any instruments!" She looked at her reflection in the screen with wonder.

I chuckled, "It doesn't look like it has instruments because they are all inside of it." I lied because she honestly wouldn't get it. "Would you want to hear some of the songs on here?"

"Would I!?"

"Alright, just let me get something first." With that, I pulled out some earbuds from my backpack, plugged it into the iPod and put the earbuds into Golden's ears and looked at my iPod. I scrolled through the list and chose a song from my very large arsenal and played it.

At first, she looked confused and then when the bass dropped, she started to bob her head a bit to the tune. A smile was on her face and I felt a rush of joy rise into my chest as I converted a local to the wonders of wubs. Me choosing a song and Golden listening to it went on for what seemed like an hour. That was until fate decided I was too comfortable and happy.

The front door swung open and since the kitchen table was not too far from the door we were immediately seen. A seemingly generic brown coated stallion with a black mane and his wife, a yellow mare with an orange mane stood in shock at the front door. They looked at me, then to Golden, then to the earbuds in her ears and followed it to my iPod.

The mare screamed, "Sweet Celestia that thing is trying to brainwash our daughter!"

Only one thing came to mind, "Aw shit, I can't catch a break today."

♫♫♫Back to the Future♫♫♫

"This dishwasher is amazing! But the bass only goes to eleven?" Me and pony Vinyl were sitting in the kitchen resting after doing dishes. We just finished a nice meal together with our heads bobbing to the killer beats coming from that little piece of heaven to the side of the sink.

"Yeah, I first made it with the setting up to twenty but anything higher than eleven broke the dishes and 'Tavi wasn't too thrilled with that. It sucks because the whole house shook and that was a wicked experience." Pony Vinyl explained after chugging the last bit of cider in her mug.

"Yeah dude, wubs are the best when you can make even the house dance to 'em." I said as I also polished off my mug of cider, it might not be alcoholic but damn if it wasn't good.

Pony Vinyl nodded, "Totally." With that, she levitated our mugs into the sink to be washed later. She got herself into a more relaxed position and after a while said, "So you would be me if I was this something you called a human?"

I also got into a more relaxed position as I thought about what to say. I was just barely containing my fangirling, ugh, as I chatted with best pony. Wait... would it be considered arrogant if I am technically calling myself best pony? Maybe, but whatever, it's true.

"Pretty much, though I'm sure we could possibly share some differences. Big multiverse and all." I replied, shrugging.

"I guess." She stayed silent for a while before saying, "So you need a place to crash tonight? 'Tavi is off visiting family. That's why I was a bit confused when I heard our door opening."

"Yeah, got the cops on my figurative tail. I was wondering if I could hole up here for tonight and leave tomorrow night. If that's cool with you of course."

Pony Vinyl nodded sagely, "Yeah, it's cool; I've had the cops on my tail before too. Too drunk out in the street one night, too much loud 'noise' on others. Honestly, you'd think they would know what wubstep is considering how popular it is nowadays."

I shook my head in disappointment. "There is no helping some ponies sometimes." I heard an agreement come from pony me and with that, we continued with our conversation that sparked many ideas for future wub projects.

Soon it was time for bed and she led me to a guest bedroom with attached bathroom. After an exchange of "good night" between us pony Vinyl went off to her bedroom and I shot straight towards the toilet, that cider goes straight through you. After doing my business and washing my hands I made sure the curtains were closed before taking off my shoes, setting my bag near the edge of the bed, and crashing down onto the bed.

I just closed my eyes when I suddenly felt something drop onto my face. Pushing off the offending object I sat up and looked at what intruded the personal space of my face. It was... the Tesseract? No, not a tesseract, just a lookalike.

"I don't even... what?" I mumbled in confusion. Shaking my head I decided to pick up the random Rubix cube wannabe. As I picked it up I heard a voice in my head.

"Uhh. This is the... Animorph... Wade. Call me... if you need any help?"

I yelped in shock and dropped the cube back onto my bed. I waited for a few minutes and nothing bad happened, so I picked up my backpack and placed it next to the cube. Deciding to keep it for a possible future, though with no definite thought it might ever come up again, I put it into one of my pack's side pockets.

When that was finished I felt a small urge to create something. It was nothing more than an annoying itch and I knew I would get no sleep if I did not scratch it. So I pulled out my tool roll and spread it out on my bed, then I pulled out some parts that I constantly kept stocked up on from my pack and mindlessly set to work.

It did not take long to finish and when I broke out of the trance I put myself in I examined my newest creation. Small leftover wisps of my magic disappeared into the air from my hands. Magic I, unfortunately, can only use during special circumstances, but that is a story for another time.

The thing before me was a basic iPod. It had an unremarkable shade of gray for its casing but that was of little importance. I took a sharpie from my backpacks front pocket and drew my cutie mark on the back of it. Then I took my computer out and hooked the new iPod into it. When that was finished I opened up a voice recording application and recorded myself a message, the itch was still there and I felt compelled on some level to record what I was about to say.

"Hey wassup dude or dudette! This is Vinyl Scratch and if ya need some cool tunes or just wanna hang out and party then you found your gal! I ain't too great at fighting so unless you just want a wicked bass cannon or something I wouldn't call me up for that. Later dudes!"

With that, I synced up the audio file and the iPod. I disconnected it and summoned some earbuds from my backpack. I connected the earbuds to the iPod and wrapped it all up before walking to the bathroom mirror, still letting the itch mindlessly guide me. When I got to the mirror I cocked my arm back as magic gathered in my hand.

"I really hope this doesn't break anything." I thought, pony me has been a very gracious host and I didn't want to break anything of hers or her roommates.

I chucked the iPod plus earbuds at the mirror and watched fascinated as the mirror rippled and accepted the iPod with no resistance. The mirror showed a dark expanse and I watched my newly created iPod replicate many, many times and fly off towards god knows where. Soon the mirror returned to normal and I merely saw my own reflection with a far off look in my eyes.

I scratched the back of my head and with a shrug said, "Sure would suck if those earbuds got tangled. But honestly how could they? Not like they are known for that."

I finally was able to head off for bed, thoroughly exhausted.

Base of Wuberations

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After waking up the day was spent talking with my other self and getting ready for my trip out of Canterlot. To me the day felt as if it flew by and soon I found myself sneaking between alleys as I headed towards the train station. Pony Vinyl snuck around with me and luckily, but oddly, we did not come across any opposition. Either Celestia doesn't find me as dangerous as I thought or since she hasn't found me in the city yet she must think I'm already out in the country.

Pony Vinyl paid for my ticket and I pulled a hood over my head and put a bandana on to cover my face.

"Thanks again for the help pony me, I wish I could repay you." I said with a smile, though she couldn't see it.

"No prob dude. But if you really feel like paying me back then come pay me a visit if you manage to clear your name. I want to introduce you to Octavia." Said Pony me. She smiled at me and trotted off back home.

I looked at the train and began walking inside of it. I sat down in one of the cushiony benches and waited until the ticket stamper came by.

Eventually he came by and gawked at me. "Erm, what kind of creature are you?"

Annoyed I replied, "Minotaur."

"But you don't loo-"

"I have a condition, good sir!" I shouted at him.

He cringed, his ears splayed back and a wide eyed, apologetic look appeared on his face. "I-I am so sorry ma'am! I-I didn't mean-"

"It doesn't matter. Here." I handed him my ticket and he punched it without a word. When he left I sighed.

"Didn't think that excuse would actually work." With that thought I got myself comfy to prepare myself for the long ride to Fillydelphia.

♫♫♫

I woke up with a jostle as the train came to a stop. I finally arrived back to what I consider to be my hometown in this world. I got off the train and noticed it was now early morning. I stretched a bit and walked out of the station. Out of the station I noticed how much the city had grown since my tiny vacation. Skyscrapers now adorned the city and there was a pretty big mix of races. Ponies, griffons, minotaurs, you name it. I figured this was the reason I wasn't even spared a glance.

With a shrug I walked down a road that headed south and out of town. You know that shack I first stayed in? Well that was my home now and it's no longer just a shack in the middle of a forest. It was my Base of Wuberations and hopefully it should still be intact. Thankfully, in a rare stroke of foresight, I hid all of my stuff in a trunk and buried that under one of my house's walls. With luck any passerby's just saw a small old house in the middle of a forest and nothing else.

Eventually I got to the outskirts and I followed the very well known trail back. The trip through the forest was uneventful, as most of the trip, and soon I came upon my abode in the forest. I still haven't got a clue as to what the name of the forest is yet. I walked in and it was clear that no one even bothered to come inside, as unlikely I thought that would be considering it has been a thousand years. The inside was dust, dirt and cobwebs galore. Spring cleaning was direly needed and I felt like I had quite a long day of it ahead of me.

Putting all that aside I picked up a metal shovel from the corner and walked around to the west side of my home. I started digging in the middle and didn't stop until I heard a 'clunk'. It was the sound of metal hitting wood, I cleared the rest of the dirt away and pulled the trunk out.

I opened it up and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that everything was accounted for. Well, when I say everything I really only mean one thing. It was my wubboard, my greatest creation so far. Basically think of a skateboard and replace the wheels and bottom of the board with a stereo. It basically works by blasting wubstep or dubstep, there is a difference I assure you, underneath and giving me a bit of lift. I can't actually fly with it (believe me, I've tried) but it is much faster than running and, even better, it looks cool.

I decided to give it a test drive, just to make sure it still worked. I stood up and looked around, it was a peaceful day as usual. I set my wubboard down and got ready.

"Equestria is honestly a really peaceful country. Even after Discord was restored I bet every single pony just went back to their day to day routine."

I started the wubboard and sped off down the road with a smile on my face.

♫♫♫

Screams, yelling and general chaos was the current state of the city of Cloudsdale. Pegasi could be seen running in a panic between cloud buildings and streets. Royal guards were desperately trying to keep the peace and calm down the citizens. Their efforts were fruitless as most ponies seemed to be content in ignoring the common sense the guards were trying to instill. Even with the extra detachment of troops sent by Celestia.

"Run! Run for your lives! The Cloudsdale destroyer is going to finish us for good this time!" Screamed a random stallion as he desperately held his face in his hooves. He sped off in fright after his little exclamation.

An explosion was heard in the distance and a fire was going on. If anyone was in their correct state of mind they would ask how a fire started in a city made up of clouds. Thankfully no one even glanced at it with the sole exceptions of the exhausted guards.

"Buck me! By Celestia's squishy flanks take some guards and get that fire removed!" Yelled Commander Star Shield of the Cloudsdale garrison to one of his sergeants. "Tartarus! How did the civilians even know that the destroyer escaped?! That was confidential information!"

One private has the decency to look ashamed. He looked to his superior and gave a weak chuckle as he scraped the ground with his hoof.

"Heh. Sorry commander?" said the ashamed guard.

Star Shield looked at the private in complete and utter astonishment. "Why the hay did you tell somepony that?! Gossip goes through a pony town like wildfire through dry grass! Why?!" The commander punctuated that last 'why' by thrusting his face in front of the junior guard's. Bags were clearly seen under his eyes and the chaos of the city was easily seen behind him. Another explosion happened for what seemed like effect.

The junior guard gave a weak grin and shifted his eyes away, "Uh..." The commander stared at the guard like he was staring into the depths of the private's soul. "One mare wouldn't stop asking why we needed to prepare for an evacuation! She just would not shut up! I-I ended up caving in and telling her." The private hung his head down in shame and mumbled a weak apology.

Commander Star Shield sighed and rubbed the top of his muzzle tiredly. "A month of latrine duty Private."

The private nodded.

"Now go help the others put out the fire that likely started again from the other explosion!"

"Yessir!"

"Corporal Fuzzy!" Yelled Star Shield as he turned to another one of the guards around him.

"It's Fizzy sir."

"Whatever. Take a squad and make sure the weather factory is safely evacuated. Any ponies need to be immediately taken out. With all the chaos going on I don't trust the world would be kind enough to keep those workers from becoming suddenly accident prone. Go!"

Corporal Fizzy saluted the Commander and sped off to get a squad.

Star Shield sighed and called out once more, "Major Nimrod! Front and center!"

♫♫♫

I decided to go to Ponyville. No real reason other than to finally see the other main members of the cast. I was tempted to take the train but I didn't have any bits on me. Besides, taking the wubboard was more stylish and it let me take the more scenic route. Maybe I would even get into a few miscellaneous adventures along the way?

I turned around and headed back to my love shack. "If I am going to have miscellaneous adventures I should probably make some more wubnades. Don't need to be caught completely defenseless if I can help it."

With a nod of respect to my high intellect I continued my trek.

♫♫♫

To Twilight today was just like any other day even if she and her dear friends just recently defeated a famous chaotic tyrant not a few days ago. It was the mid day reshelving of the library. Books were aglow with purple magic and were flying around with the speed and precision of a mare that had practice.

Twilight hummed in content as she slid the last book into place. She finally felt at peace, and as quickly as that peace came, it disappeared.

"Twilight! Twilight! You got a letter from the Princess!" Spike urgently said.

Twilight took the letter from his grasp, "Thank you Spike. Let's see what Princess Celestia has to say."

Twilight opened the seal and read the scroll. Her eyes widened dramatically and she gasped.

"What? What is it Twilight?!" asked Spike.

Twilight began pacing the room as she continued to read the letter over and over. "No no this can't be right. Right? But Princess Celestia wouldn't lie about something like this! How is it possible?"

"What can't be right? What would the Princess not lie about?! What's not possible! Tell me Twi!" yelled Spike as he grabbed his head in panic.

"It says here that the Cloudsdale Destroyer is now free from her stone imprisonment like how Discord got freed." replied Twilight as she stopped pacing and face Spike with a worried expression. "She says we should keep the elements at the ready and be prepared for conflict."

As soon as she finished saying that a jewel encrusted chest appeared with the elements inside them in a bright flash.

"Oh no! The Cloudsdale Destroyer?!" A pause, then Spike asked, "Wait, who is the Cloudsdale Destroyer?" Spike had a confused expression on his face.

Twilight used her magic and grabbed a history book from one of the shelves. She opened it to what looked like a random page and said, "It says here that one day after she appeared she used a strange device that destroyed Cloudsdale. Whatever it was caused the clouds that the city was founded on to simply disappear and disperse. Many ponies were left homeless, jobless, and could only own what they could save before it fell to the ground. A lot of colts and fillies that couldn't fly just yet were nearly killed, the attack was too sudden for any cohesive response. Luckily Princess Celestia happened to be flying to Cloudsdale and saw the whole thing. She used her magic to rescue the young foals and she and Princess Luna confronted the Destroyer."

"Whoa, so this Cloudsdale Destroyer is a real villain huh?" Spike said with wide eyes.

"It seems so, yes. But still, what kind of power could this new threat have to warrant the use of the elements? This is the only really evil thing she's done and the history book says she repeatedly avoided confrontation. Using strange devices to disable pursuers and escape." Twilight rubbed her chin as she contemplated the possibilities.

Spike shrugged, "Well we don't know too much right now so I say we put those thoughts off for now. We have elements to pass around right?"

"You're right Spike." Twilight picked up the elements and put them in her saddlebag. She adopted a smirk, "But I bet you actually just want to see a certain white unicorn?"

Spike blushed and stuttered out, "Wh-What? N-No way! Don't be silly Twilight!"

Twilight just giggled at Spike's embarrassment.

Imprisonment of the Wubs

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I was working on a random hill just outside of Fillydelphia and I stared at the wires I was currently fiddling with a burning intensity. I was currently working on the biggest project since my coming to this world a month ago. It even beat that skateboard that let me move around with just wubs. I was thinking of calling that little nifty thing the 'Wubboard'. Anyway, the wires I was so focused with were the most important ones, they connected everything together.

What was I working on? A series of amps, speakers, subwoofers, etc, pointed in every direction that a major city was located. I was going to bring this medieval world the magic of wubs. The last wires I was messing with were connected to the main control panel and after that I was going to hook one of my iPods up and get started. I know I should use my computer but this'll be my prototype, it is after all made a little flimsy by the lack of quality materials on hand and the backup iPod I made would be better to lose than the computer if it falls apart.

So I bet you're wondering how I would reach Cloudsdale alongside all the other cities? Well that city is actually constantly moving around Equestria so I wouldn't be able to track it. I have to just hope the city can hear the awesomeness whenever it gets close to another city my little system is pointed to.

Anyway the wires were finally connected and I stood up to take a good look at my creation. I grinned and wiped my brow as I stared at the Stonehenge like look of the mother of all sound systems. Every single thing had some sort of blue or green light glow coming out of its driver. Those glowing parts are what really make a bass cannon work and how the sounds from my iPod will travel across the country, I don't want to get technical.

Of course these things are not actually bass cannons, making a bass cannon requires many of these parts and crossing the bass streams while... uh, maybe I shouldn't tell anyone that.

Anyway, everything was emitting sound of some sort. Even the control panel was surrounded with stereos, subwoofers and the like. Though the surrounding ones were barely propped up correctly and much larger. I was on a flat hilltop so you'd think everything would stay steady but nope, everything wanted to lean backwards. It was really annoying.

After I finished marveling at my greatest creation I took a swig from my mug of cider and set it down on the side of my control panel. Cracking my knuckles I plugged my iPod in and then set my hands on the power grips at the top of the panel. Magic channeled around my hands and was immediately sucked up into the machine.

Ah yes, I recently discovered that I was indeed able to use magic. Not like a unicorn though, which sucked, no in order to use this magic of mine I had to be doing something that related to creating wubs, music, or music related items. Take for example if I were to make an iPod, I have, then as I made it I would constantly channel magic into it and that magic would make the iPods programming. It was cool but disappointingly limited in scope. As of now I am able to use it because that magic created the power needed to make wubs.

The system powered up and all of the lights from the system started to glow much more brightly. Every single sound producing thing suddenly sprung to life and it seemed like the world itself was holding its breath, waiting for the epicness to begin. I didn't want to disappoint so I put on my headphones, turned on the music, and began my work.

♫♫♫Fillydelphia♫♫♫

It was a peaceful day and the ponies were out and about, mostly just trying to get by in life.

Then everything changed when the bass dropped. Ponies looked about in confusion, wondering where the strange but oddly catchy noise was coming from. Ponies opened up their windows and peeked around while the ones outside were turning their heads from side to side in confusion. Some bobbed their heads to the beat. And one filly smiled as she recognized the music.

♫♫♫

A random stallion was flying through the Cloudsdale market when he suddenly stopped and perked his ears up.

He stopped a nearby mare and asked, "Hey, excuse me miss but do you hear what I'm hearing too?"

She stopped and perked her ears up too, "I do, it's weird but it sounds like its coming from Fillydelphia. Isn't that the next town the city is stopping at?"

The stallion nodded and then said in a worried tone, "Yes I do think it is. The noise is catchy but I have a strange sense that something bad will happen soon." The mare gave her silent agreement.

♫♫♫

So far everything was going great. I was bobbing my head to the music and then I adjusted a few sliders and cranked the bass up to ten. Just as I finished cranking it up sparks flew next to my hand and I flinched involuntarily. Looking to my left I noticed my mug of cider had spilt all over my control panel and now the entire thing was going out of control and smoking. I took a step back and only then did I realize how much bass was actually being created.

I widen my eyes and looked down at the control panel. More specifically I looked at the bass knob. I accidentally set the bass to thirty when I flinched. I gulped in fear when I realized there was too much electricity on the control panel, I couldn't even get close to the knob.

"This won't end well. Not at all." I thought in horror at what was about to transpire.

The bass was now so strong that every bit of support for the sound system was breaking. Everything was falling inwards and pointed straight up. It was then that I decided to get the hell out of this disaster and quickly fled the epicenter before it had the chance to possibly kill me. Those bass cannon parts are not to be fucked with lightly.

I quickly ran a fair distance from the out of control sound system and just stared stupidly at it.

"Well at least no one will get hurt since it's all pointed straight up. I'll just have to wait till all the magic runs out."

And that thought screwed everything up. Because at that moment a shadow fell over me and I looked up to see Cloudsdale of all places floating directly above the deathtrap they have no idea is forming under them.

"Oh no..." The control panel exploded, electricity sparked all over the system, and the bass cannon parts began to make the super charged bass waves cross and push out to the sky to the beat of the song. Fortunately it was not at the the actual cannon levels or else everyone above it would be dead. Unfortunately it turns out that clouds can not take that level of bass. Everything that made up the city dispersed bit by bit. It was not too long later that furniture, and other personal belonging rained down to the surface. Startled pegasi suddenly found themselves without a cloud to walk on and briefly fell. Thankfully they caught themselves and started to fly, all the while looking down at my property destroyer as it destroyed the entire city.

Nothing too terrible had happened yet, until I heard the screams that chilled my blood. Young foals whose wings were too weak to fly just yet fell down out of what I assumed to be the school area. Some ponies managed to catch a few but others weren't as fast and I watch in sheer disbelief mixed with a huge touch of horror as the young children fell to their death. That is until every single one of the falling foals was caught in a golden glow.

I looked up and saw a majestic carriage with Princess Celestia of all ponies in it. Her horn was glowing with magic and she carefully started to set he foals back on the ground. As she was tending to her subjects she glanced down at me, I could tell there was unbridled rage being directed at me behind that calm face.

I decided to flee back to my shack. My creation exploding behind me in a inferno I would normally cheer because of how awesome it looked. I just had a bad taste in my mouth.

♫♫♫

I slammed the trunk shut and ran to the hole that I made on the side of my shack. I quickly and carefully dumped the trunk in and started to cover the hole with dirt. It is amazing at how fast someone can get work done when they believe they are about to be executed. I didn't want anyone to find my favorite toy after all, even if I'm going to possibly die. I got the hole covered and stuck a little sign that read "Future Garden" to deter anyone from thinking there was buried treasure there. The ponies are a bit naive like that.

Anyway, as I put the shovel back in my shack I heard hoof steps outside my door. I sighed in defeat and decided to face my fate like a man, gah, woman. I opened the door, walked to my front yard, and gently closed the door. Didn't want a draft after all.

"Foul beast! You dare try and commit mass murder on one of our cities?! Not only that but now the weather of all of Equestria will be set back for who knows how long! Be ready for your doom creature!" Spat Princess Luna viciously. Clearly Princess Celestia told her all about what transpired back at the hill. Or at least what she believes transpired. I don't blame her of course, I wasn't showing off any of my good qualities after all.

"I can't exactly escape from you two so please let's just get this over with." Yeah, I just rolled over and accepted my fate, so what? I only had one wubnade left, no combat skills what so ever, and they can use their magic to their fullest potential while I'm stuck using it to make iPods. This sucks and I'm a little pissed that I am so helpless right now. But if my punishment is what I think it'll be then I can use that time to think of what I can do to fix my little combat problems.

"Very well, little sister are you ready?" Asked Princess Celestia.

"Aye."

And like that the two Equestrian Princess brought out six little gems. One rainbow tasting later and I am stuck in unmoving stone. In hindsight maybe I should've tried to remove the iPod stuck in the control panel. I might've avoided this entire mess then.

20/20 indeed...

♫♫♫

Twilight was worried. According to the Princess's letter it would be about two days since the escape of the 'Wub Queen' and known fugitive. Not a single hint of where she would be has been found. She continued to pace as she mulled over possible scenarios.

"Darling you shouldn't stress yourself out so much. It would be terrible for your complexion." Said Rarity as she looked at Twilight in concern.

"Yeah! Plus the tree has a groove in the floor now!" Pinkie cheerfully added.

"I know, I know I shouldn't be so worried. But I just have this huge feeling that something terrible will happen. Whether it's because of the escape of the Cloudsdale Destroyer or something else. Princess Celestia said in her letter that while the 'Wub Queen' isn't a powerful force on her own she could still potentially bring ruin to the country through the use of her strange technology." Twilight sighed. "I just don't know and that upsets me."

"Aww cheer up Twilight! Just because I don't know something doesn't mean I get all frowny faced! Try thinking of home! It always cheers me up when I think of my family!" Said Pinkie with her ever present grin.

Twilight perked up. "Home? Home! Pinkie you're a genius!"

"I am?"

"Yes! We just have to find the home of the 'Wub Queen' and we can be that much closer to bringing her in! The Princess has to know, she and Princess Luna captured the 'Wub Queen' at her home before!" Twilight magiced up a quill and scroll and quickly wrote something down.

"Spike! I need you to send a letter!"

♫♫♫

I just finished cleaning the last bit of dust and dirt from my home. It took hours and I was sweaty, grimy, dirty, and honestly just wanted to relax in a bath. Thankfully the first thing I cleaned was the metal bath tub out in the back. Filling up the tub required me to go off to the nearby river and fill up the tub two buckets at a time. Now that I am in a more modern setting I should really look into having some plumbing installed. Anyway I actually have to bathe Japanese style. That means clean myself out of the tub and then relax in the warm water with a small fire under the tub to keep it warm.

I'll admit that I have come to realize a guilty pleasure since being trapped in this world. I am rather fond of bubble baths. It's embarrassing but honestly it's too relaxing to not enjoy it, especially when it's something I don't get to do a whole lot of. It's kinda hard to do in a fill it yourself metal tub but I've worked it out by now.

I was just getting comfortable when I heard distant talking and then the body of a pony stumbled out of the brush and landed face first on the ground. It quickly shot back up in a pink blur and took notice of me.

"Hey there! I'm Pinkie Pie!"

Wubs on Parole

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"Hey there! I'm Pinkie Pie!'

I jumped a bit, Pinkie was just so loud in her little introduction. I managed to recover a bit and nodded to her and said, "'Sup, my name's Vinyl."

She gasped and quickly started spouting out words, "Wow! I also know another pony named Vinyl too! Oh and you even have the same hair style as well! I bet you like parties, and music, and DJing, and cider too! We could have so much fun!---" She continued to excitedly talk to me as she bounced around the tub. I pretty much tuned her out for the most part, honestly I could barely even follow her train of thought.

"So a bubble bath huh? You got good taste in baths! These are really fun!" Pinkie punctuated that part by picking some bubble up and blowing them into the air. I was busy trying to find out when exactly she got in the tub with me without so much as a splash.

I shook my head to clear it and asked, "So what are you doing over in this neck of the woods Pinkie?" I could guess of course.

"Weeeell, Twilight gathered all of us up because we are suppose to catch you and stop whatever evil plans you have! If you have any of course." She giggled.

I blinked. "Well you can be rest assured that I don't have any evil plans in the making."

Pinkie swiped her forehead with a hoof. "Whew, boy am I glad about that." We both started laughing after a short while.

And us laughing in a tub full of hot water and bubbles is how the rest of Team Twilight found us. They charged through the bushes, the five mares skidding to a halt and stood there looking at us with wide eyed disbelief.

"Geez, how about we just invite everybody in Equestria here to watch me bathe? I love giving random strangers free shows." My sarcastic statement caused all of the mares except Pinkie and Rainbow to blush when they realized I was bathing. Those two were too busy laughing. I gestured to the tub. "I'd invite you five in but there is barely room for Pinkie and I as it is."

Shaking off her embarrassment Twilight and the other four mares tried going into a intimidating stance. It just looked cute to be honest. "Look Cloudsdale Destroyer-"

"Vinyl."

Twilight blinked. "What?"

I sighed, "My name is Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch, not 'The Cloudsdale Destroyer'."

"Oh, uh. Right... sorry." Twilight looked sheepish as she scratched the back of her head.

"It's cool."

Twilight shook her head, "Anyway we are here to bring you back to Celestia. You are a danger to Equestria and we need to bring you back in to be punished." She punctuated that last bit with a snort hot air. I actually saw the steam.

I took my sweet time to answer, the bath felt great after all. Eventually, after watching Twilight start to sweat from nervousness long enough, I answered her.

"Naw, I'm good. Sorry that you wasted your time." I raised up a hand in farewell at that and went back to a more relaxed position in the tub.

Twilight was completely flabbergasted at my dismissal. "Wha-What do you mean 'Naw, I'm good.'?! You have to face your punishment!"

I looked at Twilight and rolled my eyes. "Look I already faced my punishment. A thousand years in stone? Hello? Destroying Cloudsdale was a complete accident and I deeply regret what happened. I even gave myself up without a fight, though I bet Celestia didn't mention that part." I took a breath and released it before continuing, "My one thousand years stuck in stone was more of a punishment than I deserved anyway, especially since no one died. Besides if it weren't for the fact that Dissy and I could mentally talk to each other to keep sane then I would be completely mad by this point. I was aware of every passing second that went by while stuck in stone I'll have you know."

Twilight looked horrified by the implications at the end of my little monologue.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. You were awake the entire time and only saw one teeny tiny bit of the gardens for a thousand years?!" Pinkie shouted, her front hooves shoved in my face and barely an inch apart, as if to emphasis 'teeny tiny'. "That must have been so booooring! At least tell me that you two played some sort of game!" Pinkie looked at me pleadingly.

I scratched my chin. "Well we did play eye-spy every once in a while. And any other game we could think of that didn't require movement."

Pinkie just sat there in the tub looking like she couldn't even process the thought of not being able to move at all for that long of a time. Especially without even being able to play a game to pass the time.

After noting Pinkie's reaction I nodded, "Yeah, it was really boring all right. Sucked a lot." I looked back at Twilight and said, "Like I told Pinkie before you girls came here. I don't have any nefarious plans in the making. So you and the Princesses can relax all right? Right now all I want to do is enjoy the last bit of my bath and find a way to make a living. I was planning on DJing in the city to make some quick cash."

Twilight looked like she was thinking it over. Applejack decided to give her two cents, "Ah don't think she's lyin' Twi. Maybe we should give her a chance?"

"Weeell." Twilight drawled out, still looking unsure.

"Oooh! Oooh! Maybe you can be Ponyville's resident DJ! The other Vinyl can't always be in town and I can throw more parties with actual bass... and wubs! It would be so fun if you could come with us! We could even share a room! It would be a never ending sleepover!" Pinkie ended her soon to be blabbering rant with a gasp. And apparently that gasp lead to her just sitting still with a faraway look in her eyes, drool dripping out her mouth. She's likely thinking of all the fun we would have.

"Sounds like fun Pinkie. I'd be down with that. I'd be more than happy to make sure there is more bass in the world, since I'm all about that bass." Megan Trainor can eat her heart out.

Twilight nodded, "I suppose that could work. We could even tell Princess Celestia that it's to keep a close eye on you just in case."

"Now hold on a second! How can we really trust her? She destroyed Cloudsdale! You know, the place where the weather is made? Sure she could say that she regrets it but she could just be a really good liar!" Interjected Rainbow Dash with her hooves crossed over her chest.

Everyone was silent and adopted thinking faces. Eventually Twilight responded, "Well we don't know what the future holds so we will just have to give her the benefit of the doubt. If she breaks that trust then we will deal with it accordingly." Twilight lightly stamped her hoof for emphasis.

I nodded to her. "I won't break that trust. You have my word."

"Good! Now we should head to Ponyville, I have a letter to write. Also you should sleep in my house, Princess Celestia would want me to keep a close eye on you. That's the easiest way." Said Twilight. Pinkie looked like she was about to complain but Twilight interrupted her before she could say a word. "Sorry Pinkie, this is the best way. Besides the Cakes will already have their hooves and home full. They are having foals soon right?"

Pinkie sighed in sadness that I couldn't stay with her, but the mention of the future foals brightens her back up.

"Oh right! I forgot about that! Hehe oops!"

Silence consumed us once more and I decided we should get this move over with. "Well I'm going to change into my clothes now. I'll be out with my stuff in a few."

I stood up in the tub and proceeded to climb out, making sure to scrape off any excess bubbles. I was a bit miffed that my late spring cleaning didn't mean a thing. All that hard work was unraveled practically instantaneously.

"Oh my, I see why you want to wear clothes Darling. Everything is exposed, must get dreadfully cold in winter." Said Rarity who was looking away from me in embarrassment. Same could be said for the others.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh don't get all embarrassed, we're all girls here. Nothing you haven't seen before right?"

I didn't press though and headed back inside my shack. I got dressed and packed everything I owned up, sadly I didn't have much and when I walked out my backpack was full and my Wubboard was being held against my right side.

Twilight looked interested in it. "What's that?"

I looked at her and said, "I'll tell you on the way to the train station. Maybe you can help me with a problem I have with it."

And with that statement the seven of us walked down the dirt path back to Fillydelphia.

"Why didn't we take this path in the first place? Trudging through dirt and bushes..." Muttered Rarity, a scowl marring her otherwise pretty face.

Displaced Wubs

View Online

The six mares and I were sitting in one of the train cars as it carried us towards our destination. Rainbow and Applejack were taking a nap on the two seats to my right. Rarity was reading some fashion magazine and having a conversation with Fluttershy. Pinkie was munching on some candy she bought in the dining car and Twilight and I were discussing my wub-board.

“I think I understand how it works now.” Said Twilight. “I don’t think the issue is the sound volume itself or lack of bass output. I think the problem is magic based. The board will probably need more magical output so it can propel you and the board in any direction with more force, including up. And if you increase the output you naturally need to increase the input.”

I nodded along with Twilight. It made sense now that I thought about it. I gave my input, “But drawing in natural magic, like what I’m doing now with the board, wouldn’t be enough right?”

Twilight nodded, “Exactly! While it is possible to make something that could bring that much in, it would be far too bulky for what you are trying to make. So what you would need to do is put in-”

“-a battery.” We finish at the same time.

Twilight smiled at me. Though magic isn’t my specialty Twilight probably enjoys being able to talk about science and magic things with someone. Well, someone that cares and understands enough to have a conversation about it and not just pretend.

I looked up and rubbed my chin in thought. A battery requires some high grade gems and a magical spell to get things set up. I won’t be too worried about that if I can get Rarity’s help for the gems.

I reached down and picked my wub-board up and examined it. It was crudely made, my feet rested on badly carved wood and the sound propulsion was simply nailed to the wood. In all honestly while I’m very proud of this accomplishment I feel like it could always become more. With Equestria’s current tech I can get much better quality materials without needing my backpack as much, I can even make it smaller and cooler looking. I smiled when I thought of all the ways I can have fun with the new design.

I turned to Twilight, “Thank you Twilight, I think I have an idea to make it better. Wanna work with me on it when we get to Ponyville? It could be a fun side project.”

Twilight beamed. “Yeah! Sounds like a ton of fun! We could even make research notes! And essays!” Twilight clopped her hooves together rather adorkably. I chuckled and set my wub-board back down next to my backpack. After I set it down I was about to sit back when I noticed a glint. It was a golden coin.

“It must be a stray bit.” I thought. “Well lucky me then.”

I picked the coin up and straightened myself back on the seat. Almost immediately I heard a voice in my head.

“What's up? I'm Sun Wukong, The Stray Faunus. Just simply shoot the coin to call upon me for anything you might need help with.”

I blinked. It was another strange object with a voice, just like the tesseract lookalike. I shrugged and put it in my skirt pocket.

“What did you find Vinyl?” Asked a curious Twilight.

I shrugged at her, “Just a bit laying on the floor.”

“Oh, lucky you then.” Twilight went back to reading a book she must’ve pulled out sometime after our conversation.

We sat in silence for the next twenty minutes and I was slowly falling asleep. That unfortunately didn’t work out because a loud bass sound suddenly dropped with a hellish ferocity. The train car started to shake and jerk around badly while we were all trying to desperately hold onto our seats for our lives. Rainbow and Applejack, unfortunately, didn’t have a whole lot of luck since they were sleeping. Instead of holding onto a seat they were comically bouncing around.

“This is some strong bass right?” Twilight yelled over all the noise. “You know anything about this Vinyl?”

“No! My bass is much more refined! This isn’t even close to novice levels! It’s just really loud!” I yelled back to Twilight. And it was true, this bass was bad enough to really annoy me. I wanted to give the person making this atrocity a piece of my mind.

Eventually a loud crash was heard and the car gave a sudden lurch forward before violently tipping to its right side. All of us weren’t prepared for that and fell over. Our bodies landed in one big dogpile on the wall of the car. A few train seats came loose and fell down as well, luckily they didn’t come close to crushing us. Ughs and Ows was the common language as we untangled ourselves from each other.

After shaking off the pain we slowly crawled over the seats to the car’s exit door. Applejack kicked it open when it wouldn’t budge and we finally got to see all of the damage done. The entire train was off the tracks and was clearly not in workable condition, all the train cars were in various states of disrepair. Thankfully I think we were somehow the only people going to Ponyville right now so no one was hurt.

Then a net came out of nowhere and trapped Rainbow in its clutches.

This was unexpected.

Another net came flying and trapped Fluttershy as well.

This was when a bunch of ponies in Daft Punk looking head gear jumped or flew over our ruined car. They all wore similar Daft Punk looking clothes as well, though fit for a pony. If they weren’t obviously evil I would’ve commented on how awesome they looked.

Fortunately Twilight and the rest got into defensive positions, they didn’t idle around like a gawking moron like me. Twilight quickly levitated Rainbow and Fluttershy to her and Rarity immediately started to untangle their nets. I was just about to run over to them when a net wrapped itself around me.

I totally did not squeak in surprise when I fell over from the suddenness of the action.

This net was different though. Instead of just trapping me like Rainbow and Fluttershy, I was being dragged away by something. I quickly reached through one of the net holes and grabbed onto a large rock to stop myself. I called out to Twilight for help and she looked at me worried. She couldn’t help though, the Daft Punk ponies were keeping her and the others too busy.

I knew I couldn’t hold on for much longer. I’m not strong enough to counter whatever is pulling me. Then I recalled the coin. Gritting my teeth I held onto the rock with all I had with one hand as I reach down into my skirt pocket for the coin. Bringing it up I stared at it for the briefest of moments as it rested on my thumb before flicking it up.

I grabbed the rock with my other hand again as I looked up and watched my only hope spin up and around in the air.

“Please help me Sun Wukong, you’re my only hope.” I said, hoping my fear wasn’t too evident in my voice.

As the coin flew, Twilight and I watched as it glowed for a minute and bursted in a form of light as a new figure landed atop the daft punk ponies. It had Golden Hair and a… Monkey Tail? What, is this guy suppose to be a Super Saiyan? Admittedly I kinda want to pet it… That’s when I took a brief moment to look at the six mares and see the shocked expressions on their faces.

They, like me right now, were startled by what happened when this new guy landed on top of the first attacker and sent the second one flying with his two weapons. Wait a minute... Are those shotguns that functioned like Nunchaku? That’s freaking awesome!! He noticed me holding onto the rock for dear life, and he combined his two weapons together and used them to launch himself forward like a pole vaulter at a track and field event and placed his shoe into the face of the pony trying to drag me away.

“DYNAMIC ENTRY!!!”

He was no Might Guy, he lacked the tights, but that single kick sent the pony flying back ten feet as this dude now stood in between me and these wannabe DJs. That’s when I realized something… he was listening to music in an Ipod that seemed a little familiar…… well, despite whatever it looked like, he was wearing them and I could hear the beat of Varien’s “Gunmetal Black” coursing through one of the earbuds that he was wearing.

“Alright,” he said, looking back at me on the ground before looking back at the ponies in front of him and preparing his weapons. Then, he stepped forward. “Who’s next?”

Okay, he gains cool points for such a dramatic entrance. I can admit that much. I gave him a quick “Thanks!” before starting to unravel myself from the net. It was at this moment when I realized I desperately needed a knife. Groaning a bit I soldiered on, I looked back at the impromptu battlefield. Twilight and the gang were holding off the Daft Ponies, I snorted a bit at that name, and the new guest was practically playing with our aggressors.

Turning back to the net I finally managed to get it off me. Springing back up to my feet I looked around for my wub-board. When I didn’t find it on the ground I facepalmed when I remembered it was back on the train car. In the excitement I must’ve forgotten about it. I rushed to the car, all the while dodging the ponies going at it.

In no time at all I climbed back into the car. Going back over the seats and trying to find ours was a bit annoying but thankfully it didn’t take long to find my stuff. Slinging my backpack over my shoulders I grabbed my wub-board and started the climb over the seats for the third time. Hopefully nothing bad happened to everyone out there during the two or three minutes it took to climb over and get everything.

I finally got back into the grassy field we were stuck in. I started heading towards blondie while I looked around and saw that the number of Daft Ponies was thinning thanks to the help of our new friend. Most of the robotic wannabes were still fighting but quite a number were knocked out cold. Either by hoof, magic, or bo staff if the weapon the blonde guy was now using was anything to go by. Their unicorn friends were dragging them away from the battlefield by magic and a few pegasi were trying to dive bomb monkey boy.

He knocked those guys away with apparent ease. One of the Daft Ponies with some luck somehow managed to sneak behind him. Before he could pounce and do any damage though I raised my wub-board in the air and clubbed him over the back of his helmet. Even with that extra protection it looked like it didn’t help him one bit.

The pony dropped unconscious like a sack of anything heavy. He was immediately grabbed by another pony’s magic.

“Retreat! We’ll get our objective some other time!” Shouted one of the ponies, he was probably their leader or something.

All of the Daft Ponies turned tail and started running back over the upturned train cars. They seemed to make sure to not leave a single pony behind. Me, monkey boy, and Team Twilight rushed back to the train cars. We just managed to get over and onto the new top part of the car when the same bass from before sounded out. We stumbled around on the car and I nearly fell off, thankfully monkey boy grabbed me with his tail and pulled me back to my feet.

I looked to the direction where the Daft Ponies left and saw only a speeding black speck. I spat to the side in anger that we couldn’t wring them for answers. Eventually I settled for an annoyed pout and crossed my arms.

“You okay there, miss?” Said the new arrival.

I uncrossed my arms and nodded at him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just disappointed we couldn’t interrogate one of them. Curious about the random attack ya know?” A moment of silence passed between the group before I remembered something important.

“Your name’s Sun Wukong right?”

Monkey boy nodded and sat down on the train car. “Why yes it is. Something tells me that you used my Token if you were the girl acting like Princess Leia and saying ‘You’re my only hope’.” I looked a little embarrassed and sighed.

I replied with a blush, “Er… yeah. For some reason Star Wars popped into my head.” I cleared my throat before continuing on. “So that coin was some sort of Token?”

“More than a certain kind. It’s my summoning token.”

“Summoning token?” I raised an eyebrow. Sun sighed, getting out… wait… is that the bit I found earlier?

“This medallion was used by you to summon me to your world. Heck, that’s why I’m a Displaced.” He said, using his tail now to flip the coin in my direction and having me catch it. Looking at it closely, I could see the Silver monkey emblem on the coin.

“So if I had to guess that I was also a Displaced, my token would be that iPod I threw into a mirror? I put a message in the iPod, just like the coin I used to summon him.” I hummed in thought. “If I knew that I would’ve made a better quality iPod.” That’s when I saw him take out the Ipod that he was using-. Holy Hell!! I just realized right now that that’s the same one I threw into the freaking mirror!!!

I blinked in astonishment, “Dude, so you were the one that got my iPod? What are the chances of that?”

“Wait… This is yours-? ……… You must be Vinyl then.”

I gave Sun a thumbs up and a nod. “Yup! Vinyl Scratch. Well… humanized Vinyl Scratch anyway. Pony me is up in Canterlot. Went to a con dressed as such and got plopped here in Equestria a thousand years ago.”

“Sort of the same circumstance for me. Went to RTX as Sun, someone dressed as Junior sold me my weapons and then I woke up in Griffonstone to have me be encaged as a seamonkey before being free on Equestria soil.”

I gave a thoughtful pose, “Weird. The guy that sold me my headphones was dressed as one of the merchants from Resident Evil. Gave me some tools so he knew I’d end up here. Gotta admit I’m a bit annoyed right now.”

“Because of the circumstances, the Daft Ponies, or the fact that your cheeks are brighter than Celestia’s sun?”

I snorted and rolled my eyes, my cheeks only a touch red. “Let's say it’s some sort of mixture of those.”

Before Sun could say anything else, I could hear Twilight trot over to me. Turning around, I see her looking at me. “Vinyl, who is this?”

I honestly forgot about those six mares. Smiling sheepishly I pointed at Sun and said, “Hey Twilight. This guy is Sun Wukong, I flipped a coin and brought him here.” To her credit, Twilight only look a little baffled.

“That… sounds theoretically impossible.”

“Nothing is really ‘impossible’, it’s just that it hasn’t been tried yet.” Sun replied. “Besides, My coin is like a summoning stone in Final Fantasy, but it works both ways. You summoning me was one way Vinyl. The other way was you ending up in my world, but of course, each world is different.”

“So multiverse theory then?” I asked. I scratched my chin, “So how different is your Equestria from this one?”

“Well, judging from Twilight alone…… Quite a lot.”

I quirked up an eyebrow with just a little bit of confusion before my eyes widened a bit. “Oh! I get it.” I leaned in a bit closer to Sun with a hand covering my mouth. “Twilight is a Princess right?” I whispered in Sun’s ear. Sun nodded his head, answering my question.

“Why am I stuck in season two and you aren’t?” I whispered to myself as I turned away from Sun. Shaking my head slightly in disappointment I turned to Twilight. “So how far away from Ponyville are we anyway? With the train as it is I don’t think we will be riding in comfort.”

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Weeeell, if my timetable and estimates for travel time are correct, and they usually are, then it is only a thirty minute train ride away!” Twilight stamped her hoof adorably, head held high.

“So how long is that by walking?”

“The train travels at around eight-five miles an hour. So by that logic it is a forty two and a half mile walking distance away! It should only take the rest of the day to follow these tracks all the way to Ponyville, we’ll be there by nightfall!” Twilight still had a smile on her face. Seems that she wasn’t bothered at all by the length of time that would take.

I groaned softly, it was really hot out here. I just washed my clothes, if we did this I’ll have to do it all over again to get rid of the sweaty stickiness. These were the only ones I owned after all, hopefully I could get Rarity to make me some more. Strutting around in my birthday suit every time I need to wash my clothes probably won’t float everypony’s boat in town.

“It’s way too hot out here for this but whatever.” I looked at Rarity, “Hey Rarity do you think you could make me a few sets of clothes. Nothing fancy, so no gems and such, just some stuff to wear so I don’t wear this everyday.”

“Not a problem darling. While those clothes do fit you marvelously I think I can whip something up just as good, if not better!” Rarity smiled at me and I smiled back. I think we’ll get along fine.

I put my bag down and removed my jacket, stuffing it into the pack. My white tank top with the words ‘Wub Me’ finally seeing the light of day. I put my pack back on and turned back to Sun.

“If it isn’t too much trouble, could you escort us beautiful ladies back to town? Just to make sure those sucky DJs don’t come back around?”

“Sure thing, Vinyl.” Saiyan boy replied, placing his weapons away underneath his shirt. “But shouldn’t we see if there are any more survivors on the train first before we get moving?”

"Well, earlier on the trip I walked across the entire train length. Didn't see anyone on board. Though I didn't check the engine room. Someone could be there I suppose." I shrugged. Though now that I thought about it, this whole thing did seem suspicious.

“What about where the luggage would be?” Sun suggested. “The door could’ve locked on somepony while they were still inside.”

I scratched my head. "Didn't think of that."

Twilight decided to interject, "Well how about the others and I check out the engine room while you and Mr. Wukong check the luggage car?"

“That sounds like a good idea. Are you okay with that, Vinyl?”

"Yeah, sounds great. This'll be over quicker."

“That depends on what we find,” Sun told me. When he got a few brief stares, he sighed. “What? I was being optimistic.”

"Come on, I know where it is." With that Sun and I walked to the back of the train where the luggage car was.

It didn't take long to get there, and the door didn't look damaged in the slightest. Of course when I tried to open it, it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked." I said, stating the obvious.

BANG!

“Not anymore.”

I jumped when he fired his weapon. Turning to Sun I said with an annoyed face, "Dude, give a girl a warning before you fire your thing off."

“The Ammunition’s blunt. But has enough force to break the lock. Sorry about that.”

I waved it off, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just see what’s inside.” I pushed against the damaged door and watched it swing open. The first thing the two of us were greeted by was all the luggage that was scattered amongst the floor… and the hoof that was sticking out of it.

“H-help!”

I cursed softly, there actually was someone other than us on the train. I rushed over to the fallen luggage and started moving them off of the trapped pony. Sun rushed to the pony's aid alongside me and we quickly freed the pony.

“T-thanks.” It spoke before looking at me. “W-wait? Vinyl? What are you doing here?”

I blinked. There in front of us was Octavia, the same Octavia that pony me said was off visiting family. Perhaps I was just seeing things weird through my glasses, I took them off and rubbed them with the bottom of my tank top. I looked at the grey pony in front of me with my red eyes and sure enough it was indeed Octavia.

“Dude, aren’t you suppose to be visiting family?”

Octavia raised an eyebrow, “Why yes, yes I am. But enough of that, Vinyl why do you look so… oh how should I put this? Strange?”

I would have been offended being called strange looking any other time. Instead I was holding down fan squees. But I needed to hold it together… for now.

“Uh about that, I’m not... well… your Vinyl. That Vinyl is up in Canterlot at your shared house, we hung out for a bit and she told me about you.”

Octavia blinked. “Oh, I see. So there-” She stopped herself short and adopted a face that was part surprise, part horror, and part… uh.. excitement?

“There-There are TWO of you in Equestria?!” Octavia put a hoof to her head. “Oh sweet Celesti-” Octavia fell over and fainted on top of her Cello case.

Sun and I just stood there and stared at the passed out pony. I turned to him confused and asked, “Was it something I said?”

“Something tells me that the pony version of you has a habit of driving her nuts.”

I put a hand on my hip and tilted my head a bit in thought. “Could be.” I said after a bit. “Well, let’s make her quick nap comfortable at least. We can ask her if she has anything besides her cello to take with her.”

Sun and I moved Octavia off of her cello. Monkey boy even volunteered to carry her while I held her Cello Case. He laid her down a few feet away and we stood around a tad bit awkwardly. I decided we really needed at least something to talk about.

I turned to Sun and broke the ice with a question, “Could you tell me all you know about the Displaced while we wait? Something tells me that it’s important.”

“Oh boy… Where to even begin?” He sighed and straightened up before asking a question. “You are familiar with the Multiverse, right?”

I nodded at him while folding my arms, “Yeah, at least the basic idea.”

“Alright… Well, think about what happened to you… Happening to other people and with each circumstance being different and each one of them ending up in one of numerous Equestria’s… That is basically what happened to us… Did I confuse you?”

I shook my head, “No, it seems pretty simple... at least so far. Is there anyone I should avoid?”

“I’m not sure myself. I’ve only met a few of them. But I would personally stay AWAY from Herobrine. He’s crazy.”

I rose an eyebrow. “Herobrine? Like the fake dude from Minecraft?”

“Yes, but in his world, he’s the freaking king of the nether AND enjoys massacring ponykind after the sisters imprisoned him in stone. He can even create the monsters you see in Minecraft and calls them his “Troops”. He’s pretty pissed off at me when I encountered him because our encounter ended with a shotgun blast to his shoulder.”

I made a face, “He sounds like a dick.”

“He is. Trust me.” Sun sighed and folded his arms before continuing, “Otherwise then that, I’ve personally only met a few Displaced. There’s a Displaced Discord named Loki, Deathwing, Queen Faust, A Rune Slayer named Nicko, and also my cousin Lance who is Gunvolt; the Azure Striker just to name a few.”

“Gunvolt? Huh, been meaning to play that game before I came here. So… do you think you could teach me how to fight? I know that’s a question out of the blue but still.”

“I can…” Monkey boy sat down for a moment, “But two things first. One, you’ll have to define fight, and two, maybe we should do this someplace else where nopony would get hurt.”

I leaned against a nearby wall with a soft sigh, “Well, by fight I mean like defending myself. I was practically useless when the Daft Ponies came charging in. And I don’t mean like now, maybe in some field on the outskirts of Ponyville or something if you agree.”

“I’m all for it. I was just wanting to know some key details before we start on anything.”

I looked a bit confused but shrugged it off when I heard a small groan come from below. It seemed that Octavia was finally waking up. She put a hoof to her head and sat back up.

“Wh-what happened? I remember… Vinyl?!”

“Again… Other Vinyl… Something tells me there should be a way to tell you two apart.” Sun added on, “Got any nicknames that might work?”

“Haven’t had any. Discord just called me Ms. Scratch during our imprisonment. Maybe I should wear a sign?”

“How about Vine? Or Vinny… nah, too messed up… Oh! How about Record?” Sun suggested.

“Eh… I’ll just go with Vine.”

“For the Lack of a better name?... I would personally call you Rhythm.” He chuckled. Rhythm? That… sounded good.

“You sure seem set on a nickname huh? Alright, you can call me Rhythm if you want.” I said.

“Well, it would be better than calling you Vinyl and having BOTH of you respond at the same time. Plus, you’re a DJ and there’s Rhythm in music. So I thought Rhythm. Rhythm Scratch.” Monkey boy definitely made a good point on that one, I have to admit.

I raised my hands up, “Alright, you made your point. It’s good I’ll admit that.” I turned to Octavia, “So just call me Rhythm then since I’m not your Vinyl. Also do you have anything else other than this cello case or are you good to go?”

“I should be alright… But what happened exactly?”

Sun and I shrugged while I took a brief moment to figure out what to say. “Well… I don’t really know. Twilight and the others were traveling with me to Ponyville and suddenly a ton of ponies wearing face covering helmets attacked the train with some really bad bass. When that knocked the train off they attacked us and tried to drag me away. I called Sun here and he drove them off and then we found you.”

“Well, sound at very high velocity can blast things over like shockwaves… Tell me Vinyl, was there anything that you might’ve done that could attract their attention?”

“You don’t need to tell me about sound. But no, I haven’t done anything significant in over a thousand years. The last thing of import I did was my incident with Cloudsdale.”

“Hmm…” Sun said to himself, looking like a detective in thought… “Music like ponies… Wanting to capture you…… Could you have unintentionally started a cult? Because that’s the only idea I have at this rate… Unless there’s something about you that you even don’t know about yourself.”

I scratched my head in thought. “I dunno, if they were cultists why would they attack me instead of just prostrating before me? That train wrecking could’ve killed me.”

“Maybe they wanted not you, but something that belonged to you.” Sun shrugged, looking like he was out of Ideas at this rate. But… that got me to think…

I put down the cello case to Octavia and brought up my wub-board as we started walking out of the train car. “Maybe this?”

“Hmm… Something tells me there's a lot more to this than meets the eye… Also, I think you have a special talent that only you would recognize… Tell me, are you the only one who could use this?” He asked as we continued to walk alongside Octavia towards the rest of the girls.

“Well I’m sure anyone who has magic could potentially use it… but I’m the only one who could make one time and time again… and be able to use it at it’s fullest capacity”

“Maybe you have a Semblance in which allows only you to interact with it?” Sun said. The stare I gave him afterwards told him that he forgot to mention something. “Ah yes, when I mean that, I mean a special ability that’s only unique to you and no one else. For me, I can make Decoy’s of myself that explode on contact… Maybe you have the power to control music and sound?”

I looked thoughtful, “Maybe? But the control depends entirely on what I’ve made and what materials used. I’m more like Ironman or Batman. A gadget user, but we won’t know until we look more into it guess.”

“Yes, but remember, Some gadgets can help someone control their gifts. Like Cyclop’s goggles.”

I nodded, “Yeah, now that I think about it my wub-nades would count as well. Same as the bass cannon… though pony me has made one of those already I’m sure of.”

“Trust me, she has,” Octavia remarked. “Along with a Dubstep blaster and Luna knows what else she has in her room.”

I gave a dreamy sigh, “Ah, I didn’t get a chance to explore her room. There must be sooo many wonderful things in there.” Octavia’s eye twitched before widening both eyes when she heard my next sentence, as if she was imagining everything we’d do. “I wonder what we could make if we put our heads together?”

Before Octavia could say anything though we heard Pinkie cry out, “Hey you two! I see you found somepony! Woohoo! More for the Glad-We-Survived-The-Train-Wreck party!” I looked towards Pinkie and saw her jumping up and down, waving a hoof energetically at us in greeting as we finally got closer to the front of the train.

I waved back at Pinkie, Octavia, Sun and I quickly joined up with the mane six. Twilight spoke up, "So, I see that your search found somepony."

“Yeah, Octavia was buried underneath her luggage.” Sun said.

Twilight raised a quizzical eyebrow but didn’t ask. Instead she said, “Well we have everything we need, I even took the liberty of grabbing some water bottles and snacks from the food car for the trip!” To emphasis she levitated a saddlebag in front of us before putting it on.

“Come on Twilight, let’s stop standing around talking and go!” Rainbow complained, though she couldn’t say anything about standing… she was flying lazy circles around the group.

“While ah might not agree with Rainbow’s tone, we really should be headin’ out now Sugarcube. Ah don’t want to leave Big Mac to do all mah chores if ah’m too tired to work tomorrow.” Said Applejack.

Twilight nodded, “You’re right. Come on girls… and Sun, the sooner we start, the quicker we get back home!”

“Finally!” Said Rainbow, throwing her hooves up.

“Ugh, I don’t even want to think about what all this sweat will do to my mane and coat. A relaxing day at the spa sounds wonderful. Do you want to join me tomorrow Fluttershy?”

I watched the friendly conversations the six mares had as they followed the tracks to Ponyville. I turned to Octavia and Sun and said, “Got any kind of interesting stories for the trip? I feel like today will be a long day.”

“That depends on if you want to hear about the Grimm or not.” Sun told her.

"Ooh, sounds interesting.” I said while taking off my arm warmers and putting them in one of the side pockets of my backpack. “Are they some sort of monster? Do they look like Grim from ‘The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy’?"

“Definitely not. Grimm are creatures that are formed from the negative emotions of others. Like Sorrow, Anger, Wrath, Pride and so on. They mostly take on the forms of animals.”

I was only a tad disappointed, "Oh, they sound dangerous." I held my hands behind my back as we walked. “So are there any differences between them?”

“Quite. Some are Beowolves… Two headed snakes…” For a moment, Sun looked in the sky, only to stop and get his weapons. “Oh COME ON!?! Seriously!? NOW!?!”

I was a bit confused until I looked to the sky as well. I suppose I know what Grimm look like now. Or at least a Grimm. It was a giant bird like creature with sharp, stark white claws and what looked like a white skull mask where its head was.

“Uh, that a friend of yours Sun?”

“That is NOT a friend of mine.” Sun said as he saw the Nevermore that was emerging from the clouds. “Everypony take cover!”

I didn't need to be told twice. Huge feathers the size of trees began to fly down like raining needles. I just barely managed to not get skewered as I ducked around for some sort of cover. I found a rather large rock and pressed myself against it. I could see Twilight and the others do the same.

"So uh, how do we kill it?!" I asked Sun.

“I would say try to take it down or blow it’s head off. Take your pick!” He yelled back, trying to see if he could get any closer by jumping into the nearby trees.

“Take it down hmm?” I thought. Then I got an idea, I still had the parts for a wub-nade in my pack. I hadn’t gotten around to making it since Twilight and the gang showed up during my bath time.

“Hey Sun I have an idea!” I yelled. “Keep it busy for like three minutes, I need a bit of time to build a wub-nade!”

“A what-!?” The Faunus shouted back. “Look out! It’s heading towards the girls!”

It seemed like Twilight saw that too. Twilight gritted her teeth and with a flash of purple they teleported to another part of the field, the giant Grimm slamming into the spot where they once were. It got up without so much as a scratch and shook itself before quickly taking flight again.

“Just please keep it off me for a bit!” I took my pack off and set it on the ground, rummaging through it I pulled out everything I’d need. Taking one last look at the size of our opponent I bit my lip and also summoned a glowing blue chip like item from the backpack. I set my tools out and started getting to work, tuning out almost everything but keeping an ear out for any warnings.

“Where’s Octavia?” I stopped my work and blinked.

"She's not with Twilight?" I asked.

“I thought she was with you!” Sun yelled back. Looking back upward, he catapulted himself using his bo staff like a pole vault and trying to get in the air. However, out of the few shots he tried to get off, only one of them actually hit the giant bird.

I looked around the field for Octavia, eventually I spotted a shaking bush by one of the trees not too far from my position. I instantly knew Octavia was there by the fact that a cello case was poking out of the top.

"She's fine!" I yelled to Sun. In a quieter voice I spoke to Octavia, "'Tavi come over by this rock, it'll protect you better!"

She looked at me fearfully, "But what if it sees me?"

I smiled at her, "Then Sun and I will keep you safe. Now come on over." With a resolute nod Octavia took a firm hold of her cello case and sprinted over to me. She skidded to a halt by me and pressed herself flat against the rock, clutching her case with a vice like grip. I gave her a few more words of encouragement before getting back to work.

Sun meanwhile was… wait… where the hell was he? That’s when I looked up and saw him holding onto the tail feathers of the beast. Is monkey boy insane!?

“Hey Vinyl, whatever you’re going to try and do, do it NOW!!!”

Was this dude crazy or just asking for a death wish? Plus, I was already done with my-... Wait… what exactly was he thinking? I stared at Big Bird and monkey boy for a second then promptly picked up the wub-nade, it had a small glowing blueness to it now, and ran out into the open field.

I came to a halt and started waving my arms to catch Big Bird’s attention, “Hey you!” Big Bird glanced down at me. “Yeah you ugly bird thing! Your mother was an omelette!” This seemed to catch its attention, it screeched in outrage and started to dive bomb me. I rolled the wub-nade around in my hand and waited patiently. I had to admit… I was really scared right now and I’d be an idiot if I wasn’t.

When I saw that the moment was right, I threw the wub-nade at the beast, aiming for its open beak as best I could. But then, out of nowhere, Sun caught the grenade and threw it into the Grimm’s beak. With one of his shotguns out, he blasted the wub-nade, causing it to explode in the bird's mouth and killing the monster.

“Hasta la vista, baby!” Said Sun, talk about going off with a bang. But good humor dies when I finally and truly processed what he did.

Sun landed gracefully on the ground when Big Bird’s corpse crashed into the earth. Before he could say anything I threw my hands on my hips and glared at him while saying, “Why did you blow up the wub-nade?! It’s not suppose to just blow up like that, that’s a waste of a blue chip!”

“I thought it was an explosive. Why? Does it work differently?”

I sighed, "When it goes off it releases wubs and sound using magic to create enough force to disorient a living creature and cause it to have no feeling in their limbs. That's the normal one, the one I threw would've released wubs and sound hard enough to do serious internal damage and then explode. Even more damage would be done when Big Bird swallowed the wub-nade, and the explosion would've been bigger."

“True… But I didn’t know that at first. Sorry for jumping to conclusions.”

It was true that he didn't know, I didn't even know why I was mad. "Can't fault you..." I mumbled then sighed when I realized I was being ridiculous, "I guess it doesn't honestly matter as long as the chip was vaporized in the end..."

A brief silence passed by before I spoke up again, a tiny humorous smile on my face as I looked at Sun, "I gotta say though, grasping the bird’s tail and riding it was pretty ballsy. At least you didn't land on your pretty face when you jumped back down right?” I looked at his tail. “Also, I’ve been meaning to ask, but why do you have a tail?"

“Faunus like me are known to have traits of animals. For me, I have the reflexes and speed of a monkey.” Sun explained. So that’s why he had the tail. Guess I can’t call him ‘Saiyan Boy’ anymore now.

“Is that so… That’s pretty cool. Must be neat having a tail, I’ve kinda been wanting to pet it.” I said while still staring at the tail he was waving in front of me.

“Well, it does kind of serve as like an extra hand. Kind of takes a bit to get use to at first, but like anything; you adjust over time.” Sun sighed. “Incoming Twilight, 6 o’clock.”

“Wha-?”

“Figure of speech. What I mean is… She’s right behind you. And she looks like she has quite a few questions for you.”

I turned around and indeed saw Twilight trotting over to us. Her eyes were showing clear interest as to what happened and worry at what might come next.

“Vinyl! What was that thing?! Are there more?!” I think I’ll deflect this.

“That was the first time I ever saw something like that. Sun’ll be able to answer your questions much better, I’m still new to all this.” I pointed at Sun. Twilight expectedly turned to Sun.

“That was a Grimm and for now, I don’t believe anymore would show up. They’re creatures formed from negative emotions of the soul like Anger, Wrath, Greed, Pride and so on. Something tells me that the anger from the ponies we encountered earlier formed that Nevermore.”

Twilight sighed in relief when she heard that no more of the Grimm will show up. "Oh, good." She said, "I thought we would have to deal with a lot of those."

She was treading on Murphy ground, I needed to interrupt that.

"Nevermore huh? I think I'll stick with 'Big Bird'. We should probably start walking again, this fight stalled us enough as it is."

We walked to the girls, with a quick stop at the rock to get Octavia and my bag. Twilight looked like she was thinking about everything that has happened today. Octavia looked much calmer now and seemed to look at Sun and I with newfound respect.

And I had no idea what Sun could be thinking. But I did know I was right, today is going to be a long day.

Depending on how exactly things turned out. But thankfully, we saw a road sign up ahead after a while of walking, turns out that not following the track directly and cutting corners saved us plenty of time. Especially since Rainbow or Fluttershy could fly and keep an eye on the tracks.

The sign read [Ponyville- 2 miles ahead]

“Finally!!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “We’re so close, I can taste it!!”

“Hang on Rainbow, not everypony here can be as fast as you can.” Sun told her.

“Oh COME ON!!” Rainbow complained. “After what you did against that Bird freak, I’m sure you could keep up with me.”

“Maybe… but what about everypony else? You can’t think about just yourself.”

"We'll get there soon enough Rainbow, it's just two more miles." I said. Sun smiled, supporting my statement. Rainbow groaned a little as she came back down to earth to be with her friends. Though, I did see her glance at Sun. Possibly for the comments that he made earlier.

"I can't wait to get to Twilights and have a bath. Do you have a washing machine Twilight?" I saw her nod… I think. Either that or she didn’t hear me. Hopefully, Twilight has something to help me out later.

“That thought does sound a bit relaxing, especially with everything going on back in my world. Just today, I had to stay low so the Prince of Yakghanistan doesn’t freak out if he saw me roaming around Ponyville.”

I shook my tank top’s collar so my chest could breathe in this nearly unbearable heat. “Why would the Prince of Yakghanistan freak out if he sees you?” I gave Sun a questioning look when I faced him, the collar snapping back to my body with a small wet slap.

“Not a lot of ponies, matter of fact creatures, know about me besides the citizens in Ponyville. Celestia wanted me to air on the side of caution so we had no international incidents.” Sun replied in a low tone of voice. “A lot has been going on as of lately, especially since Chrysalis and Mordred performed a coup on the other changeling hives.”

“Who the heck is Mordred?” I whispered to Sun. “Also, you might not want to mention anything about Changelings to those six. The wedding hasn’t happened yet so ponies don’t know about them.”

Ignoring that, Sun whispered back. “Mordred is one of the five changeling queens. Queen of Anger. She and Chrysalis laid siege to the other hives and used someone as Adam Taurus to kill the other queens. I’m having to live with the heirs of the queens that were killed in Fluttershy’s cottage.”

I blinked and whispered, “Wow, your Equestria really is different. But damn, it sucks for those heirs, no one should have to go through that.”

“I know.” Sun says, looking up ahead. “Hey, is it just me or am I seeing a red barn up ahead?”

I looked to where Sun was and had a grin on my face. “Sweet! It’s Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Finally! Home Sweet Home!!” Applejack hollered as she trotted forth. I wonder how many times am I going to hear sweet said in a row? But at any rate at least we finally got to a site we could all appreciate.

“Dear Sweet Celestia, my hooves are killing me!!”

Really Rarity?

“Aw sweet! I can finally get to napping! And practicing for the Wonderbolts!” Shouted Rainbow.

Damn it, Dashie!

“Well, it’s sweet to get a break now if I do say so myself.”

Oh come on, Monkey Boy! You’re making this worse!

“Oh! I can’t wait to get back to Sugarcube Corner and eat all those yummy sweets again!” Shouted Pinkie.

Oh god, please make it stop!

“Well, my oh my. AJ, Who’s tha sweet fella’ over there under the tree?”

Granny Smith, you just made it worse. I give up.

“Howdy Granny! That there is Sun. He helped us get back to the Orchard after our train crashed a few miles back… Where’s Applebloom?”

“She’s out with those friends of hers, crusadin’ fer somethin’. Don’t right know myself.” Replied Granny Smith rocking on her chair. I said a quick goodbye to Octavia, she wanted to go let her family know she was safe. Around the time I sat down by Sun, Granny seemed to notice me. “And who is this fair lady?” I smiled and introduced myself.

While Applejack began to talk to Granny and the others, I turned around to notice a familiar Trio trying to get the jump on Sun. Maybe for a Show and Tell assignment back at their class. “Sun, How good are you with fillies?”

“I beg your pardon-?”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, MONKEY CATCHERS YAY!!!”

“NOT AGAIN!!”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when the crusaders got the jump on Sun. They ended up in a pile with the three crusaders sitting proudly on top of a prone monkey boy. Only for him to straighten himself back up with Scootaloo hanging onto his tail and Sweetie Belle hanging onto his shoulders. Wow, monkey boy must be pretty strong to get up with three fillies that were on top of him. Now, Applebloom was standing in front of the Faunus. Shocked.“Still very ticklish…” Sun smiled, rubbing both of Scoot’s ears and careful not to mess with Sweetie’s horn. “But it’ll take more than that to try and catch me.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“No, it isn’t.” Sun sighed. “Besides, I’m trying to rest a little after fighting an oversized crow.”

“Well, I guess we won’t be getting our cutie mark in that.” Deadpanned Scootaloo from Sun’s tail.

“Yeah…” Said Sweetiebelle from her perch.

“Play nice Monkey Boy.” I said while leaning against the tree, eyeing them from the coolness of the shade. Sun’s response was to use his tail to place Scootaloo on his other shoulder and sit down, deciding it would be best to have fun and start to tickle all three of them.

Around now, I saw the three fillies rush over to Applejack after she called them over. But then, something else happened. A letter appeared out of nothingness and landed in Sun’s lap. Sun looked at the letter and judging from how his expression was, he could recognize something about the envelope.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Remember my cousin? The one that got Displaced as Gunvolt?”

“Yeah, why?”

“This is a letter from him. His seal is on the front.”

Monkey boy showed me the seal and it looked like a pair of slightly unfolded wings. “Oh, cool. Didn’t even know you could send letters to other Displaced. So… what kind of letter is it?”

“Let’s see……” Sun replied back, opening it and scanning the contents. After a few minutes though, his eyes widened. “Holy… Shit…”

Now my attention was grabbed. “What? What?!”

“Dear Sir or madam…… You are coronally invited to the wedding of Maxine Caulfield and Lance walker… Oh dear god, my cousin’s getting married.” He showed me a photo of what they looked like and… Oh my god, is that a filly Rainbow Dash? SHE’S SO CUTE!!!

“Awww. She’s cute.” I felt it needed to be said out loud. “So, this must be a shock I’m guessing?”

“Well, Lance did say he had to leave early to take care of something… wait…” He looked closer, now noticing something else. “On the Itinerary, there's a baby shower two days before the wedding… Oh you have got to be kidding me…”

“Well, congrats to them I guess. Never saw a point to baby showers myself though…”

“Right… Last I checked, Lance was 16… God, that thought makes me feel disturbed.”

I rubbed my chin in thought, “Well teen pregnancy is on the rise…”

“True… but you don’t know how old Max here is… and if she was like the usual case for Displaced… then she would be over 1000 years old wouldn’t she?” Sun asked.

“Well… it depends, was she trapped in stone… or actually living those past 1000 years?”

“Trapped I believe. I don’t know all the details… But I do notice a couple of things from this photo. The background was by a pair of statues of both the Princesses, but if you look closely enough, you can see that they’re memorial statues.” He told me, pointing out the details that even surprised me at first.

“Well if she was trapped then it shouldn’t matter… to me at least. Because let’s be honest I am also technically over a 1000 years old and if I date people in my technical age range I’d be with either the Princesses or Discord. And while Mr. Lancie is a fun guy, he isn’t really my type, neither are the Princesses.” I paused for a bit before continuing. “To be honest I don’t know what to make of those statues. But if you think that your cousin knows what he is doing and is a good judge of character… then you should at least give them benefit of the doubt until you actually meet this Max girl.”

“I am… but there's another thing… Looks like Max is Royalty.”

I rose an eyebrow, “Oh? Wow, it seems your cousin shot high and scored a bullseye.”

Sun facepalmed himself before Pinkie zipped in and surprised us. Looking at me, she said “Leave the jokes to the professionals,” before going back over to her friends.

I crossed my arms and muttered, "Tough crowd."

“Right… And on another note, Lance is asking me to be his Best man.”

"That's neat. You gonna do it?"

“Yeah, but I’ve never been asked to do something like this before. I’m kind of nervous.”

"No worries, I was a best man at one of my friend's weddings. It's not hard."

“Right… Hey, do you have anything going on in four months… This might sound awkward… But the letter says that I can bring a guest.” Sun said, showing me the bottom portion of the letter.

I thought about it, "Not really no. But if you want me to come I can."

“It’s your choice of whether you want to go or not. I’m not trying to force you or anything.” Sun explained, the Faunus straightening himself up. “Now, maybe we should get to one other thing before I head back home.”

"I'll come, it seems fun. So, what is the last thing?"

“Well… I believe it was something that you asked me.” Sun said, cracking his knuckles and stretching his hands and feet. “Didn’t you want my help in something to help you defend yourself?”

My eyes widened, we were doing this now? It would be best though, I'm already sweaty. "Oh yeah, so how are we going to do this?" I said while getting up.

“Well… THINK FAST!” Sun said, using his tail to cause me to trip and get behind me. “Better keep up if you want to get some payback!”

I narrowed my eyes at monkey boy and got back to my feet. I gave chase and threw a punch at his smug face. He dodged it, using an open palm to push my arm to the side and cause me to stumble forward. “You’re letting your emotions affect your attacks. You need to be calm and collected before you engage in a fight.”

“So why the hell did you knock me over!?”

“To evaluate your reactions and see what you would do.” Sun spoke again, “That way, I can see what we need to work on.”

"So what do we need to work on." I said after reining in my annoyance.

“Two things… First, you need to fix your stance and make sure your feet are firmly on the ground along with firmly using your arms when you attack. Second, and don’t get mad when I say this, your attitude.”

"What's wrong with my attitude?"

“You’re are angry. Stressed out… Pissed off perhaps. All of those factors can cause you to make mistakes in a fight. And a mistake is the last thing you would want.”

"I guess..." I trailed off.

“There’s no guess about it,” Sun corrected, “You want to help the girls right? So you need to do what you can and, to put it in your terms, not let the beat drop too early.”

"Yeah, you're right." I sighed, "So how do I improve myself?"

“You can’t improve overnight, but you do seem flexible to pull off punches and kicks…” Sun said, evaluating her actions earlier. “Maybe you should practice while listening to music. Nothing with Vocals, just instrumentals and let the flow and beat of the song allow you to come up with different combinations of punches and kicks. Oh and nothing slow. Sometimes, Aero Chord-Ctrl, Alt, Destruction helps me focus.”

I hummed, that sounded more my speed, I had plenty of songs to choose from anyway. "Can you show me the correct stances for punches and kicks and things like that?"

Sun nodded. “It depends on your skill level and focus. Just make sure to keep your hands open so if your opponent tries to strike first.” He showed me one that reminded me of a character from Street Fighter IV. I think her name was… Crimson Viper? Anyways, the stance was where her right hand was held around her upper chest level while her left hand was held openly around the lower chest. That seemed like my kind of style.

"You can counter?"

“Counters depend on timing and your opponent. Remember when you tried to punch me a few moments ago?” He asked. “That was me countering you. Anytime you try to defend yourself, you need to throw your opponents off their game and a good way of doing that is pushing their arms away from your body. That way, their face can hit the ground.”

“I see… That’d be better than my face.”

“That should be just about it. You can summon me if you have anymore questions okay?” With that, Sun used his token and leaped through the portal with a running start before the doorway closed. Now, I had another thing on my mind…

How the hell am I going to get the smell of sweat out of my clothes?

♫♫♫

I was relaxing in an actual bathtub right now. If I were to die this very second, I would die happy and content. I was finally clean once again, and my sweaty clothes were being washed in Twilights magic washing machine and dryer.

I was one content woman right now. The fact that I was suddenly becoming unbothered by these references to womanhood took a backseat in my mind. I just about to close my eyes when a bright golden flash of light shined next to the bathtub. Celestia stood next to me, just staring down at me.

Only briefly of course, when she saw me in my beautiful naked glory she back pedaled away instantly with a bright red face. She looked to the side and away from me in embarrassment.

I raised my arms in a 'What the Hell' gesture.

"Why?! Why do people barge in on me when I'm bathing?!"

Celestial Wubs

View Online

I was currently sitting on a sofa in Twilight's living room slash library. This wouldn't be too bad if my clothes weren't still ten minutes from being done in the washing machine. Instead I'm wrapped up in a towel that barely covers the important areas. Celestia is still red faced, Twilight looked mortified, Spike was trying not to laugh, and I was most certainly not pouting that my bath time was once again interrupted.

Ignoring the laughs being unsuccessfully stifled I looked at Celestia and decided to bite the bullet on this one, "So what brings you here Sunny?"

This seemed to shock her out of blushville. "I am here to ask a few questions..." She trailed off.

I shrugged while trying to keep to a more modest position then I usually like, "Well ask away."

Celestia straightened herself up and looked serious, "I want you to tell me what happened a thousand years ago, from your perspective."

This... was a surprise. I honestly did not think she would want to hear my side of the story since she and her sister were pretty quick to pull the trigger last time. But this was a good thing, especially if it means I don't get to be turned back to stone again. I looked at Celestia and scratched my head.

"Well... alright." And so I told her everything that happened that day. After my quick explanation she seem downtrodden. "You alright?" I asked after a while, it was only polite.

Celestia sighed and looked off to the side, ashamed, "No, I'm not. My sister and I sentenced you to a wrongful imprisonment. Your sentence should not have been that long or severe. But we were too young and hot headed back then to see what really happened. We saw only a strange creature destroying one of our cities and didn't even try to get the full story. You clearly did not even know Cloudsdale was above you, or that your invention would break upon itself. All blame was shifted to you and that simply wasn't fair, you deserved a trial at the very least."

It was true, I did deserve a trial and a far less severe punishment, heck I'd have taken community service with a smile. But to be honest I got over my feelings about the false imprisonment a long time ago. A thousand years is a long time to think and sort feelings through. I was peeved yeah, but I tend to look on the bright side of life. After all if I wasn't stoned then I wouldn't be able to see my favorite ponies in the better timeline, or be a part of a freaking episode! Eventually...

Celestia looked utterly guilty and probably thought herself a failure. I love the show too much to let this kind of expression mar her face. I sighed and looked Celestia in the eyes, "Listen, while your decision was rash... I don't hold any ill will against you. I know I should... but I'm just not the type to hold a grudge." I crossed my arms while Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm looking at the silver linings right now. It's a more modern era, so I can actually do what I love! I can go get materials and be able to make quality DJ stuff now! Ponies love wubs in this day and age, and I can actually DJ without being called a mind controlling monster!" I uncrossed my arms and spread them wide to emphasis that last point. It was important.

One of Celestia and Twilight's eyes twitched at that last part. For what reason I wouldn't know.

I leaned back against the couch with my arms on either side of me while on top of the couch cushions. "So, any other questions?"

Celestia coughed in a hoof, "Yes... but you might want to... pull your towel back up. Your teats are showing." I cursed and pulled it back up while Celestia continued, "I am glad to hear that you do not hold ill will against me or my sister. I am also glad that Twilight sent me a letter detailing everything you talked about during your... bath time." I snorted.

"Yeah, seems that ponies interrupting my bath is a new thing now."

Celestia giggled, "Yes well, I only have one more question for you before I must return to Canterlot." She paused a moment before dawning a mix of a curious and serious look. "Why do you look, and sound, like the famous DJ-Pon3? And before you ask Twilight, I do like to keep up with the current music generation. I don't enjoy just classical after all." Twilight looked sheepish.

I must admit, I did not see this coming... Oh who am I kidding? Of course I saw it coming! I have the exact same hair, name and freaking voice for crying out loud! I'd question her ability to rule of she didn't catch wind of something funky going on. Didn't make it any less awkward to try and explain though. Before I could start my explanation I heard a faint ding.

"Hold that thought. I need to go change real quick." I got up and rushed to the washing machine. While redressing myself, and feeling the wonderful sensation of freshly dried clothes, I thought about how to best explain this little ordeal. I got to the doorway and paused when a thought hit me.

"Why the hell do I need to pussyfoot around this subject? I'll just show them straight up." I thought, and with that I strode in confidently. Reaching the couch I picked my bag up and pulled out my computer.

"Why are you doing?" Asked Twilight.

"Getting my computer out so I can show you why I resemble DJ-Pon3 so much." Spike, Celestia and Twilight looked at each other in confusion.

Spike scratched his head, "What's a computer?"

I'm not much of a computer geek so I just went with a simple answer, "It's a calculator so advanced that I can do more than just math with it."

"Oh, cool." Was his simple answer. I finally found what I was looking for.

"Alright here. Before I show you anything I should say two things first. The first is that I am from a different universe." Celestia looked at me in disbelief, while Twilight, after seeing Sun, seemed a bit more ready to accept that statement. "And the other is that in my world, you Twilight and your friends are a TV show. You have TVs right?"

The others nodded though they still looked at me in disbelief, "Yeah, though they are mostly more common in urban cities. It's rare to find them in towns like Ponyville, the towns still get reception though."

That was interesting, "Alright then. Well yeah, in my world you guys are a TV show. I am a fan of the show, and when I was at a convention I dressed up like a human version of DJ-PON3. I bought a pair of headphones from a merchant and then I was teleported here a thousand years ago while being turned into what I dressed as." Their eyes were widened. "And thanks to multiverse theory there are many Equestrias that have a similar situation happen with another human. Each made a specific 'token' for themselves and send it out into the void between universes. Those tokens then get sent to other people like them, the Displaced. I guess that's the best explanation of why I look like DJ-PON3 and what the Displaced are."

My audience of three sat still, processing the new influx of information.

"This is certainly something." Celestia finally broke the silence. "But I still don't understand how our universe could be entertainment to yours."

I shrugged, "That's the magic of multiverse sister. Pretty much anything is possible when there are infinite possibilities." I paused a bit, "Now, how about I prove to you that what i just said was real?" They nodded. "Good! Here is the first episode of season two, it's when Dissy shows up!"

They paid rapt attention to my computer screen, their jaws were to the ground about a third of the way through and that was when I decided to pause the video.

"Heh, am I right or what?"

Celestia, probably thanks to a millennia of ruling, got rid of her shock rather quickly. "That is... certainly going to give me a case of existential crisis later I'm sure. But you made your point and answered my question. Sadly I must be off now, I will tell my sister that you are no threat and hopefully we can meet once more. This time as friends." She smiled at me and I must admit I felt a warm fuzzy feeling rise up in my chest.

I smiled back, "Yeah... as friends." And with that Celestia's horn lit up and she teleported with a bright flash of light, right back to Canterlot.

After Celestia left there was a lingering silence. I looked at Spike and Twilight and said, "Well, I have a few movies from my world sitting in my computer. Want to watch movies made by aliens?"

Spike perked up. "Oh yeah! Let me go grab some popcorn and gems!"

Twilight finally got herself mentally situated. "Sure, what kind of movie is it?"

I fiddled with the mousepad, "It's about pirates. It's a pretty popular series, and a fun watch when you're bored. Too bad Celestia couldn't stick around, she might enjoy it."

Twilight hummed as she brought a small table over to the couch, I put the computer on it when I found the file. Spike came running back in and situated himself between us so we could all share the rather large bag of popcorn.

"I'm soo glad I don't just have music in this thing." I thought to myself as the movie started up. "I'd probably die of boredom."

Stuff Wubs

View Online

I am currently sitting on Twilight's couch in a typical "The Thinker" thinking pose.

I was thinking about what has happened these past few days since Celestia showed up three days ago. Three days since I showed Twilight and Spike "Pirates of the Caribbean". And only two since I visited Rarity's shop and got my measurements done. I found it a bit odd that I was getting into increasing situations with ponies while being in a state of undress... and getting used to it rather quickly. Rarity insisted that I strip to my panties so she could get accurate measurements, foreign body and all. I also mentioned an upcoming wedding I'm being taken to, and what kind of formal dress I had in mind. I'd help her around the shop sometime to pay for it, I was already being given free everyday clothes so it was the least I could do. I don't like being in debt to people if I can help it.

On a side note, a thought finally struck me, a thought that should've struck me a thousand years ago.

"How the hell am I wearing panties when I didn't go to the con with them on? And how did my boxers turn into them in the first place?" I spoke aloud, rubbing my chin and furrowing my brow.

"What was that?" Asked Twilight from the basement.

"Nothing!" I shouted back. I continued to debate on the subject matter, a small shudder coursed through my body when a possibility came to my mind.

"Ugh, I hope he didn't strip and change me. Creepy on a whole new level." I fought the urge to barf at the image of a resident evil merchant touching me while unconscious. Didn't help that my imagination turned him into a fat, perverted old man from an anime... who was drooling excessively.

I stopped shuddering when Twilight appeared from the basement, a fine layer of dust coating her fur. "Well the basement is cleaned, all that is left is getting some more scientific equipment! I can't wait to study this new music magic you use!"

I adjusted myself into a crosslegged sitting position, putting an elbow to a knee and resting my head on my palm. "Heh, don't get carried away from your friendship studies now." I smirked at her.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Oh hush, I'll have you know I take my friendship studies very seriously. They take precedence, even over this new field!"

I chuckled, "I know, I know."

"Besides, we can't study them right now anyway. I still need to have Spike send a letter asking Princess Celestia to send some equipment from Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns. If we do it today then the equipment should arrive in a week." Twilight sighed dejectedly. She was really hyped for these research sessions she has planned. I wasn't as thrilled, but then again I'm just lazy.

"Well we can still plan and theorize right? I'm actually hoping to come up with new ways to make my board more efficient. Batteries, new magic gathering runes, circuit boards, good materials I'm gonna need for experimenting. We still have that budget Celestia sent us for the wub research right?"

Twilight nodded, "Yeah, but we need to save it for the equipment first. That stuff isn't cheap you know. We can worry about materials later." Twilight noticed my pout and rolled her eyes. "Oh stop that. I'm excited too, just exercise enough patience to last at least a week and a half. I'm sure you'll make it, you are a grown mare after all."

"Woman," I corrected, then sighed. "But yeah... I suppose you're right. I'm gonna go check to see if Rarity made any progress with my clothes." I got up from my perch on the couch, putting my shoes on. You should never put your shoes on someone else's couch, it isn't polite.

"Have fun, I'm gonna go take a bath now..." Twilight trailed off with a grimace as she stuck a tongue out in disgust at the grime on her. Quickly trotting upstairs I snorted in amusement when I heard her mutter, "I'm just glad Rarity isn't here to see this right now..."

I stretched upwards for a few moments before cracking my neck and moving for the door. When I got outside I made a beeline to Carousel Boutique. The ponies of Ponyville have been pretty chill about me during my brief stay here so far, they were initially curious about what species I am but since I'm the only human here that made sense. I'm personally just glad that coming to this town didn't start the usual human fan fiction shebang of ponies freaking out about what my species looked like.

The ponies from Fillydelphia a thousand years ago got a pass. They didn't freak out based solely on my appearance, which was rather nice. Anyway, I waved and said hello and was being generally social to a few ponies until I saw Octavia trotting down the street with her cello case somehow balancing perfectly on her back.

"Hey 'Tavi!" I called.

Octavia suddenly stopped and turn her head to me with a speed I thought would snap her neck. "Vinyl?! How-" She cut herself off when she saw me, I waved and sported a grin as I jogged up to her.

She said, "Sorry, I forgot that the Vinyl I know is still in Canterlot." She cleared her throat before continuing, "Anyway what can I do you for Rhythm?"

I shrugged, "Eh, just wanted to say hi really." I paused and rocked on the balls of my feet. "So, you leaving to head to another family member's house? Or are you heading back to your shared home in Canterlot?" I asked.

We started walking down the street as Octavia replied, "Oh, I'm done visiting family. This was my last stop since the next train here is to Canterlot and it isn't too long of a ride. It will be great fun to finally get back and relax at home before getting back to symphonies and orchestras. Though those too are relaxing and fun..." She seemed to trail off with a wistful look. I didn't understand going to those things myself.

Of course I like some classical music don't get me wrong. I just can't sit still and listen to it for hours, not enough energy for my tastes.

"... and I can't wait to tell Vinyl about that incident with my Aunt Clarinet and the jelly." I realized I must've zoned out a bit. But I sadly had to cut our travels short, the Boutique was next to us.

We stopped and I said, "This is my stop, gotta get some clothes from Rarity. But I'll catch you two sometime when I next come to Canterlot. Maybe we'll all have some fun stories to tell each other eh?" I winked playfully at her, but I don't think she saw it since I was wearing my glasses.

She smiled, "Sure thing Rhythm! Uh, catch you on the flip side right?" She said the last bit a tad awkwardly.

I simply stared at her for a bit before bursting out laughing. Octavia's faced turned red and she started to fume. "S-Sorry 'Tavi! Hehe... but don't ever say that again! Hahaha! You sounded ridiculous!" I was practically on the ground at this point. She turned around in a huff and started trotting away, I barely managed to call out a goodbye around all my laughs.

When I got control back I dusted myself off and headed to Rarity's door. I knocked and heard a voice singsong out... "Coming!~"

A glow surround the handle and swung open to reveal the face of Rarity with those glasses on. Her face brightened immediately and before I could even say a "Hello" she grabbed me with her hooves and dragged me into her studio. I don't know how she was moving so quickly on two hooves, being a quadruped and all, but I found myself standing in front of one of those fancy dividers some people use for changing. Rarity disappeared for a brief second before instantly reappearing Pinkie style next to me. I admit I jumped just a tad when I saw her rather... creepy smile.

She magically shoved a pile of carefully folded clothes in my arms. Before starting to push me with her head on my back, while being careful with her horn, to the changing divider. "Now Darling we simply must try everything on. Those clothes are all carefully organized into there own separate outfits, from shirt to pants. While they might not be fancy dresses and just, ugh, everyday clothes I guarantee that they will all look downright marvelous on you! Now hurry along now, we mustn't keep the world waiting~!" She singsonged the last sentence as she shoved me behind the divider.

I groaned, "Do I really have to try all of them now?" I was just complaining to complain now.

"Of course! How else will we know if any of them need adjusting?" She sounded pleased with herself, I think she knows they fit and just wants to see her handiwork for herself. "Although... I suppose we could leave out the second outfit I made of your usual state of dress. Along with the tank tops and... ugh, sweatpants." I could hear her trying to not barf when saying that name along with several mutterings about why something would be called that.

I separated the outfits on a long table close by. As I looked at the new clothes I noticed something missing. "Hey Rarity! Is the dress for the wedding done, or do you still need some time? I mean it's four months away so no rush but I'm just curious." I called out.

"Oh, it just has a few finishing touches left, nothing major. But I'm keeping it a secret until its time!~" Rarity singsonged.

I rolled my eyes, but I trust that she wouldn't make something that didn't looked good. After that distraction I went back to the clothes on the table giving everything a once over before stripping. Rarity made entire outfits down to the socks, the only things excluded were underwear. Something I'll need to get fixed, but I can always go commando if my only pair needs a wash. Also, I was once again pondering about the fact that I was once again in a state of undress around a pony. The fact that I put myself in this position and that Rarity was behind a divider was carefully discarded.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and looked down to find that I already changed into the first outfit. I looked towards the full body mirror and gave myself a once over.

I put a hand on my hip. "Dayum, I look nice!" I thought as I gave myself a little smirk. I was wearing a pair of white shorts that reached halfway down my thigh, a purple tie-dye looking shirt with sleeves that reached around my elbows, and purple socks that stretched a third up my leg. I decided to call this outfit "Outfit One" and I will forever deny the twirl I did.

"Do you have the first one on yet? If so let me see~!"

With a roll of my eyes I stepped out from behind the divider and presented myself to Rarity. She squealed in delight as she finally got to see her creations on the person they were meant to fit. "Oh, that looks fabulous on you dear!"

I lightly laughed, "I thought you said I would look marvelous not fabulous."

"Oh, hush you. Now do a spin for me please, I want to see this from every possible angle!"

I did as she asked and it seems she didn't find any flaws. After that I went back behind the divider and took off outfit one. I folded the clothes back up and placed them back down next to outfit two. This was the last one besides the duplicate and three pairs of grey sweatpants and plain white tank tops. I should have a coat made for winter made for me sometime in autumn along with actual pants, but that was neither here nor now.

I pulled the second outfit on and admired myself in the mirror once again. My pants were electric blue, they were looser than my usual leggings and flared out at the ends. They also had musical bars wrapping around my legs with several notes inside them. I didn't think they played an actual song though. My shirt was collared, a button up, but I kept it open enough for my boobs to breathe, had long sleeves, and the cuffs were loose around my wrists. It was white and had what my cutie mark would've been stamped rather largely on the left side of my abdomen. There was also a small amount of frills around the collar, extending to just before the area where my cleavage would start. The socks were a darker shade of blue than the pants.

I was having more fun than I thought I would, and for whatever reason I don't know why.

"Come on darling~! Don't keep me waiting~!"

"Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses." I stepped out from behind the divider and struck a pose. "Well? Do I look good or do I look good?" I did a spin.

Rarity clapped her hooves together, "Oh absolutely wondrous! I knew I did good, and this only reinforces my design for the dress you're putting on for that wedding! Ooooh I can't wait to see you in it!"

I put my hands on my hips, "You know you don't have to wait... We could try it on now..." I trailed off, looking at her thoughtfully. Rarity rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I do wish I could see you in it now. But, patience will make it all the sweeter when you finally put it on!" Rarity levitated a fancy looking paper bag with handles over to me. I picked it up from her magic field. "Now, I want you to take these clothes and put them away where ever you put clothes away at Twilight's house. Then, I want you to strut around Ponyville and show off this new wardrobe of yours! And if anypony asks who made it for you then point them in my direction!"

I smiled at her and quickly put the clothes away inside the bag. We walked to the door and it swung open with Rarity's magic. I turned to her and gave her a swift hug and said, "Thank you Rarity. This means a lot to me."

We broke the hug and she said with a smile, "Not a problem at all dear. Now shoo! And don't even think about getting those new clothes dirty!" She gave me a stern look and I chuckled.

"Wouldn't dream of it! Later!" With that we waved goodbye. Rarity was always my favorite of the mane six. I tried to stifle a giddy giggle and smile. This seemed to finally be going in a nice direction.

Time Wubs

View Online

I was laying on Twilight’s couch in her living room at around eleven pm with my right leg propped up on the back cushions and my left hanging off the side, dressed in my new grey sweatpants and a white tank top. My head was resting on a pillow as I watched a movie play out on my laptop that was sitting on top of a table in front of me, a tub of Rocky Road ice cream in my lap and a spoon in my mouth.

I took the spoon out of my mouth with a nearly silent pop as I continued to watch the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I idly looked down at the ice cream in my lap and noticed it hasn’t melted yet, it stayed the exact same perfect softness. I just figured magic, and I certainly didn’t want to complain about it.

I looked back at the laptop screen and saw a random picture just float down onto it. It stopped in front of the screen and I reached out to pick it up. As soon as I touched it I heard a voice speak, “Time, the real final frontier. This is the token of Max Caulfield, the Master of Time. Its mission: to seek out those who would protect others and tear down tyranny; to boldly go before me so that I may be called when the time is right.”

I blinked, “Oh. It’s a displaced token.” I examined the picture a bit closer. “Seems like a fun person. Eh, what the hell.” I shrugged.

I dramatically raised the picture in the air, “Max! I call thee! Come eat ice cream!”

I heard a sigh and a female voice say, “Fine, guess it’ll help a little.” A blue portal shaped like a butterfly opened near the middle of the room facing me and a woman stepped out. She was wearing a grey hoodie and blue jeans. “What kind do you have?”

I showed the newcomer the tub and raised an eyebrow, “Rocky Road, duh. It’s the only kind that matters.”

“Nice.” The newcomer walked over and sat down next to the couch. “So what’re you trying to drown in ice cream?”

I gave her a quizzical stare, “What? You need a reason to eat ice cream excessively?”

“With my job and kids? Yeah. I’m Max by the way,” She said as a spoon floated over from the kitchen in a white aura and landed in a similarly glowing hand.

“The name’s Vinyl.” I offered the tub to the seated Max.

“Ah, you’re the one Sun talked about.” Max reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope. “You wanna DJ with a pony version of yourself at my wedding?”

I shrugged, “Sounds fun. So… Monkey boy is doing alright I take it?” I scooped up some ice cream.

“He was about a month ago when he fucked me.” Max took a spoonful of ice cream from the tub. “He was about as good as his cousin, Lance.”

I choked on my ice cream when I heard that. After dislodging the ice cream I sat up a bit and looked at Max with wide eyes while shouting, “What?!”

“Yeah.” Max put the ice cream in her mouth. “He kept up with me and another mare at the same time.”

I just gaped at her for a few seconds. I shook my head and took another spoonful of ice cream before laying back down. “I see, bloody hell.”

Max just hummed and took another spoonful, opening her hoodie to reveal that she had nothing on under it. “Well, at least you don’t have to worry about me trying to jump on you.”

“Huh?” I asked before continuing. “By the way, doesn’t that chafe?” I said when I noticed she didn’t have anything under.

“Yeah, but I can ignore it.” Max took another scoop of ice cream, taking out a flask and opening it before realizing something and tossing it away. “Damn it. I can’t even mope properly.”

“I don’t think drinking is proper moping, but why can’t you?” I asked all the while taking a big scoop and putting it in my mouth.

“‘M pregnant. Three months in.” Max finally turned her head to notice my laptop. “Huh, Johnny Depp movie.”

I hummed in thought when I heard she was pregnant. When she noticed my laptop I said, “Yeah, I like a good ol’ Johnny Depp movie. Glad I had this thing with me when I got sent here. It has all my music and movies on it.”

“You know, back on earth I thought he was cool, but now I can’t stop thinking of how hot he is,” Max said, taking close to half of what remained in the tub. “Must be because of the gender-bending.”

I decided to leave the rest of the ice cream to Max. I looked at her and said, “So you were a guy before Equestria too huh? I don’t think I’ve started finding guys attractive. But I’m rather dense I believe, so I might and not realize it yet.” I shrugged.

Max shrugged as well. “Guys, girls, anyone really. Celestia and Luna got me to like being in open relationships.”

I rose an eyebrow, “Celestia and Luna huh? Didn’t see that coming, but I know for a fact that I still like girls. Just not ponies…” I made a face. “If they were anthro maybe, but not the full blown ponies here.”

“They were ponies in mine as well. Still mares, yeah, but there are spells to give a mare a working dick.” Max sighed, taking a bite out of the ice cream on her spoon. “Celestia forgot one simple fact about the spell and I gave birth to twin foals.”

Well then. “Must’ve been painful to give birth to ponies as a human. But that is a convenient spell. I guess the fact forgotten is that the sperm is real too?” I asked.

“Yeah. Soon as I got back from someone else’s universe with the twins, though... Hurricane was attacking the palace with his followers. Stabbed both Luna and ‘Tia before fleeing.”

I didn’t expect that, but something caught my curiosity. “Wait, Hurricane? As in Commander Hurricane? From Hearth’s Warming Eve? Shouldn’t he be dead?” I asked.

“That’s the thing. In my universe he was the one who caused the winter with the pegasi following him. The windegoes helped, sure, but Hurricane was the real enemy. Racist bastard. I’m glad he was done in by his own ally.” Max took another bite out of the ice cream. “But no, he was imprisoned in stone way back when for killing Starswirl and his mates.”

I was surprised, to state an understatement. “Wow, this Equestria is basically the show but with me in the mix. Nothing dark like that here. I don’t think anything truly bad will happen anytime soon.” As soon as that last sentence left my mouth I wish I could’ve taken it back.

“Heh, famous last words. Just so you know, I knocked out a stallion outside that was trying to break in. Mine differs from the show in the way that Celestia was the one to get possessed and sent to the sun. Everypony’s sleep schedule got switched and thestrals took the Pegasi’s place.” Max took another bite from her ice cream. “But that’s not why I’m moping.”

I didn’t question the breaking and entering, “Huh, so everypony basically has a vampire sleep schedule? Neat. So why are you moping then?”

She sighed, putting the spoon back in the tub. “Well, going through the mirror to the EqG dimension for my universe turned me back into a guy. I was summoned by Sephiroth while I was a guy.”

“From Final Fantasy? So what was he like?” I asked putting a hand on my cheek to brace my head.

“She. She was a bit prickly when she summoned me because my token slapped in the face, but...” Max went quiet for a few minutes, obviously trying to hold back tears. “W-we eventually got along and I helped her with some things and she helped me. I-I even got her to think o-of me as her s-sister...”

I always felt awkward when people cried, so I got up and sat down crosslegged. I patted the seat next to me on the couch, motioning for Max to sit. “I’m guessing things didn’t work out so well?”

Max gave me a bitter laugh, not trying to hold her tears back. “That’s an understatement. I... I... Something grabbed hold of me and... I watched as I raped her.”

My jaw dropped. This was rather heavy… “Well… damn.” I said after a moment. I patted and rubbed her back, trying to do my best to comfort Max.

“I-I tried to stop. I t-tried to keep it from happening by just-... Why? Why didn’t I just tell her how to unsummon me before then?” Max turned and threw her arms around me, crying loud enough that I thought Twilight would come down.

I continued to rub her back and hold her as she let her tears loose. Hopefully Twilight wouldn’t come down, Max needed to vent without interruption. “Shh.” I said as I tried to calm her down just a little bit.

I heard the sound of hoofsteps and I knew it was Twilight coming down the stairs. I heard a loud yawn before Twilight spoke, “Just what is all the noise Vinyl? Do you know what time-” Twilight stopped short when she saw Max crying on me after turning the corner. “Uh, what’s going on?”

I turned to Twilight, “Sorry for waking you. Max here needs to vent her frustrations right now. Something bad happened.” My shoulder was wet now, but I didn’t pay much mind to it.

“I see.” Twilight said after a few moments. “Well, you girls want any hot chocolate? I don’t think I’m gonna be able to sleep right now.”

I nodded at Twilight, “Yeah. Sounds good, you want any Max?”

Her crying slowed and she said, “W-will it have marshmallows and whipped cream on top?”

Twilight smiled, “Of course! I’ll go make some then.” Twilight trotted into the kitchen, her horn already glowing. I watched her for a moment before returning my gaze to the crying girl in my arms.

“You feel any better?” I asked, still rubbing her back.

She sniffled and nodded, pushing herself off of me a bit. “Th-thanks. I... I just don’t know what to do when I summon her to my universe. I-I’m going to be summoning her s-so she can be measured for her dress and t-to meet my foals in t-t-two weeks.”

I was in silent thought for a bit before replying, “Admittedly, I don’t know either. It seems like an incredibly awkward affair, does she even know you weren’t in control?”

“I-I-I don’t know. S-she just... her voice was so devoid of emotion when she sent me back, I don’t know...”

“Maybe, wing it? The answer could come to you quicker if you don’t overthink it. I’m not sure about that being a feasible plan, but it’s all I got.” I replied, still unsure.

“H-ow? I-...” Max burst into tears again and fell against me, almost knocking me over.

I grunted, I didn’t expect her to fall back against me. I am not good at comforting, that much is certain, but I at least want to help Max get through this. I didn’t get a chance to reply though, Twilight came back to the living room with three mugs.

“I’m back!” Twilight said. She levitated one of the mugs to me and set Max’s on the table while taking a seat for herself. “I put extra marshmallows and whip cream on yours Max. You look like you need it.”

Max nodded and lit her hand. the mug floated over in a weak aura, almost spilling if not for Twilight helping guide it to Max’s shaking hand.

I went back to rubbing Max’s back and took a small sip of the hot chocolate, it was really good. We didn’t say anything, the three of us just continued to drink the chocolatey beverage.

About half an hour later, Max took a shaky breath and dried her face with her hoodie. I heard something clatter to the floor and looked over to investigate.

I widened my eyes when I saw that it was a pistol. It had a dark grey grip and a tannish casing with the word Feather in white near the end of the barrel and a weird logo. “You keep a gun in your hoodie? Do you prowl the ghetto or something?” I asked, shocked that a random weapon just appeared out of nowhere.

“No. I never let myself get summoned without some protection.” Max took a huge swallow from her mug. “Usually carry a sniper, a shotgun, that pistol, a sword, and two hidden blades. Can’t be too prepared, you know?”

I blinked, “Ah, I see. That makes sense. You don’t keep a cannon in your cooch do you?” Frankly I just want to know where she keeps all those weapons.

Max giggled, the first sign of something getting through. “No, Sol and Mun carry all the cannons. I usually keep all my guns in my bag. It’s way bigger on the inside.”

“A bag of holding? Or time lord tech things? Sounds pretty useful.”

“It’s a camera bag of holding. I do like Doctor Who, but I’m no time lord.”

“Oh, well I just thought time and everything. And sorta put those things together.” I shrugged.

“Ah, it’s okay.” She took another swallow from her mug. “I kinda give off the vibe of being a pervy Doctor, what with me dropping innuendos, flirting with everyone I come across, and my power over time.”

I chuckled, “Pervy Doctor indeed. You don’t happen to have a blonde apprentice do you?”

“No, but my fiance is blonde. That kinda counts, right?”

I rose an eyebrow, “In a weird fanfictiony sorta way yeah. Tons of people would still like it though.”

Max’s expression turned thoughtful as she said, “You know, I can’t shake the thought that someone in the multiverse is writing our lives as they happen. Kinda like how there were a few fanfics on what would happen if Celestia was sent to the sun instead of Luna to the moon.”

I finished off my mug of hot chocolate and said, “I never really read any of those. Or at least I don’t think I did, my memories are a bit blurred after a thousand years.” I shrugged.

Max turned to the unicorn on the couch. “What about you, Twi? You think someone’s writing your life somewhere in the multiverse?”

Her left eye twitched. “Well, Vinyl already showed Celestia and I an episode of our show as written by someone in her universe. So… yeah, I guess I do.” She drank the last of her hot chocolate like it was a shot. It was cute, in a weird way.

Max shook her head in reminiscence. “If only I had my flash drive, I could show you some of the clop stories about you and your friends.”

I snorted, trying to keep myself from laughing at what Max said. “L-Let’s not traumatize her Max. She wouldn’t be able to look at the others the same way again.” Twilight’s face was red, I guess clop meant what it means in the fandom here too.

Max’s expression turned devious as she said, “I even had a story or two about Vinyl in there.”

My face turned red this time, “Heh, pony Vinyl right?”

“And human. At the same time.” she leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Together.”

My blush intensified. “Pervy Doctor indeed... Were they any good?”

Max giggled and pushed herself off of my lap. “I’ll let you figure that out for yourself~.”

“Oh? And how will I do that?” I replied.

“Well, you could wait until the wedding. Unless there’s a pony Vinyl in this universe.”

“There is… but she’s all the way in Canterlot right now.”

Max turned back to Twilight and asked, “Can you gauge how much magical power I have just by sensing me?”

Twilight, finally having got over the thing about clop stories, nodded her head. “Of course. It’s a pretty standard spell.”

“Can you cast it real quick?” Max had an innocent little smile on her face, one that disturbed me slightly.

“Sure!” Twilight replied with a smile of her own. Her horn glowed and she stuck her tongue out in concentration. The spell seemed to reach it’s apex and a glow surrounded Max. Twilight held the spell for a few seconds, then it abruptly dropped as her jaw hit the floor.

“What?” I asked Twilight.

Twilight picked her jaw up and stuttered out, “S-She has more magical power than Celestia and Luna combined!” Must’ve been a lot if she forgot to add ‘Princess’ to their names. I just whistled in appreciation.

“Nice.” I said to Max.

“A teleport to Canterlot is as easy as Twilight levitating a book. I can literally level a mountain with just magic.”

Twilight looked stunned, I simply said, “Can you do huge beams?”

“You know the Death Star’s main cannon? I can do that with a single hand.”

“Neat!” I grinned. “So do you want to teleport us? Or just you and I since Twilight probably wouldn’t want to come along.”

Max rubbed the back of her head and said, “Problem with me going with you. Celestia might notice I’m here. I’d... rather avoid her because of the last summon and because I had twins with the one in my universe.”

I nodded, “Yeah. Seems like something you would want to avoid. But how would I get back? It’s an awfully long train ride.”

Max downed the rest of her chocolate, licking her lips before replying, “Don’t know. I wouldn’t be able to get close to the city for long. Hell, me being here might not last more than a few hours before she pinpoints my location.”

“Ah, well I’m in no hurry honestly, don’t worry about it. I can wait until the wedding, if I actually want to do it. Sure I could bum a train ticket from my pony Vinyl, but I already did that once.” I said to Max. “Besides I’d rather lose this body’s virginity some other way rather than a random one night stand.”

“I can understand that.” Max nodded, turning back to the forgotten tub of ice cream. “So, is there another reason besides sharing ice cream for summoning me?”

I shook my head, “Not really. Your token just sorta floated down in front of Johnny Depp’s face. This was an impulse summoning more than anything else.”

“Ah.” Max scooped out some ice cream and stuck it in her mouth, chewing a bit before saying, “Sho, you don’ have shomething you wanted to try?”

I nodded and crossed my arms, “Yeah. I need a guin- an assistant to help study something my pony version and I were discussing.”

“Just so you know, I’m not running any mazes.”

I waved her off, “Nah, nah. Nothing like that. You just gotta sit down and listen to some wubs!” I paused for a few moments before pointing to her pants, “You aren’t fond of those blue jeans are you?”

Max shrugged. “My only pair. The rest of my wardrobe... well, I have a few dresses but the rest isn’t something I’d want to wear outside the bedroom.”

“Alright. Well if you don’t mind having them extensively washed later tonight can keep them on. You can also use the shower upstairs when we’re done.” I said as I looked for a pair of extra headphones.

By the time I found them and turned back, Max was sitting right next to me completely naked with her spoon dangling out of her mouth.

I gave her a once over, “Nice.” I plugged the headphones into my laptop. I pulled up the new DJ app and handed the headphones to Max. After adjusting a few settings I looked at her and said, “If I can get this to work then fair warning… it’ll feel weird.”

“It can’t feel weirder than using a phallus shaped sponge for the first time.” Max said as she put the headphones on.

I just stared at Max for a second before shaking my head and getting back to work. I made one last touch and pressed the play button. I turned to look at Max and it didn’t seem to do anything. Shaking my head I tweaked a few numbers from the estimated positions.

This went on for a while and I was about to give up until I happened to look down at Max and saw her rubbing her stomach in obvious discomfort. Grinning I did one last touch up and that seemed to be the real spark. Max’s eyes shot open and she groaned when the brown wub was finally hit. She left a rather large mess that would be a pain to clean up.

I was just glad Twilight left after examining Max’s magic level.

“Damn it. Why didn’t I think of this being the reason?” She sighed and lit her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up.”

“Thanks. Though I probably should’ve told you…” I sounded a little apologetic when I trailed off, rubbing the back of my head. I watched as her magic surrounded the mess and it was whisked away to who knows where.

“There, now I just need to wash myself.”

I pointed upstairs with a thumb, “The bathroom should be the first door on the left.”

“I’ve visited here before. The bathroom was the only room untouched by the Crusaders’ attempts at getting their cutiemarks.” Max lit her hand and disappeared, a few seconds later I heard the sound of the shower running.

I shrugged and went back to my laptop. I saved these settings under “Brown Wub” and closed the laptop. This was one of the first things I needed to get done with. I pulled out a notepad from my backpack and crossed out the ‘brown wub’ line and proceeded to wait until Max was done cleaning herself up.

A few minutes later, Max came down the stairs almost dry except for her hair.

“You know, I came down those stairs the exact same way when my Celestia teleported into the bathroom while I was bathing. The only difference was that I was in a towel.” I commented.

“Well, I do have magic to dry myself with. Besides, I gave up caring about who saw me naked when Celestia and I first got together. And I left my clothes down here,” Max said, walking over to her clothes.

“Must be nice actually being able to magic when you want. I can only use it when making music.” I leaned back with my arms crossed behind my head.

“Well...” Max rubbed her hands together. “I could give you part of mine. It might not amount to much, but you might be able to use it to let you use the rest of your magic whenever you want.”

I tilted my head, “But wouldn’t I run out of your magic eventually? Especially if I need to use it every time I wanted to use mine.”

“That’s the beauty of me giving you part of my magic. Whatever I give you won’t ‘run out’, it’ll work just like yours and recharge constantly. You won’t be able to have more than what I give you, obviously, but you could experiment with it to figure out how to use your own magic as well.”

Wow, that was rather generous of her. I smiled at Max and said, “Thanks, that would mean a lot to me. It’s always been frustrating to have magic, but never being able to use it when I want.”

Max rolled her eyes and reached down to pick up her hoodie. “I know. I can’t use my actual powers for the next six months.”

“The pregnancy thing right?”

“Yeah. Don’t want to rewind too far only to find out it actually hurt my son.”

“That wouldn’t be good.” I stated the obvious.

“Uhuh.” Max sighed, picking up her pants and stepping into them. “I don’t like not being able to rewind a few weeks if I don’t like how one of my choices turned out.”

“You’ve got a pretty awesome power if you can go back a few weeks at a time.”

“It’s only because I trained while I was in stone,” Max waved her hand. “When I was first Displaced, I couldn’t rewind more than a minute.”

I shrugged, “A pretty big improvement if you ask me.”

“Over a thousand years with nothing else to do except talk with - or annoy - Discord?”

“Ah John is a fun guy. He still doesn’t get why I call him that though. But anyway, I still say it’s a good improvement, time can’t be easy to manipulate right?” I asked.

“It’s child’s play to mess with time, what isn’t is showing the effects.” Max paused for a moment before continuing, “See? Just now I slapped you and broke your computer, but your computer is still unbroken and you can’t feel the sting of my slap.”

I paused for a bit, “You know… I kinda feel incredibly insulted and annoyed right now.”

She gave me a sultry look and said, “You should’ve seen what I did to Twi before I slapped you.”

“I’ll pass on that.” I simply replied.

“So how can you prove I actually did what I said I did if it never happened?”

I shrugged, “Not a clue since I don’t have time powers. So I’ll just go along with it.”

Max sat down next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “See the problem? Oh, I didn’t actually slap you or break your computer, but I did do a few things with Twi while you watched.”

“Kinky.” I said with a waggle of my eyebrows.

“Very. I didn’t even know she knew some of those positions, let alone how she learned them.” Max chuckled, reaching for the ice cream tub and setting it where both of us could reach it. “So, what movies do you have?”

I scratched my head, “Beside Pirates of the Caribbean, I have Van Helsing, a couple One Piece movies, the Avengers, to name a few. I don’t rightly remember right now.”

“Have any Disney movies like Lilo and Stitch?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Sweet, let’s put one of those on before you send me home.”

“Alright, I have Hercules, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and The Lion King. Which do you want to watch?” I turned my head to Max and asked.

Max took a scoop from the tub, mulling over the choice while she swallowed. “I’ve seen Lilo and Stitch the least, let’s go with them.”

I nodded, “Alrighty then.” I started the movie, put it in fullscreen and turned the sound up. I got into a more comfy position on the couch and watched the movie play out. Max and I watched the movie play out in near silence until finally the ending came up and we listened to burning love while watching the family bonding happen between everybody. It was then that I noticed that Max was crying silently, or at least trying to.

“You alright there Max?” I softly inquired.

“.... I betrayed her trust,” Max whispered. “I-... I called her my sister a-and told her that-that I would r-respect her decisions. The-then I went and...”

I winced a bit but I put a hand on her shoulder, “Now you and I both know that you didn’t have a choice in the matter either.” I started massaging her shoulders. “Now come on, stop crying.” I whispered to her.

“You didn’t see the hurt in her eyes. I-I’ll be lucky if she just barely forgives me.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. And I’m certainly not the best to talk about this kind of stuff, since I’ve never experienced it myself. But what I think you should do is vent, and when your head is finally cleared up, then try thinking of a way to make this mess a least a little cleaner.” I replied.

“But how? I-I’ve n-never d-d-done this before! I mean, I’ve had sex far more than I could ever count with both ponies and Displaced, but... I-I’ve ne-never...” Max buried her face in my shoulder.

I shook my head, gave her a sympathetic look and said, “I don’t know either. I’m sorry, I just don’t know.”

“I-I...” Max swallows then pushes off of me, wiping her eyes. “I’m sorry for unloading all this on you. Here, I’ll give you the magic and then you can send me back.” Max held out her hand and it began to glow. A small blob of white liquid formed in her palm, growing in size to match both of my closed fists together.

“It’s alright, I don’t mind trying to help and thank you for the magic once again. Now… how do I do it again?”

“You just say ‘our contract is complete’ or something along those lines.” The ball of ‘magic’ floated over to in front of me, stopping near the tip of my nose. “And with the magic, you just have to drink it.”

I tentatively touched the magic orb, and when it didn’t do much I grabbed it and tried slurping it up like soup. That seemed to work and it had what I’d call a creamy texture, which I didn’t expect a ball of magic to have. I felt tingly and shuddered as the magic ran its course through my body.

I shook my head when it mostly finished and said to Max, “Ok. Max, our contract is complete.” I gave her a thumbs up and a small smile, “See you at your wedding then?”

Max nodded and stepped through the portal that opened up, being whisked away to her universe. I sighed, this summoning was a downer I didn’t expect. I simply shook my head and closed my laptop, I put it in my bag and walked back upstairs to the guest bed. It has practically become mine now.

I yawned loudly and put a hand over my mouth as I got into the bedroom, I really needed to get to sleep. It’s been a long night, I can figure out my newfound magic tomorrow. The tingling sensation still lingering just beyond thought.

Curious Wubs

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It's been three weeks and I was doing a bit of tinkering down in Twilight's basement on my new, almost ready, wubboard that was sitting on a messy work table. The original is up in a display on a shelf to the left of the basement's door. My new board looked sleek, and cool. And honestly, I was very proud of the work Twilight and I put into this. She handled setting up the battery spell for each of the gems inside the board and a small, but complex, passive magic collector for it. I handled physically building it and prepping it for my wub magic.

It's taken two weeks of constant work on our part, the equipment finally arrived and was resting behind me. We had enough left over from the budget to buy plenty of what things we needed to make more wub related equipment. I have a secret project I'm planning out and I'm even working on a little handheld device that will send the brown wub in the direction it's pointed at. Unforetunately I still haven't figured out how to keep it from hitting me as well, which led to various... messy situations. My ears were still ringing from the screech Rarity gave when she learned what happened, I came by her shop to borrow extra strong cleaning supplies for the clothes and she just had to ask.

Naturally I haven't just been sitting on my ass every day while working on new inventions. I took Sun's little combat advice to heart, can't say I'm a master though. But I can say that this is the most exercise I have ever done in my life. The dedication to my physical health mostly stems from the fact that if I'm gonna stay with Twilight then I'm gonna have to be able to keep up if I ever get caught up in any situations that may occur. Most situations being episodes, like the wedding of Shining Armor and Cadence coming up in the near future. I've already dealt with Lesson Zero, and coming from experience Twilight's crazy face looks much less funny in person.

These few weeks have been packed with various things that needed to get done. The new inventions, physical improvements, and my favorite, magic. The boost I got from Max has been helpful. I still haven't mastered a ton of spells though, gag inducing as it is magic requires actual studying in order to get things done. Which is why my spell repertoire is sadly lacking. It mostly consists of telekinesis, and... yeah that about sums it up.

Turns out I'm not a very studious girl. Go figure.

Speaking of spells and magic, I recalled the day after I drank Max's liquid magic.

♫♫♫

"Mmm..." I groaned, shifting into a more comfortable position. I felt nice and cozy, the blanket was warm and the pillow was soft. The bed clearly did not want me to leave.

"VINYL!!!" Twilight's voice bellowed.

"Ahh!" My eyes shot open and I scrambled out of bed, my arms and legs flying in every direction as I tried and failed to orient myself. The sudden shock of alertness caused me to fall out of bed, I landed on my back with a grunt. "Ugh, did my bed get taller?"

I put a hand to my head and looked around, my eyesight a tad blurry as I rubbed my eyes. When everything finally registered in my brain my eyes shot back open with clear vision. I looked around the room for real this time. It was an absolute clusterfuck. My bed was now hanging in the air, no visible means of why. Book and bird hybrids were flying around the room, smashing into stuff and being a nuisance. The wall outside had a hole in it and the wall with the door was given a new shade of polka dots. Twilight and Spike were huddled in the middle of the room, Twilight casted a shield spell over them, and Spike was wrestling a particularly nasty scroll. The scroll was winning.

"Stop channeling magic Vinyl! You'll wreck Ponyville at the rate your magic surge is going!" Twilight yelled at me, she was forced to though since a strong tornadoish wind decided to swirl around. Paper and other various household items twirled around, I even saw a cow figurine float by.

I brought the hand holding my head down and saw the telltale sign of magic surrounding it, a teal aura. I quickly ducked as a book flew by my head and yelled back, "How?! I don't know anything about channeling magic the normal way!"

Twilight luckily didn't have to worry about dodging, her little haxing shield handled things just fine. "Just concentrate on your hand! You should be able to feel some sort of energy flowing through it! Simply will it to stop and it will! Trust me, it's what we unicorns do when we need to channel magic!"

"Just will it? Ugh, doesn't sound like it will work but whatevs, it's the only thing I can do right now."

I went into a more prone position to avoid any projectiles and held my hand out in front of me. I closed my eyes and tried my best to concentrate on my hand. To my surprise I felt a little tug on my being, I followed that tug until I came across some sort of pool of power. I somehow knew it was my magic pool, and I could feel it flow across my hand. With all my might I forced the magic to stop flowing, it slowly went down from a torrent leaking out to a trickle and then nothing.

I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything seemed normal, if only in a mess. I looked at my hand and then brought it down and looked over at Twilight and Spike. Twilight looked relieved and Spike was completely wrapped up in the scroll he was wrestling, he was clearly pinned and not happy about it.

"What." I paused, breathing a little heavy as I sat up. I must've used a lot of magic. "What, was that?"

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof while Spike tried untangling himself. She closed her eyes for a second then nodded, "Like I said, I think it was a magic surge. But those only occur during foal hood, when the unicorn's magic is much more unfocused. Which is weird because you can't use magic like a unicorn correct?"

When I heard Twilight's explanation I remembered what happened last night. "Oh, well you remember Max from last night correct?" At Twilight's nod I continued, "Well when I mentioned my lack of being able to use the magic inside me she helped me out. She gave me some of her magic, which was able to unlock the magic inside me. Maybe that's the cause?"

Twilight looked deep in thought, "Well it does sound like the best explanation so far. But I never heard of somepony just giving magic to another, much less that magic being able to unlock other things inside somepony else."

I shrugged, "Maybe since she's from a different universe things work differently there?"

Twilight sigh, "Maybe... Well we can figure that out later." Twilight turned around and walked to the door to the hallway, Spike right behind her. She stopped and turned to me, "Oh... and clean up this mess before joining us for breakfast. I want every book put properly back in its shelf, alphabetical too!"

I gaped at her, "What?! Twilight you monster!"

She merely giggled at my misfortune and happily trotted downstairs with Spike.

♫♫♫

"I still need to get her back for that. Not my fault..." I grumbled in my head.

I put down a screwdriver and decided I needed a bit of a break. I moved the chair back and it screeched, I gave myself a nice, long stretch and levitated my bag over to me. I swung it over a shoulder and walked up the stairs to the living room. There wasn't anyone around, not surprising really since I've never actually seen someone come here to check something out. Not breaking my stride I went straight for the kitchen.

I set my bag down next to the chair I'm about to occupy and opened the fridge. Pouring myself a glass of orange juice and taking an apple from the fruit bowl I sat in the kitchen chair. Taking a bite out of the apple I noticed the newspaper was still on the table. Seems nobody threw it away, shrugging I decided to see what has been going on recently.

I picked the paper up with my unoccupied hand and spread the newspaper on the table. I didn't see anything interesting on the page I randomly opened to so I flipped a few pages to get to the front. The better stories were usually on the front right? Turns out I was correct, there have been a ton of robberies in various electronic stores throughout Manehatten this past week. Bits weren't stolen, only stereos and the like were. Didn't seem to harm the businesses any less though.

I furrowed my brow in thought and took another bite of my apple. "Why would anyone steal stereos?" I muttered softly.

"You say something Vinyl?" Twilight asked as she turned a corner into the kitchen. She levitated a glass and the orange juice over to her and sat down next to me.

"Nah, just talking to myself. I'm just wondering about this story here." I pointed at the story article as Twilight leaned over.

Twilight read the article over and said, "I must admit... I'm curious as well. Seems strange to simply steal those kind of items, bits would be easier if they were just after money. But I don't know the ins and outs of a criminals mind so..." She simply shrugged and took a gulp of her juice before continuing, "But I do feel sorry for those poor business ponies. They didn't deserve that."

I felt myself nodding and took another bite from the apple. But I could not shake the feeling that something was amiss, I remembered the Daft Pony lookalikes that attacked the train Twilight, the gang, and I were taking. If it weren't for Sun I don't know what would've happened to us, but there was this feeling in my gut that these two events were related somehow.

Twilight was oblivious to my inner thoughts, "Well, in any case the guard should be able to catch the criminals. With how many large electronics stolen and from how many places stolen from there are few places to hide so much stolen equipment like that. Transporting it would be a huge pain too." Twilight finished off her juice and gave a satisfied sigh. "Well I'm going to visit Rarity, hopefully my costume for Nightmare Night is ready!"

Twilight clopped her hooves together excitedly and I couldn't help but chuckle. I was also looking forward to Nightmare Night, didn't have a clue on what I'd wear but I still had three weeks. I shook my head and said to Twilight, "You know it's like three weeks away right? You didn't have to get it done so early."

Twilight tutted at me, "Nono Vinyl. It's best to get things like this done early, that way there is less of a chance for things to not go your way! Besides... I can't help but want to wear the hat early!" She squeed in excitement and galloped off to Rarity's. I shook my head at Twilight's adorkableness.

I looked back down at the paper in front of me and sighed. I tore the page with the article and folded it up before sticking it in my bag. I crumbled the rest up and tossed it in the trash. I sat back down in the seat to polish off the rest of my apple and juice before heading back downstairs to try and finish the new wubboard up.

I crossed my legs, stared at the ceiling and muttered, "This is going to bug me for a while... but I gotta know. My gut won't let me brush this off..."

Board Wubs

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It's been a day since I saw the newspaper article. My suspicions were correct, the gnawing feeling that I felt I needed to know what was going on did not go away. In fact, it only seemed to grow with each passing second when I wasn't occupied with something else. The only reprieve I got from the feeling was when I was working on the wubboard, and I finished that a few hours ago.

As I sat down in my bed I looked out the window and saw the sun starting to dip into the horizon. I blew air out of my mouth with a lip trill and contemplated how slow the day was going by. I looked down at my computer, the music sync to one of my new gadgets was almost done. It was a forearm bracer, though it wouldn't protect much since it wasn't made of strong materials yet, and it only went about halfway up the forearm anyway. But protection wasn't what it was suppose to do.

The music sync was finally completed. Grinning to myself I unplugged the white device, unclasped the securing clips, and slipped it on over my arm. I locked it in place and turned my hand over so that my palm faced up and the screen of my new tech faced me. I pushed a small button and the bracer turned on, a bright screen displayed all the songs I have on my computer.

I chuckled, "Looks good so far." I reached down the bed and picked my new wubboard up.

It was about half the length of my index finger in thickness, a few inches longer than a skateboard, and about as wide. All made with a sturdy metal that could easily hold my weight and more. A little rounded, rectangle flap at the back end folded slightly upwards, to allow for upwards movement and the tip was round. The flat area where my feet rested was all white, my cutie mark was smack in the middle and each word of my name was on either side of it. Vinyl in the back and Scratch in the front. The sides of the wubboard had interspaced, brightly glowing blue wubchips. The bottom was also white and had two large speakers with a multitude of smaller ones here and there. The back flap had two small ones side by side, filling that entire area.

The cutie mark on the board was a special type of magic conducting metal, allowing me to directly charge the board with my own magic if needed. Though I personally would like to make it charge on it's own. I was also planning on the board having small magnetic plates attached to where my feet would rest, but I can add those when I need them.

I charged some magic in my hands and placed them against the cutie mark. I allowed my magic to be drained into the board, giving up roughly a third of my magic. I panted slightly when it was over, but I felt immensely good about myself when the board began to hum with power.

"Now, let's see if it reacts to my bracer." I set the board on the ground, it wasn't playing anything so it didn't hover. I pulled my bracer's screen up and touched a finger to the screen, I dragged the little menu around, turned the small volume knob back a little, and chose a random song. The board came to life instantly, rising a few feet in the air and blasting out music in a not so loud fashion.

"Wicked cool." I said. I got up from the bed and started walking around the floating board, examining it for any possible flaws. Everything seemed to be in working order, I turned the music off and the board dropped. I caught it before it fell too far and jogged down the stairs, eager to test it outside.

I got to the doorway and put my shoes on as quickly as possible.

"What's the rush Vinyl?" Asked Twilight from behind me.

I turned to her, "The new wubboard is finished! I'm gonna take it for a test drive! Wanna come along? It'll probably be a short test though."

Twilight beamed, "Of course! Maybe we can stop at Sugarcube corner before they close, we could celebrate!"

Twilight mentioning Sugarcube corner reminded me of the party Pinkie threw for me the day after Celestia apologized to me. I smiled when I recalled the party games, food, pranks, and music. Everyone seemed to get along, even the ponies that I didn't already know. They all seemed to be curious about me... except for some of the pegasi of course. But they relaxed when the situation was revealed to them, I guess not being a violent sociopath upon meeting someone makes them trust you more.

I nodded at Twilight, "Yeah, sounds great!" I was silent before adding, "Your treat right?"

She rolled her eyes and trotted out the door, "The Princess's actually, I'm sure we can spare a bit of the budget for a small celebration."

I laughed, seems that I was getting to her more than she might admit despite our short time together. She wouldn't have even dreamed about using budget money for a celebration if she never met me. Which is probably not a good thing in retrospect.

I followed her out the door and we traveled in a comfortable silence to a nearby empty plot of land.

"Well you get ready, I've got the notes!" I set the board on the ground and Twilight added, "Oh! And don't worry about falling, I'll catch you!"

I hadn't even thought of the possibility of falling. Now I felt just a tiny bit of unease at doing this now. Steeling my nerves, I positioned myself on the wubboard, pulled my bracer screen up and chose a song. I turned the volume up gradually and I slowly ascended into the air. I was glad that my previous wubboard got me the balancing skills needed to not fall on my ass.

"Amazing!" Twilight exclaimed. I looked at her and saw the quill furiously scribbling away on the notepad. I swear I saw smoke starting to form from the pace she kept it going at. "The magic wub frequencies coming from each stereo aren't wasting a lot of magic in the process! The balance isn't skewed despite the added weight. The board itself does not seem to mind your weight either."

"You calling me fat?"

Twilight carried on, not even hearing what I said, "The magic sound waves themselves don't seem to be causing any disturbance to the grass below it either. Interesting."

I sighed and shook my head in amusement as Twilight droned on, a soft chuckled escaped my lips.

"Well, how about we test it's flying capabilities now? I want to fly, Twi!" I smirked at my rhyme.

Twilight perked up, "Oh! Right, silly me. I forgot that's why you wanted to do all this in the first place. Go ahead then, try going higher than you could before. If you can do that then it's safe to assume you can move forward while that high as well.."

I nodded to her and turned the volume up and I rose higher into the air. I kept going until I reached well over a few hundred feet, and I gotta admit it was kinda scary being his high up without a parachute. I descended slowly until I was back around my original height level.

Twilight wrote something on her pad, "Good, good. There doesn't seem to be any difficulty in going higher. I suppose there isn't anything else left to do but have you practice. Want me to teach you a trick with telekinesis that'll let you lift yourself for a while?"

That sounded like a potential lifesaver. "Yeah, thanks Twi." We turned around to head back into town, "Oh, and can you teach me to fire those magic beams? I want lasers to shoot from my hands."

Twilight snorted, "Sure thing, I'll teach you the 'lasers', just try and not hurt any pony with them ok? Those kinds of spells aren't toys you know."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. I just want to know it for self defense and all."

Twilight sighed, "Well, it seems that learning it would be a good idea anyway. Just incase those weird ponies come running back."

We arrived at Sugarcube corner, it was still open. Twilight magiced the door open and our senses were greeted with a sugary smell and pleasant candy decor. Mrs Cake was occupying the cashier and I could see Mr Cake and Pinkie working the back.

"Hello dears, you're just in time. What can I getcha?" Asked Mrs Cake.

Twilight rubbed her chin, "Hmm, how about two Strawberry Surprises for me and two ruby and emerald cupcakes for Spike. What do you want Vinyl?"

I clicked my tongue, I could never instantly figure out what I wanted in places like these. We spent a few more seconds in silence before I said, "How about two chocolate bursts?"

Chocolate was always my favorite and as Twilight paid for the cupcakes and I had to keep myself from drooling, we said hello to Pinkie and Mr Cake and headed back to the library.

"Vinyl, you're drooling again." Twilight said after a few minutes of walking.

"Heh, oops." Guess I was unsuccessful. Grinning in embarrassment we hurried back to eat our dessert before dinner was ready. Spike is a pretty good cook, something that didn't surprise me.

♫♫♫

The cupcakes and dinner were amazing. It was just too bad my mind was still racing with thoughts about what was going on off in Manehatten.

I laid back in bed in only my underwear, my hands resting behind my head and a foot kicked over the other. My glasses were on the table so when I turned to look outside I got a full and unobstructed view of the moon. I sighed and tried to relax, it wasn't easy and I felt like I will go stir crazy if I didn't do something about this mini obsession of mine.

I stared at the ceiling and sighed.

"Tonight will be a long night. I think what I'll do next is go to Manehatten. I'll try and make a new version of the wubnade before I go though. A girl ought to be prepared." I thought.

I pulled the covers over myself, turned to my side and closed my eyes in an attempt to go to sleep.

Wubs on a Trip

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"You sure you don't want somepony to come along with you?" Twilight asked me while we waited for the train to Manehatten to begin boarding.

I shook my head, "Nah, I have a feeling I should do this alone. Besides, I got plenty of protection with me. Wubnades, and that awesome laser beam thing you showed me. Plus... that experimental brown wub device if things get kinda dicey." I waved her off, "I'll be fine Twilight. I should be back in a few days tops, if I'm not back by then you can start a search party for me."

She sighed, her head hung a bit low and her ears flat against her head, "I guess there really isn't any stopping you. Just be safe please."

I gave her a thumbs up as I heard the train whistle blow and the train's ticket collector shout out to the small gathering go ponies and me, "I will Twilight, make sure to keep my laptop and iPod safe." I was silent for a second before adding, "And don't try to fiddle with it please, they are the only original ones I have."

"Of course." Twilight said. She looked over at the train, "Well, it seems your train is ready to leave. Have fun! And don't forget to read those books I gave you, we can discuss magic when you get back!" She cheerfully clopped her hooves together.

I waved goodbye and chuckled out, "Yeah, I will Twilight. Later!"

She waved a hoof goodbye as I adjusted my backpack and disappeared into the train.

♫♫♫

The train came to a stop at the station with a loud hiss. I got up and stretched my limbs, train rides always made me feel like I need a good massage afterwards, I don't know why. After giving my neck a good crack I picked my bag and board up, and quickly half jogged off the train, giving a nod to the train's ticket pony.

I stepped off the train and looked around, the train station wasn't anything special. If you think of 'Big City Train Station' and put a bunch of horseshoe and horse head decorations around, along with some bright colors, then you've got a good idea of what the train station looked like. I never understood the need for the ponies to have all of these horseshoe decorations or horse themed decorations in general. I once asked about it, I never got a clear answer. The question really just confused whoever I asked.

I walked over to a nearby empty bench and set my bag down on it. I unzipped the top and rummaged through my stuff until I pulled out the newspaper article that had all of the stores that were robbed. I zipped the bag back up and slung it back over my shoulder. I looked around for a map stand of some kind, I found one next to a help desk being worked by a blue mare and headed over there.

"Does a map cost any bits?" I asked the mare working the help desk.

She shook her head, "Nope! Help yourself!" I nodded and grabbed one. "You need anything else?"

I smiled at her, "No thanks. This was all I needed."

I parted from the desk with my new map of Manehatten in tow. I scanned it as I walked out the door of the station, trying to find where I currently was. I took a small pause of my map reading to open the double doors to the outside, I jogged down the steps to the sidewalk and turned around. I looked up and read the large letters on the building I just left.

"Feather Station huh?" I muttered to myself. I looked back down at the map and tried to spot the name of the station, considering it was a train station it should be clearly marked. My search was quickly over when I spotted the tiny blue letters on the map with the name of the station I was currently at.

"Alright. So I'm here." I thought to myself. I didn't get to think more when I heard a loud yell off to my left side.

"Move, Celestia damn it! I'm walkin' here!"

I was roughly shoved aside by a random tan, earth pony stallion. He continued his path without even giving me a second glance. That kinda ticked me off. I put the map and newspaper article against my board and held them together. Without hesitation I yelled back at him with my now free hand's middle finger in the air, "Oh yeah?! Is that what ya call walkin'?! Looks more like a sissy's prance if ya ask me!"

"Buck you too!" He growled out, shaking a hoof as he went back to what he was doing.

With that settled I leaned against the metal railing of the stairs I just came off of. I grabbed the papers and went back to looking for the nearest shop. I found one just a few blocks from the station I was currently at, destination in mind I set my board on the ground, and stuffed the article back in my bag since I already memorized the shop's name. I activated my board's bracer control, turned on a song I liked, and rose into the air. I put more volume into the song and flew down the street.

♫♫♫

I arrived at the first shop in only a few minutes. Wubboard travel was such a convenient way to travel, I was glad that I was not stuck simply walking around. I pulled my board up a bit more vertically and slowly came to a stop as I killed the volume at the same time.

Once the volume and the power of the board was killed I jumped off the board and grabbed it before it could hit the ground. Everything is about style right now. I secured my board under my armpit and looked at the shop in front of me. It didn't look too well, the windows were boarded up and the door was missing all together. It just had some yellow police tape barring the entrance.

I grabbed some of the crossing tape and yanked it down before throwing a leg over it and finding my way inside. Once I was standing straight up I slowly walked into the store, looking at everything. The shelves were empty and a few were even collapsed.

“The hell? It's barely been a few days since the robbery was reported. Why are the shelves collapsed like in some sort of apocalypse movie or game?” I thought to myself as I wandered down the aisles, taking a brief mental note of each item stolen.

I came to a stop in front of a rather large stage like area. It, like the shelves before it, was completely barren. I looked down at the tiny sign at the edge of the mini stage and read:

“Grand Equestrian DJ Stage, Mark V”

I crouched down to get a better look at the small sign. I rubbed my chin as I simply stated at it and said quietly to myself, “I thought just stereos were stolen. Why take a DJ stage too? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense…”

I stood back up and leaned back to crack my back. I turned around and gave the store one more once over. Once again I only saw that stereos and the like were taken, actual instruments were left behind. Even microphones were taken, though it seems that the people who stole them didn't have a high need of them. A couple were left behind.

I scratched my head, “Ah geeze, I can't make much head of this.” I sighed and hung my head. After I just shook my head and started walking back out, “I’ll try and figure this out more when I look around the other stores.”

♫♫♫

I dropped down at the next store with an unnecessary flourish of my board. Nobody was even around to see it, and I have to admit I was a tad disappointed about that. Shrugging, I looked at the front of the new store and took in the state of the entrance.

The entrance was clearly stylized, the doorway used to be a large, vinyl record. Now half of it was cracked, fallen over, and leaning against the wall. The door itself was somehow still mostly intact, except for the lock. The windows were shattered, but the glass seemed to be mostly cleared up. This stores windows weren't barred with planks, just police tape that was somehow stuck to the brick walls.

After taking in the external sight of the stores entrance I walked forward and pushed the door open. It swung open with a sharp and mighty creak that nearly made my ears bleed. I rubbed my ears with a frown and walked through the now open doorway. As like the previous store this one had basically the same thing happen to it. The only real difference was the fact this store had stylized decorations here and there that got beat up or destroyed.

After seeing what happened to the main room I was about to leave until I noticed something new. There was a door that lead to a nearby alley just past one of the back aisles. I walked over to it and have it a once over. The door was wide open and had several scorch marks surrounding it and even had a few on the door itself.

I looked out the door and swiveled my head to my left and right, examining the alleyway. There wasn't much going on out here, though I did take note that there were scratch marks on the walls leading out into the street. Likely from a cart the robbers used to haul everything away with. I continued to look around the alley until I saw a small light shine from behind a trashcan.

Curious, I walked into the alleyway and towards the trashcan. I shoved the trashcan aside with a foot and crouched down to get a better look at what caught my interest. What I saw shocked me to the core, what was causing the light was a small segment of a blue wub chip.

I picked the piece of broken wubtech up and held it up to my eye with a shaky hand. I licked my now dry lips as I swallowed hard. This was not good, someone or something has access to the same stuff I used. I understand that pony me could have this kind of stuff, and she also wouldn't advertise or show this specific stuff to the general public. But I didn't know how anyone else could have it.

The only consolation I had was the fact that this chip was obviously broken. And that it was rapidly losing any power it had. A fact that the chip was barely glowing right now was proof of that. I tucked the broken piece of the wubtech chip into a pouch on my backpack. I turned around and headed back into the store, I found one thing interesting here so I might find another if I look harder.

I made it just past the threshold of the doorway when a voice came from the hallway to my right and announced itself loudly with the soft glow of what had to be magic lit up the hallway. “Who in the name of Celestia are you?! And what the Tartarus are ya doin’ in my shop?!”

Wubs Meeting Somepony

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“Who in the name of Celestia are you?! And what the Tartarus are ya doin’ in my shop?!” Demanded the voice to my right.

Since I was technically trespassing I felt I had the requirement to be, at least, honest. I looked over to my right to see who was speaking. It was an old looking, chocolate brown unicorn stallion. His mane was two toned, one smaller stripe was vanilla white and the larger was dark brown. He had a small scar across his chin.

“My name is Vinyl Scratch, I came to Manehatten to try and figure out why some ponies robbed multiple electronic stores.” I said. “I'm sorry that I'm trespassing, I was just going to look around a bit more before leaving. But I can go now if you want me to.”

The unicorn was silent for a moment, his blue eyes staring into mine, seemingly even through my glasses. He gave a low “harrumph” and let his horn’s glow die down. He walked further into the stores lobby and said, “Don't bother trying to find anything here. I've already scoured this place from the roof to the floorboards.”

I was silent as I watched the old unicorn kick a piece of rubble. “Damn thieves. I've been trying to find out who they were myself. Those Celestia damn police aren't doing a thing to help, I think they might’ve been paid to not look into it deeply.”

“So crooked cops?” I asked. Then tilted my head a bit and said, “I guess that makes things a little harder.”

The unicorn looked at me, shook his head, and said, “No, I've been mostly avoiding them. Doing my own research and investigating any leads I find you see. Haven't come up with much, but I still have a couple of hunches left.” He turned his body around to fully face me and asked, “Why do you care? You don't look to be from around here. I’d think I’d recognize you if you did.”

I licked my lips and shrugged, “Well to be honest I didn't have much of a reason to come down here in the first place. I just had a weird feeling that I should investigate the things happening around here. But,” I set my stuff on the store’s counter, opened my bag, and pulled out the broken blue chip piece, “I found this in the alleyway out to the side, behind a trashcan, where I believe the thieves left after robbing the store.”

I held the piece up and watched as the unicorn’s eyes widen. “W-What is that doing here?!”

“I guess he knows what it is.” I thought to myself, honestly surprised.

The unicorn rushed over to me to get a closer look at the chip piece. I set it on the counter for him to look at it with more ease. “You said you found this in the alley right?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I simply replied.

“Then perhaps it must've broken off that strange escape wagon of theirs when I struck it with a bolt of magic, it slammed into the wall you see. That thing of theirs did have some bluish glowing lights on it.” I rose an eyebrow at those sentences. Seems that he tried to fight back. He noticed my eyebrow, rolled his eyes, and replied, “When those thieves broke into my store I was working the counter, counting the days earnings. That was when I heard a loud bass-like boom and my windows shattered.”

“The thieves must be related to the ponies that attacked me and the others on the train. Or perhaps even the same group.” I thought. That bass-like boom sounded familiar, just like the one that knocked over the train.

“Then ponies in some weird get-up stormed my store, from both the front and the back entrance, where the wagon was placed, stealing my stuff. I tried fighting back but that bass-boom left me disoriented, I missed most of my shots. As you can see by those scorch marks here and there. But I guess one got lucky.” He mused, tapping a hoof to his scarred chin.

One thing didn't add up. “But how do you know what this is?” I asked, pointing at the broken chip piece.

The stallion glanced at the chip before sighing. “My family has been doing things with music for generations. In fact, I believe it all started around a thousand years ago.” The unicorn said, looking up into space, lost in thought. Eventually he nodded and continued, “Yes, around a thousand years ago, give or take. One of my ancestors, can’t remember the name, heard a huge boom-like explosion after what she described as some sort of foreign type of music blare from that general direction. She saw a huge pillar of light rise into the sky and ran towards it, thinking it was going to be something interesting.”

The pony shook his head and continued, “When my ancestor got there, she found nothing but ruined and charred bits of metal and wood. But before she left she noticed a bluish glow amidst the rubble. After shifting through the burnt rubble she pulled out a blue chip just like that one, only not broken and intact.”

“No way…” I thought to myself, completely taken by surprise, my jaw dropped. “That has to be the failed experiment of mine that got me stoned.”

The old unicorn continued, not seeming to notice my shocked and slack jawed expression. “That chip has been in my family ever since. We haven’t let anyone else know of its existence, not even family friends. But now that doesn’t seem to be the case, and that only makes me worried...” He trailed off. I could sympathize with him about that.

I shook my head and leaned forward on my elbows onto the table. “So how did these random ponies get one of these?” I asked. “Better yet, how did they make a new one? I assume the original family one is still in your possession?”

He nodded, “Aye, it is currently in the possession of our youngest prodigy.” The unicorn eyed me, “The prodigy you claim to have the same name of.”

“I figured. Perhaps pony me must’ve found out the secret behind the chip, that could be how she has her own bass cannon and everything.” I thought before looking at the old stallion, gave a small shrug of my shoulders, and said, “Yeah. It’s a long story about the hair and name so I won’t bother you with that. But your ancestor found my failed experiment just before I was stoned for accidentally destroying Cloudsdale, and just after I left. I didn’t think anything would’ve been left over, what destroyed my work in the end was a really large explosion after all.”

The unicorn rose an eyebrow, “Stoned? Like imprisoned like Discord stoned?”

I nodded, “Yeah, but I got free a few days after Discord got resealed. Celestia and I worked things out between us, she apologized for her and her sister being hotheaded and immediately going the imprisonment route without even bothering with a trial. I apologized for accidentally destroying Cloudsdale and terrifying a lot of ponies. Right now I’m staying with her student and working on new tech and research. It’s kinda fun.”

The old stallion seemed to accept that and shrugged, “Well, if the Princess forgives you and lets you wander free then who am I to judge? But I must admit it’s amazing to meet the one who helped drive my family to understanding that chip. I sadly could never hope to grasp its workings, but that little niece of mine works wonders with it.”

“Your niece?” I asked dubiously.

“Yep!” He popped the ‘P’ proudly.

I was silent for a minute before replying, “I really don’t see any sort of passing resemblance that ties you into her family.”

The unicorn rolled his eyes, “The colors of our coat don’t mean much to ponies, genetics is a weird thing in our species.”

“I suppose you got a point there. So what now?” I asked. I really wanted to figure out this whole thing going on here. Now more so than ever.

The stallion rubbed his chin as he thought, he shrugged and said, “Well, since you want to try and figure out this whole thing out like me, how about you and I work together? I already have a nice planning board going on upstairs, along with a few leads, we can do a stakeout at one of the places I have circled down. I could use the help and company.”

I grinned, “Sweet! Kinda like detectives! I’m game.”

The pony grinned back, “Excellent!” He stuck a hoof out to me and said, “Now let me introduce myself properly. My name is Chocolate Rhythm, but you can just call me Choc, everypony else does.”

I took the hoof and gave it a shake, “Great to meet ya Choc!” I released his hand and started packing everything back up. As I did that I asked him, “So, you have your planning board upstairs? Do you live here or something?”

Choc nodded, “Yeah, upstairs is basically an apartment built into the shop. It’s pretty big so I have a guest bed you can use. Not like I have anypony else to share it with.” Choc shrugged at that last comment as I slung my bag around my shoulders and picked my wubboard up. “Now that you’re done with that we can go over a few things about the plan before getting ready.”

I gave him a thumbs up and he lead me upstairs.

♫♫♫

I looked at the wall he had upstairs in his apartment, it had a humongous thumb tack board stuck on it with various news articles and other assorted pictures and thoughts written down. It was completed with a lot of red string connected here and there, some articles were marked with another thumb tack that stabbed the string to it. Most of the articles had circles with an x through them. Some still had open circles.

I assumed that those were the few leads Choc still had left. After giving the board my once over I looked at Choc and asked, “So, which are we going to first?”

Choc levitated an extendable pointer and pointed to one of the circled pictures. “This one. I have a good feeling about this warehouse, I questioned some ponies that work in some of the surrounding ones and they all said that sometimes suspicious looking ponies would come and go around here.”

Choc retracted the pointer and looked at me, “I asked if they heard any strange bass like sounds coming from thee recently but they all said no.” Choc paused dramatically, he flicked his pointer into the air as if to emphasis his next statement, “Except one.”

I rose an eyebrow and gave him a look that screamed skepticism, “And we are going by what one pony said?”

Choc shrugged, “Unless you've got any leads then please present them.”

I sighed, he had a point there. I nodded in agreement and said, “Alright, what's the plan?”

“Glad you asked! My plan is to drop by late tonight in my carriage and observe the warehouse.” Choc said, quite proud of his plan.

“So just a stakeout? No bursting in all spy like and wrecking the place?”

Choc looked shocked, “Of course not! What if the lead was wrong?! We could do damage to some poor pony’s warehouse if we act that rash.”

I had to admit, that was a pretty good reason. But I still had to add, “Well, how about instead of breaking stuff, we sneak in if what we observe is really suspicious enough. That way we can confirm for ourselves and do no unnecessary property damage.”

Choc scratched the underside of his snout with the pointer as he thought about what I suggested. He gave a slight nod of approval a second later, “Yes, that sounds agreeable.”

“Great!” I said. “When do we start?”

“Around nine. That's when most of the various warehouses have been locked up and are empty of workers.” Choc turned around and walked through the spacious, mostly wooden, living room and towards a door on the other side. “Here is the guest bedroom, you should get a bit of rest before we start the stakeout. I'm hoping to leave at least a half hour before nine.”

“Alright. Thanks Choc.” I said, giving him a smile.

He just waved it off, “It's no trouble. See you at eight thirty Vinyl. I'll wake you up, since I can assume you don't have an alarm clock with you.”

“Alright,” I said and with that I closed the door gently behind me and set my bag down on the floor before jumping on the bed and setting my glasses down on the bedside table. The bed was a bit small but I could make do, I fell asleep fairly quickly as I snuggled into the bed covers.

♫♫♫

I woke up a few hours later to Choc gently shaking me awake. “Hey, might want to get ready, we leave in ten minutes.” He said as I blearily open my eyes. I silently nodded to him as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Choc walked out of the bedroom door and I sat on the edge of the bed, yawning loudly. I got up, stretched, and grabbed my stuff before walking out of the bedroom. Choc greeted me in the living room, he looked to be packing a saddlebag of his own. I didn't get to see what was in it, seems he just finished.

Choc looked over at me and said, “I'm all packed over here. Ready to head out?”

I nodded, “Yeah. I'm packed and ready to go too.”

With that said we headed out of Choc’s store through the main entrance. I looked at the destroyed decorations and asked him, “So, you going to get this all fixed?”

Choc kept his attention on the sidewalk we walked on as he replied, “Aye. I actually have some Minotaurian contractors coming over next week. Say what you want about them, but they certainly know their construction.”

I shrugged, “Well that's good.” I was silent for a moment as we rounded a corner before asking, “So where is your carriage located anyway?”

Choc stopped and pointed to a parking lot full of carriages. “Right over there.”

I looked to where he pointed at and saw a plain brown wooden carriage. It had its paint peeling and had absolutely no decorations on it whatsoever other than some dark brown sheet like things that hung between the axles of the wheels, almost touching the ground, just under the doors. A good thing about it was that it was completely walled and roofed with two side doors that had windows on them. The bad thing about that was that the whole thing just looked like a beat-up box on wheels.

I was silent as I eyed the contraption. Choc just sighed dreamily, “Isn't she beautiful?”

I just smiled uncomfortably, “Y-Yeah, it sure is.”

Choc gave a proud grin, I didn't have the heart to be honest and frank with the dude. The carriage looked to fall apart at a single touch, never mind actually moving the thing. Still, it did look inconspicuous enough to maybe not garner too much attention out on the road. Of course with all of the fancy carriages surrounding it I didn't think it was doing that good of a job.

“Well, hop in. I'll go get myself strapped to the front.” Choc said as he trotted proudly to the front.

I opened the side door as a thought hit me, “Wait, if we are suppose to do a stakeout, then how do you plan on getting in when we get there? You’d be spotted if you try and climb into the carriage.”

Choc looked over at me, smirked, and said, “You'll see.”

I looked at him for a second before shrugging and getting in. No sense in worrying too much about it if the guy has a plan. Once Choc strapped himself in the carriage started moving backwards. Choc expertly moved the carriage, not hitting even one of the fancy carriages around us.

Once free from his parking spot Choc started down the road at an easy pace. I didn't pay much attention to the road as he moved down it. I was still incredibly sleepy and needed some sort of pick-me-up. That was when I looked out the window, I was happy to see something off to the side of the road that would've helped.

I opened the window and shouted to Choc, “Hey!” He looked back at me and I pointed to what I saw. “Stop over there real quick!”

Choc did as I asked and I jumped out. I ran into the late night donut diner, Choc followed me with an incredulous expression on his face as I picked a dozen donuts with just chocolate icing on it and two coffees. He glared at me and I smiled nervously once I saw the look on his face.

“Do you think this is some kind of game?!” He growled out as he alternated between glaring at me and the donuts.

I chuckled quietly, “Heh, well you see-”

I didn’t get to finish as he nearly shouted, “No sprinkles?! What kind of donut eater are you?!” He scoffed and continued, “Yes, coffee and donuts are important to a stakeout, but we can’t simply half-ass this!” He looked over to one of the occupied booths in the diner and said to the donkey there, “No offense.”

The donkey just raised a hoof, “None taken.”

I scratched the back of my head, I honestly thought this was going to go a different route. “My apologies.” I said as I looked at the pony behind the counter. “A dozen chocolate covered donuts with sprinkles please.”

“And I’ll take my coffee with three sugarcubes please.” Said Choc.

The donut pony nodded and went to get the order ready. I looked at the old unicorn beside me and just thought, “Well... I’ve certainly come across quite the eccentric pony. I wonder what being stuck in the same carriage with him for however long this stakeout will be like?”

I paid for the donuts and coffee and the two of us left for his carriage.

“Guess I’ll find out soon enough.” I thought as I felt the carriage jerk forward slightly. I watched the dark streets of Manehatten go by in relative silence.

Stakeout Wubs

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“Slow down!” I yelled as I gripped the handholds on the side of the carriage for the simple task of making sure I survived this ordeal. I was glad this carriage had cup holders, and that the cups had lids on them. Else I’d have a spilt coffee problem, and likely a burn problem, on top of this crazy stallion sprinting down the road the second he informed me we were on the correct street.

“Hush!” He yelled back, even louder than I did. “Do ya want to let everypony know we are here?! Gotta stay quiet!”

“Like you are being any more quiet than I am!” I raged in my head. Choc hit a rather deep pothole and I was sent flying in the air despite the death grip I had on the handholds, my head nearly smacked into the roof of the carriage. “Watch for the potholes dammit!” I yelled, “Nearly broke my neck!”

I think he muttered something, but I didn’t catch what. From the brief rolling of his eyes I barely made out in this dark, I suspected it was something sarcastic. Nevertheless I saw him eye a certain warehouse and watched as he nodded his head. I was guessing that was our target, but what was he gonna do? Ram us into it?

Nope. He instead used his magic to unstrap himself from his harness, my eyes widened when Choc slowed down and let the speed of the carriage slowly catch up to him. Before his butt hit the front of the carriage Choc jumped up, horn flashing, and teleported himself in the carriage bench across from me. Having the audacity to appear completely relaxed and composed as the carriage slowly came to a rolling stop in front of the warehouse.

I glared at the stallion in front of me, “You’re one crazy bastard you know that right?”

He shrugged, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” His horn lit up and he levitated two binoculars from his saddlebag and magiced one over to me. “Now stop fussing about the past and watch. We’re burning nighttime.”

I grabbed one of the binoculars out of the air and huffed in annoyance before taking a sip from my coffee as I watched one half of the warehouse while my new partner watched the other half. If there is one thing the movies and tv shows don't show, it's that actual stakeouts do not give instant results. Choc and I sat in his carriage for a good couple of hours, we kept silent so that we didn't miss anything but that had the consequence of leaving us in complete boredom.

After a while I was almost about to give up, I was never one to just sit around in silence and do nothing. I didn't have the patience nor attention span for that. I needed something to do, luckily for me, and I suppose us, there was a break in the nothing that was going on. As I slowly scanned the outside of the building I saw one lone cloaked pony walking down the sidewalk, he was in my opinion looking very shifty and shady. Especially at this time of night.

“Hey, Choc. Look.” I nudged the unicorn with an elbow and pointed in the direction of the pony when Choc looked over to me. He raised his binoculars to his eyes and looked to where I pointed.

“Well I'll be Celestia’s uncle. Finally some progress!” He said, grinning like a crazed idiot.

We watched as the pony tapped three times on the warehouse’s door with a hoof. A few seconds later the door opened, the cloaked pony looked to be saying something to someone unseen before walking in. “Very suspicious.” I muttered, mostly to myself.

The door didn't close immediately, another pony peeked out the open doorframe and looked around, as if to check for followers. But this time the pony had an all too familiar helmet on. A helmet that, while before brought joy to me when I once saw them live, now filled me with a bit of indignant rage. Those helmets don't belong on evil. The pony seemed satisfied, as much as I could tell since his head was covered, that no one was around and ducked back into the warehouse.

“This is our place and those are our ponies.” I said. “I know those helmets.”

“Indeed.” Replied Choc. “Those are the same ponies that ransacked my shop.”

“So… Wanna go in guns blazing?” He probably doesn't know what a gun is, but I’m sure the meaning was clear enough.

“No, too risky. I say we head back and try and get the blueprints to the warehouse. If we can find ways to break in without being caught this whole thing would go a lot smoother.” Choc shook his head. “Plus we should get some supplies for breaking in anyway.”

“Ah, right.” A smarter plan than mine I'll admit. Though I wonder when playing detectives turned into playing thieves. “Sounds good, let’s-”

Choc started laughing wildly, “I'm just pulling your leg! Buck planning! I want revenge and I want it now!”

“Wait, what?” I didn't have time to say anything else.

With that he teleported out of the carriage, I looked outside to see him already strapped into the harness. He pulled sharply out of his parking spot and dashed us at the warehouse. At first I thought this crazy lunatic was going straight for the heavy duty wall, but it turns out he veered for a fallen billboard in front of the building that I hadn't taken the time to notice before. The sign had fallen to the ground and for some reason nobody had fixed it or moved it. The sign part of the billboard made a perfect ramp to a window halfway up the wall that looked to be big enough to accommodate his carriage.

“Grab your stuff! This'll be bumpy!” He shouted at me.

“You crazy old coot!” I yelled at Choc, I still did what he said though. I strapped my bag to my back and held my new fancy wubboard tightly to my chest. I double checked to see if my wubnades were in the side pockets of my bag. Besides my fists, which I still had to work on my strength, they were my only real source of self defense.

Just before we burst through the window, Choc teleported back inside the carriage. “Smart move,” I thought to myself as I put my headphones on around my neck, ready to be put on to protect myself from my own wubnades.

The carriage finally smashed through the window, sending shards of glass everywhere. I couldn't help but think that this carriage won't likely survive the fall, it did not look all that sturdy. I just happened to look out the window, the warehouse was full of stereos and other various technological music based stuff. Everything was connected via wire, and all that wire lead to one part of the farthest wall across from us and trailed upwards to a room that overlooked the storage area. All the stereos and stuff were pointed right in the middle of the warehouse, where we so incidentally were about to land.

There were ponies in the warehouse, and if I could see their face I'd think they'd look shocked. But I didn't get to think long on that as the carriage finally remembered it was bound by gravity, we fell to the center of the warehouse and crashed.

“Bumpy indeed…”

Wub Blasted

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The second the wheels hit the hard cement floor of the warehouse they buckled under the combined weight of me, Choc, and the rest of the wagon. The wheels shattered into splinters like a balloon popping and the wheel axles snapped like a twix bar. The carriage box slid a good ten feet across the floor with an ungodly screeching sound. How we didn’t flip over and snap our necks I did not know.

After shaking ourselves off Choc positioned himself by the carriage door, hind legs first. “Tell me when a good number are by the door.” He quietly whispered to me.

Instead of replying with a smart ass remark on how he was actually being quiet this time, I instead pulled the tiny curtain covering the window aside by a small margin to peek outside. Daft ponies were gathering outside the carriage, looking sharp and ready. I counted about ten, maybe a little more if there are others hiding outside my field of vision.

“Ten just outside the door, seem to be all earth ponies and pegasi. Weird that I don’t see any unicorns though.” I whispered back.

“Aye,” Choc mumbled. “That is strange. But we don’t have time to worry about that just yet. Let’s deal with the immediate problem first.”

I gripped my wubboard in my left hand and took a few wubnades out my pack’s side pockets. Before I left for this city I didn’t have time to make them more powerful, but thanks to having better access to materials and living with someone who has a liking to science led me to be able to make them smaller. About an inch and a half in diameter with a small button on top, so around the size of a marble. Because of the smaller size, and the threat of accidentally activating, Twilight and I made sure to require a small influx of magic into them alongside pushing to button in order for it to go off.

Just as I finished preparing myself Choc bucked the door off its hinges, it spiraled out and knocked two ponies down and out for the count. Choc rushed out with a mighty warcry that I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at, even as I charged in right behind him. Choc shot a beam of magic at a dive bombing pegasus, blowing him out of the air. I jumped over a charging earth pony while he did that, using his head like a springboard with the satisfaction of making him face plant hard into the floor.

I saw movement in the corner of my eye and I activated and threw one of my wubnades at the small group of three that tried to circle around the carriage at us. Apparently the daft ponies circled the entire carriage. So the total numbers of opponents was thirteen. The nade bounced once on the floor before rising up into the face of the lead charger and releasing a loud and constant stream of bass. The charging ponies collapsed into a heap of bodies, likely to be soon passing out.

I looked back at Choc to see him slug an earth pony in the face with his hoof with simultaneously dodging two pegasi that were harassing him. He was holding his own but I decided to help him anyway. Just as I started my run I grunted as I felt myself forcefully pushed to the ground. Me and my new adversary slid a few feet with him practically wrapping himself around me with his front legs. I was so surprised that I accidentally dropped the other two wubnades, they rolled away from us, just out of reach.

“Get off me!” I grunted at the offending pony. I punched him in the face, but that only hurt my hand since he had a helmet.

The pony raised a hoof and threw it down at me, I rolled my head to the side and watched as the hoof missed me by a scant few inches. Realizing that I could probably get really hurt I tried kneeing my opponent. He grunted, a bit out of breathe, when my knee slammed into his stomach. I pushed him off as he gasped for air, quickly getting to my feet I took my wubboard in both hands and swung it down on his head.

It was at this moment that I was glad Twilight helped me enchant the stuff on this thing. If it was any other piece of technology then I would be extremely apprehensive about using it as a melee weapon. But this thing won’t break that easily, or get it’s internal parts ruined or jumbled around, even if I was using it to hammer at a rock.

I turned around and yelped as another hoof aimed itself at my face, courtesy of one of the enemy pegasus ponies here.

I just barely ducked under it, I swung my board up into the pony’s chin with a righteous wrath and yelled, “Stop aiming for my face! It’s too beautiful to waste!”

The body of the pony dropped to the ground, and it was then that I saw another pony appear from behind him. The earth pony charged me, stopping short to use the momentum to swing his hind legs at me. I realized what he was trying to do, I was not wanting to get a feel of what it was like to get bucked. I made a hasty retreat backwards, the hooves just grazing my jacket. But there was one thing bad about this bucking attack, if the pony missed then they could be counter attacked.

Like how the space between the legs was just wide enough for my leg. Though I did inwardly cringe as my delicate looking foot swung upwards into the daft pony’s crotch. I heard the pony scream as his entire family’s lineage just disappeared forever from the world.

I looked back at Choc as the pony fell to the ground, writhing in pain. He seemed to have taken care of himself, he happily trotted over to me with a wide grin on his face.

“That was fun! I should do this more often! What’s with him?” He asked, looking at the still writhing pony.

“I may have scored a field goal on his balls.” I replied, completely agreeing with Choc’s wince.

“Well,” Choc said, gathering magic in his horn and zapping the pony with it. The pony stopped moving and I heard snores vibrating out of the helmet. “We should at least put him out of his misery.”

Thunder boomed outside, the sound of heavy rain hitting the metallic roof of the warehouse echoed across the building. I clicked my tongue, “Was it suppose to rain tonight? An odd time of the night for the weather ponies to do it don’t ya think?”

Choc looked up after dealing with the pony, “Aye. But maybe it’s a scheduling error? It’s been known to happen here from time to time. Big city and all.”

I shrugged at him as I looked around the room once more, seeing it with a better eye now that I wasn’t falling to my potential death. The whole place seemed really ominous now that I thought about it. The setup of stereos and amplifiers aimed directly at the two of us did not settle right with me. Suddenly the lights of the warehouse went out, Choc and I went into a guarded position almost instantly.

Then a spotlight shined down on us. Another boom of thunder shook the building as another spotlight shined on the room overseeing the ground floor of the warehouse. It revealed a pony shaped figure standing at the window, the brightness of the light took away any detail, diabolically laughing, as if everything was timed for that…

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” I thought to myself.

“We’re dealing with a hammy supervillain aren’t we?” I muttered. Choc didn’t seem to hear me, he was glaring at the entrance of the new pony. Despite being a herbivore, he seemed to be caught mindlessly chewing the ham to the tune of the new arrival.

“Well, well, well. It seems you finally arrived here Cloudsdale destroyer, you even took out a few of my minions. And here I was simply thinking that you’d never show up.” The light at the top died down a little and I could see the face of the now revealed leader, or rather the mask of the now revealed leader.

The other pony was obviously a mare, I could tell by her muzzle shape and body type. But she had a mask on, the eyes of the masks had stylized musical eighth notes, the bottom bulbs were much larger than normal, and where the eyes saw through. They had a yellow material filling the inside of the bulb while the rest of the note remained black. The necks of the symbols crossed between her eyes, just under her horn, like it was some sort of sword insignia. The main coloring of her mask and full body supervillain spandex suit was green, while the trimming was a deep blue. It had various musical symbols etched onto it across it’s length. She even had a deep blue cape. From what little snout I could see, and mane, I determined her coat was a burgundy color and her mane was black.

“You could say that I was fashionably late.” I replied.

The now revealed supervillain, though I still didn’t know her name, laughed quite evilly. Choc leaned over to me and whispered, “You know this mare?”

“Not a clue.” I whispered back.

The mare stopped her laughing and said, almost mockingly, “Oh, and where are my manners? I haven’t even introduced myself!” She smirked down at us, “You may call me, DJ Green Bass!”

“What a horrid name…” I thought. “Makes me not want to take her seriously.”

“It's too bad you can't stop my plans, Vinyl.” I narrowed my eyes at her, she just chuckled. “Oh yes, I know all about you. You made many waves after you destroyed that cloud city. And I am its result!”

She stopped her brief monologue to fiddle with something under the large rectangular window she faced out of. She made a particularly dramatic push of a button and blue electricity of some kind sparked down the wires leading out of the upper room. It traveled out to the technology surrounding Choc and I, causing the amps and other things to take on a blueish glow to them.

“Oh, this ain't good.” I said to Choc.

DJ Green Bass laughed as Choc and I looked all around us at the things that glowed blue. “And that's not all!”

A small circle around my height in diameter crumbled in the middle of the floor where Choc and I stood. A platform rose into the air, on top of it was a cylinder that would've hurt my eyes looking at it, it glowed a bright blue and green nearly as bright as the sun. There was an amp on top of the cylinder, pointed straight up, and a timer that read five minutes connected to it.

“Oh my god, there's even a timer connected to a doomsday device.”

“I call this the Bass Accelerator! Of course you might know what this is, I based it off what I believe your original design was.” DJ Green Bass pointed a hoof at me, “But I perfected it! It's hundreds of times stronger than yours! You see, you missed one crucial detail-”

“As hammy as I might think this is, I gotta admit that thing is a problem.” I whispered to Choc as I ignored her continued rambling.

“What do you mean? Let's just buck it, tech nowadays breaks pretty easy right?” He whispered back. Green Bass was on a roll now, something about being inspired to do this after idolizing my past boo boo.

I shook my head at him, “No, with something like this doing something that rash could just make things worse. Like making it go off prematurely and screwing everyone involved if there isn't any sort of protective measure used.”

“Like a colt's first time…” Choc breathed.

“Exactly! So, I have a plan-”

“Excuse me!” I was interrupted by Green Bass. “Are you even paying attention?! I'm talking over here!”

“Ah, sorry lady. Please go on.” I replied, hoping she'd at least be done soon.

She harrumphed, “You're lucky I'm practically done. I should make you relisten to everything, but for the sake of time I'll continue.” She cleared her throat before continuing, “Anyway, and so here I stand! After years of agonizing work and suffering, the fruits of my labors have almost come to fruition! And you are but one of the final pieces.” She pointed her hoof at me again at that, smirking at me.

I narrowed my eyes at her behind my glasses, “And we will stop you you know. The bad guys don't usually win.”

“We’ll see about that.” She looked down and did something, I figured there was a control panel there. The timer beeped and the minutes ticked down. “Have fun, I have other plans to finish.” And with that Green Bass turned around and dashed somewhere in the back of the room she was in.

I looked at Choc and said, “I need you to get up there,” I pointed at the room Green Bass was just in, “and try and power this thing down from there. I'll see if I can do the same from here.”

Choc looked at me worried, “But you'll be right next to this things blast zone if it goes off!”

“Then we’ll just have to make sure it doesn't go off then.” I smirked at him.

He seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before nodding his head at me. He made a dash to a door on the same wall the upper room was on and bucked it down before galloping off. I turned back to the bright machine in the middle of the warehouse, pushed my glasses back up my nose, took my backpack off and grabbed my tools I brought along with me.

I looked at the timer and the amp that it was connected to. I was no bomb defusing expert, so turning the timer off was a no go. Instead I tried to see if the glowing part of the machine had any access points. Luckily there was a tiny hatch next to the amp on top of the cylinder, I used my screwdriver to remove it and looked inside.

The inside of the machine was a mess of wires, circuit boards, and blue and green wub circuit chips. I will give it to the supervillain, this thing was a good example of wubtech. I looked back up at the timer, my analyzing took a good two minutes off the clock. There was barely two minutes and thirty seconds left.

“Oi, you hear me?” Choc's voice spoke through the speakers of the warehouse.

“Yeah! I hear ya!” I loudly replied.

“Looks like the boss lady of this place took some important looking wires from the console up here. I don't think this thing’ll be of much use to us.”

I cursed, looks like I'll have to do this the hard way. I looked up at the window and yelled, “Alright, stay up there and try and find something useful!”

“Something useful? I don't think there's a manual up here.” He snarked back.

“Just look!” I was annoyed now.

“Fine fine, don't get your panties in a twist.”

I grumbled to myself about never wanting to wear panties in the first place as I stuck my hand inside the deeper parts of the doomsday device. After rifling through the inside I looked up and saw that we only had a minute and a half left, I was starting to sweat now. Trying to understand and take apart a machine mostly foreign to me in under five minutes is really difficult. Green Bass said she based this off the sound system I was trying to make a thousand years ago, but I didn't see the resemblance at all. It really sucked.

“Hey, uh. I think I found something.” Choc's voice spoke up.

“What is it?”

“A manual…”

I slammed my head on the machine in aggravation. “Does it say how to turn this thing off? And hurry, we barely have over a minute.”

He was silent for a few seconds before saying, “Yeah, there should be some sort of core inside the machine. Like a glowing ball of some kind. If you remove the wires connecting it the whole thing should turn off.”

“Alright thanks!” I yelled and quickly began looking for the core. I found it buried behind a wall of wires. It looked like a glass tube with the ends capped in metal, the metal caps had wires sticking out of them. Inside the glass was a bright ball of some sort of energy, it didn't look like magic as far as I knew.

I reached my right hand inside to pluck the wires connecting the core out, but immediately flinching back. My hand started burning when it got too close. I gritted my teeth and cloaked my hand in a weak amount of magic, it lessened the burning somewhat. I disconnected the wires attached to the core and it landed in a small net of wires, the glow of it dimming somewhat. I grabbed the core and pulled my hand out of the machine, still cloaked in magic since the core still made my hand burn.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the timer stopped and showed at least ten seconds left in the clock. The machine itself stopped glowing. I was about to yell out I got it when Choc yelled out, “Wait! There’s a fail safe!”

“What?” I softly asked. It was too late, the glow of the machine returned full force as it looked to be expanding. The amps and other various speakers hummed to life. I started to run out but the amps and speakers turned on, the bass slamming into me and throwing me back to the middle. I landed right next to the machine with a grunt.

“You alright?!” Choc's voice yelled out, I guessed he turned the speaker volume up so I could hear him. I gave him a thumbs up and shakily stood back up.

I'll admit, things didn't look good.

“You gotta get out of there!”

Easier said than done. The machine in the middle glowed ominously, the blue glow reached the speaker on top and it hummed into life as well. Bright blue electricity of a sort arced around the whole thing. Then without warning the speaker on top of it boomed out sound. The actual speaker part glowed blue, a small bass cannon beam shot out of it that incinerated the ceiling on contact. The beam seemed to stretch in diameter until the entire cylinder machine was covered, then it stopped.

The core still in my hand began to glow brighter until it was too painful to want to hold on to. But I couldn't let go. The surrounding amps and speakers let out a particularly powerful bass boom that mocked me forward, closer to the beam of blue light shooting straight upwards into the night sky like some sort of celestial pillar.

My head was mere inches away from the glowing, incredibly dangerous, pillar of light. The core still stuck in my hand glowed and burned even more so than before. I was seeing spots now, I barely heard some sort of commotion to my left. I looked over and saw that Choc was trying to get through to me, but the pure force all the bass was making was too much for him.

I felt something roll into my left hand, I looked down and saw the two wubnades I dropped earlier. I picked them up as a plan formed in my head, alongside the immense pain and all. I tried the delicate approach already, so I'll take a page out of Choc's book.

I barely activated them with magic, pushed the buttons, and rolled them forward. One was enough to disable and eventually knock someone out. Two could do actual physical damage. So I had to aim where I'd get the least exposure to them. My headphones only work when there's one of them. I'd rather not have them break, again, thank you very much.

When the nades detonated the force cracked the machine in front of me. Which in turn made it explode outward with its bass force. I was glad this wasn't focused, else I'd have been incinerated. The machine wasn't done, even if the bass pillar was slowly disappearing. I tried getting up but found I was really hurting all over. So I slowly crawled my way to the machine, hoping to chuck one more nade into the machine.

It was then that lightning struck the machine, the explosive force behind that sent me flying back the way I came. The machine was destroyed now, a fact I was barely able to take in as I laid down sideways to it. I looked at my right hand, the core that I had held was broken. The glow inside had disappeared and glass was everywhere. Blood slowly pooled around my hand, it didn't take a genius to figure out I was probably badly cut.

Something good did come from this though. The machine was a useless wreck of slag, and the surrounding sound system was short circuited by the lightning strike. And there were enough explosions. So this whole thing went reasonably well in my humble opinion.

My vision was slowly fading, but I could see Choc running at me with a concerned expression on his face. He was saying something but I couldn't seem to hear him right now. I smiled at him to let him know I was alright, but by the look on his face it probably looked more like a delirious grin.

Then I finally blacked out.

Hospital Wubs

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As cliched as it probably sounds, the first thing I heard when waking up was a rhythmic beeping sound. I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the light that suddenly started pouring into them. I groaned in mild discomfort. When I was done being blinded by the light and was able to finally see, I noticed that I was not dead. And that I was currently in a bed, in a hospital.

This was good all things considered. I liked being alive.

The room itself was really just a standard hospital room built for one. I turned my head and saw a vase of flowers and a very pink get well card. I could smell the scent of sweets coming from it, even from my spot on the bed. I figured it came from pinkie. I also noticed a lot of coffee cups stacked up in the trashcan in the corner of the room.

Other than those two things, nothing else broke the monotony of the room. I was tempted to call out for something when the door to the room opened. Choc walked in, bleary eyed, holding a cup of coffee in a shaky magical grip. He looked at me for a second, not seeming to comprehend anything. That was until he finally realized I was awake now, his eyes shot open, all trace of tiredness gone, and his coffee dropped out of his magical grasp.

He was at the side of my hospital bed before the cup hit the floor. “Sweet Celestia! You’re finally awake! How ya feelin’?”

I tried to say something but coughed when I noticed my throat was really dry.

“Buck! Right, I’ll get ya some water!” He was out and back in before I even knew he was gone. He levitated the cup to me and I carefully took hold of it, “Easy now, you’re probably feeling weak.”

I gulped the water gratefully down. After clearing my throat I looked at Choc and said, “I’ve felt better. What happened, and how long have I been out?”

He took the cup from me and set it down on the side table. Then he said, “It’s only been three days since we were at the warehouse.”

“Three days? Whatever happened to me must have been pretty bad.”

He continued, “And I myself don’t know what exactly was wrong with you. The doctors said that from whatever your species is, you didn’t look to be suffering from anything lethal as far as they could tell. Even the blood loss from that cut on your hand was fixed with a spell, though they couldn’t fix anything else beyond stitches. But you just didn’t wake up, so they kept you here just to be sure. Those cuts were the only injuries you had.”

Speaking of my hand, I moved the covers on the bed I was laying in and looked at my right hand. It looked pretty ugly. The entirety of my palm was a mess of cuts, there was even a longer cut that went down my arm and wrapped itself on the right side of it, just stopping short of halfway to my elbow.

I didn’t like them, they looked ugly. There two different types of scars in my opinion, ones that look cool and usually have a story to go along with them, and the ones that just look horrifying and no one wants to really say anything about them. Sadly, these scars on my hand fell into the second category.

“There is one thing I should mention, it’s about the machine in the warehouse.”

I looked up at Choc in surprise, “You find something?”

He nodded, “Yeah, though I don’t know how much use it could be.” He levitated a large ringed binder from… somewhere. It had a title on it called “Bass Accelerator Operation for Dummies”. He set it down and said, “I’ve looked through this whole thing, thinkin’ it might help. I have figured out why we didn’t see any unicorns at the warehouse beyond the boss lady.”

“Why’s that? They aren’t… ya know, sacrificing them are they?” I asked.

“What?! No! Where the buckin’ Tartarus did ya get that from?!” He yelled, looking horrified.

“Over active imagination? Whatever, just continue.”

He looked at me oddly before shaking his head and saying, “Well, the unicorns are needed to shove magic into this thing. And I mean, a lot of magic. They’d be so tired after it, even with a full workload of them, that they’d fall asleep where they stand once it's over and done with.”

“Huh, no wonder that machine was glowing so much.”

He looked uneasy, “That’s the thing,” He flipped a few pages of the manual and showed me a page that had a couple of fancy equations on it, it even had a small coffee stain in the corner. “The amount of magic we’re talking about would’ve made that thing detonate with enough magical force to level the city and its surrounding provinces. It only knocked you back.”

My eyes widened, “So, what you’re saying is that thing was barely even working? Like it was running on fumes at the most?”

“Exactly.”

“So, we’ve got a supervillain running around with a primed nuke? Oh, that’s wonderful.” I sighed.

“What’s a nuke?” Choc asked.

“Big bomb that levels cities.” I replied, that was basically what they were.

“Oh, well don’t worry, I don’t think that’s what they are designed for. The thing only exploded with magic and bass force because you threw those fancy marbles of yours at it.”

I rose a blue eyebrow, “If they aren’t meant to explode and cause mass destruction, then what?”

“I’m still working on that… the manual doesn’t say.” He held the thing up to his face, “I’m guessin’ this thing is distributed to the boss lady’s underlings so they can build it where directed and she doesn’t have to be here. I doubt she would want her true masterful plan to be in easy reach of anyone.”

I hummed in thought. A thought hit me, “Wait, if we know how to build one, then maybe we can study the thing ourselves. Figure out what it does by how to build it!”

“I don’t know how much help I’d be in that department. Science and studying things for any length of time is not exactly my forte. I’m the action oriented one.” Choc said.

I shifted my seat in my hospital bed and sat up, “Don’t worry about that. I know a mare perfectly suited for that task. If we slam our heads together over this then I’m sure we’ll have it in the bag.”

Choc seemed to agree with me, “Aye, I assume you mean that purple unicorn that goes by Twilight right? Seems like the nerdy type.”

I looked at him confused, “Twilight was here?” I knew Pinkie was, judging by the card, so I really shouldn’t have been surprised she was here.

“Yup! She and five other mare’s visited you from Ponyville. I think they had to go back to their hotel, but since you’re awake now I’m sure the hospital will let you leave provided you take things slow and report to the hospital in Ponyville. That’s where you live right?”

I nodded, “Yeah. Oh, and where’s my stuff?”

“Under your bed, you want to leave now?” He looked worried about me.

I started moving off the bed, a bit slowly since I was a little sore and stiff from laying in bed for three days. “Yeah, the sooner the better. You can shove the manual in my bag, Twilight and I’ll get to it when we get home.”

I was thankful I was still in my normal clothes, minus my shoes and jacket, which were on the floor and in my bag respectively. I was happy about the small things like that, as I didn’t want to wear the apron that leaves my butt hanging out. Choc levitated my stuff over to me and I gratefully took them, I didn’t want to try and bend over just yet.

Checking out of the hospital was easy. I just had to sign my name on a few forms since any bills were taken care of by Twilight. Something I needed to thank her for, even if the bills were extremely low. Choc lead me out of the white building to wherever Twilight and company were, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the massively big red cross decorating the front wall.

I rubbed the stitches on my arm, they were really starting to itch under the bandages.

Wub me or Hate me

by Vesperia

The Wubs Begin

Exposition Wubs

The First Wubstep Lover

Base of Wuberations

Imprisonment of the Wubs

Wubs on Parole

Displaced Wubs

Celestial Wubs

Stuff Wubs

Time Wubs

Curious Wubs

Board Wubs

Wubs on a Trip

Wubs Meeting Somepony

Stakeout Wubs

Wub Blasted

Hospital Wubs