A mysterious portal starts bringing characters from other franchises into Equestria for three days each. Only the being of chaos (somewhat) knows what's going on.
(Authors note: Be prepared for alot and I mean ALOT of crossovers. And alot of insanity. Enjoy.
Other tags that I don't have space for: RomanceTragedy
Also this story starts from season 5 episode 9 of the show and drastically changes alot of events.)
It was a beautiful summer night in Equestria, everything was still and quiet. Aside from the Chaos Realm with a certain draconequus who was happily swimming in melted swiss cheese that was in a makeshift bowl made out of hardened tree sap. Discord, the lord of chaos, was also consuming said cheese. He came up for a breath, getting a good look at his void and chaos filled surroundings. 'What a wonderful day. I sure hope nothing out of the ordinary happens.' He thought blissfully... He then looked around, almost like he was expecting something.
"Maybe I have to say it out loud?" He muttered under his breath. "What a wonderful day. I sure hope nothing out of the ordinary happens!" He said, as if it was some sort of cue. "It is a cue!" He yelled. Oh right.
Suddenly the lord of chaos felt a chill go up his spine. "Finally." He grumbled. "Oh my, it seems something is causing a magical calamity. And it isn't me." Discord searched his inner map, specifically named 'the things that shouldn't have strong magical things map'. "Whatever it is, it's coming from the Whitetail woods. Welp!"
Discord snapped his claws; suddenly, the cheese pool was gone, and now he was wearing his 'vacation clothes' and holding a suitcase. "Time for a road trip!"
A squirrel was in a tree in the Whitetail woods, trying to crack a nut. It was just on the verge of getting it open when a van appeared in a flash of light and spaghetti streamers popped out of nowhere. Out stepped Discord, who after exiting the van, snapped his claws and made the vehicle disappear. Discord's neck started to turn in a full °360 motion as he scanned for anything that looked suspicious. Unsurprisingly, he spotted something behind him. His body disappeared, then reappeared facing the correct way at the object of suspicion.
The object was a stone with a rainbow aura emitting from it. It also had ancient carvings etched into it. Discord could not decipher what the carvings meant, but they obviously held meaning. He could also sense a powerful magic within the stone, and the magic it held nearly matched his own. "Oh, hardly!" Discord said, taking his eyes out of their sockets and rolling them along the ground like dice.
"Greetings." Said an ethereal sounding voice, Discord couldn't decipher the voice's gender however, it was almost like a whisper.
"Hello?" He asked curiously. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to actually see whomever I'm talking to."
"You have seen me. I am what you assume is a stone." It responded.
Discord looked back down at the stone, seeing that it was now glowing brighter. He was still a bit skeptical, but he had seen and created much weirder things. "Hmm, a talking magical stone. How have I not come up with that yet?" He scolded himself.
"You are very amusing, but you obviously came here for a reason."
"Not really, I was just curious about the sudden magical surge." Discord shrugged. "I haven't the slightest hint who's responsible!" He said with utter 'sincerity'.
"I guess I could've been more inconspicuous, but it's too late for that now."
Discord raised his paw in a questioning manner. "Question teacher."
Discord heard what he swore was a giggle. "Yes?"
"What- err, excuse my manners, who are you and why are you here suddenly?"
"I am Peirha, I'm here to... Experiment."
Discord felt, even though he would never admit it, a tad worried at Peirha's choice of words. "What do you mean by experiment?" He asked, his tone having a hint of seriousness that it rarely held.
"Don't worry, I won't cause any harm." Peirha assured him, but he didn't feel assured.
"Hey! Wait a waxing minute! I am not worried!" He complained. "And why did you jump to harm?!" He asked the more important question. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get a response back. He grumbled some choice words then teleported back to his Chaos Realm. He was going to keep an eye on Peirha, but at the moment, he still had a cheese bath to attend to.
Discord may be a bit of a problem, but I'm sure I can stay in his good graces. Another problem may be Celestia if she somehow finds me, but I can cross that bridge when I get there. For now it's time to start the tests, but who should I summon? Maybe a character with a good heart and mind; maybe somebody like perhaps Spiderman, or Batman, or maybe Sonic? There are just so many possibilities...
Peirha.
Oh, hello!
What are you rambling about?
Well, I've had a fantastic breakthrough! It could mean so much!
Are you saying what I think you're saying?
Mhm.
And you did not ask of my permission?
I-i mean, I was going to...
.......... Fine. But if anything goes wrong, it's your head that will roll.
................ I hope this works properly... What am I saying?! Of course it will work! I've made sure everything is tweaked to perfection, there's no way it wouldn't work... There shouldn't be a way. What if Discord somehow messes with it, then i- No! No, it'll be fine... It. Will. Work.
Celestia had been awoken by a sudden magical jolt. Her guards came in to make sure she was not being attacked. After convincing her guards that she was fine, they left, leaving her to ponder what that magical jolt was. Due to the magical energy having subsided for now, she could not pinpoint where it had came from. She concluded that her best bet in finding out what it was was to hope that a surge would appear again, but she knew she should inform Twilight as soon as morning struck. She levitated a parchment and quill in front of her and started writing.
Dear Twilight,
Last night, I was awoken by a strong magical surge. If it wouldn't inconvenience you, I'd like you to search the immediate area and keep a watchful eye for anything you think could be related. If you discover anything, inform me immediately.
With love, Princess Celestia
Celestia rolled and tied up the parchment and prepared to meet Luna at the balcony, so they could turn the night to day. She also thought that Luna should be told of the situation as well. With herself and the parchment set, she left her room to start the day. She hoped the magical surge was just Discord messing about, but it felt more controlled. It felt much more deliberate.
It was a rainy night in the city, about 12:00 pm to be exact, but that didn't deter a certain lightning fast blue hedgehog. In a matter of seconds, the impossibly fast blue blur reached his destination. It was an old abandoned warehouse that looked like it'd seen better days. "I guess this is the place." Said the hedgehog as he walked into the decrepit building. He searched the whole building, but found nothing, that was until he saw a purple light shining through a square shaped crack in the cement floor. The hedgehog wasted no time, he spin-dashed the floor, breaking it and falling through.
He landed right in front of two Robotnik robots. "Uhh, hi." He greeted, swiftly zooming around them to avoid a few missiles, only to end up running straight into a ranbow portal.
Discord was checking his 'tea party with Fluttershy' schedule, A.K.A his only schedule, to make sure he wouldn't miss it. However, he was interrupted when suddenly another chill went down his spine. "How curious. This one felt different, but why?" He asked himself. "Well let's find out!" Suddenly a giant bat picked him up and flew off with him.
He arrived at the stone again, but now riding a turtle with wings. He hopped off the turtle and floated to the rock. "Peirha, was it? I hope I'm not intruding, but what was that magical surge? It felt... Weird. And I should know." He said.
Peirha did not respond.
"Oh fine, be that way." Discord grumbled as he got on his turtle, which dug into the ground by using its wings.
The blue hedgehog woke up in a daze. He found himself flat on his back, looking up at the sky. A thought came to him as he lay in confusion. 'Wait, shouldn't looking directly at the sun hurt my eyes?' He sat up, dismissing the thought for the time being. He figured that maybe he was just too dizzy for his eyes to recognize he was staring at the sun. He took in his surroundings next, seeing that he was at the edge of a forest.
Several meters away was a cottage with a path leading to a sizable village. The hedgehog decided to try finding out where he was, so he walked to the cottage. It had many critters running and flying around. It reminded him of Green Hill, with all of its animals. He knocked on the door, hoping that whoever opened it would have some sort of clue as to where he should go.
After a few moments, the door finally cracked open. "Hello?" Said a quiet female voice.
"Hi, uh, I was hoping you could tell me where I am?" Asked the hedgehog.
It took a few more moments before he got an answer. "Y-you're near Ponyville... B-but, how do you not know? If uhm, you don't m-mind me asking."
'Ponyville?' "Um..." He tried coming up with an answer.
The door fully opened, revealing a yellow horse with wings. "Are you lost? S-sorry if you're not!" She said, not wanting to assume things in case she wasn't correct. Her eyes then widened as she finally looked at him.
The blue hedgehog decided that he'd try not to wonder how a yellow horse was talking. Besides, it wasn't any weirder than other things he's encountered. "Uhm, yeah?" He said, there was no point in lying.
"Oh, um..." The pony seemed to be at a loss for words. "I-i don't mean to s-sound mean, but are you... A hedgehog?" She asked tentatively.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Sonic questioned.
"Well, hedgehogs are known for their sharp quills that defend them from most predators, so..." The pony explained, then yelped all of the sudden. "I-i'm sorry! I don't mean to be insensitive!" She apoligized as she all but completely coward on the ground.
Sonic wasn't entirely sure what to say. "Uh, you don't gotta be sorry! I just need some directions."
The pony raised her body from the floor a small bit. "W-why?" She asked hesitantly.
"I'm not really sure. I think some sorta portal thing sucked me into it, and now I'm here?"
Fluttershy's brows scrunched up a little in confusion. "I think that isn't normal, b-but Twilight would probably know more about it than me. I-i can take you to her castle, i-if that's okay with you?"
"Sure! Lead the way!" He accepted. "Oh and, I'm Sonic by the way." He pointed at himself proudly.
"I-i'm Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus replied as she carefully stepped out of her cottage and closed the door. Sonic followed her onto the path and they made their way into Ponyville. It was eerily quiet and empty, nobody out and about.
"Is this place always like this?" The hedgehog asked as a tumble weed rolled by.
"N-no. I think this just happens when somepony who looks different enters town." Fluttershy said as the two them came up to a large castle.
'A crystal castle, huh?' The hedgehog thought with an internal chuckle. "I guess this is our stop?" He inquiried. At the pegasus' confirmation, Sonic knocked on the door. He saw a slot in the door open, with two green cat-like eyes, or reptilian, he couldn't tell, peeking out.
"Uhh, who are you?" He heard the owner of said eyes ask. The voice sounded young, about Tail's age.
"Um, Spike? H-he's with me." Fluttershy quickly clarified.
"Oh. Lemme get the door then!" the slot closed and soon after, the giant door opened, revealing what looked to be some sort of reptilian creature. "Uh, not trying to sound rude, but... what are you?" The reptile asked Sonic, tilting his head.
"Me? Well I'm a hedgehog." Sonic replied. "And you aaaare?"
"A dragon." the drake declared, which instantly got Sonic's attention. "But wait, you're a hedgehog? Aren't those supposed to be small... And not blue?"
"Okay, first: that's awesome! Second: What?" Said Sonic.
"I think he's a bit different from a regular hedgehog." Said Fluttershy, who then looked at the mentioned hedgehog apologetically. "S-sorry!"
Sonic decided that he couldn't be bothered to tell Fluttershy not to apologize every time, so he just let it be. "Anyway, I'm Sonic!"
"Yeah, I'm Spike. nice to meet you." He said, extending his claw out for a handshake.
Sonic accepted the handshake. "Cool name."
"Thanks. So, why're you here?" Spike asked.
"I kinda went through a strange portal and ended up here?" Sonic stated outright.
"...huh." The baby dragon looked past Sonic and at Fluttershy in a questioning manner, but she shrugged and shook her head. "Well then, follow me. I'm sure Twilight can help you." Spike said, leading Sonic and Flutterhy into the castle.
Discord wasn't happy, in fact he was the opposite of happy. Well he was until he remembered that he still had to check his 'tea party with Fluttershy' schedule. Quickly slithering to the schedule, he scanned it over, but unfortunately there was no tea party scheduled for today... But there was no harm in checking to see how she was doing. He teleported into her living room along with an oak door, but Fluttershy wasn't there. 'Wait, what?' Discord thought in surprise.
Fluttershy hadn't said anything about needing to go out today, so the question rose to Discord's mind, 'where's Fluttershy?' The lord of chaos simply teleported himself to where Fluttershy was, and thus, he appeared inside a random hallway in Twilight's castle. After a few minutes of navigating the maze, he ended up at the library. He pulled a cannon out of nowhere, loaded himself in it, and with no warning to anyone inside, blasted himself into a bookshelf. The crash made both a hedgehog, and Twilight, look at it in surprise as Discord slithered out of the pile of books.
"Goodness, Twilight. Must you have such tasteless books in your stock? It makes for very uncomfortable crashing." Discord said with an added gag to emphasise his point.
"Gr! Discord, could you not be so... you while I'm busy?" Twilight groaned.
"But Twilight! That'd be like taking away my identity!" Discord howled in 'despair'.
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Uh, should I introduce myself?" Asked the blue hedgehog.
"I don't see why not." Twilight said begrudgingly as she tried to place the books back on the shelf in correct order.
"Right. So, my name's Sonic!" He said easily.
"Sonic, hmm? Rolls off the tounge." Discord said as a mini Sonic rolled off his tounge.
Sonic furrowed his brows. "How did-"
"Why are you here, Discord?" Twilight asked with a sigh of annoyance as she finished organizing the books.
"Well I went to Fluttershy's a moment ago, but she was wasn't there for whatever reason. I teleported over here to find her, but for the love of Princess Sunbutt, this place is like the maze I put 'you' in!" He complained as he pretended to faint onto a cushion of glass plates. He then reapeared in Sonic's quills. "And it doesn't help that our newcomer doesn't look like much either."
"Well at least I don't look like a zoo was crammed into a blender!" Sonic shot back.
"Ooh, touche, I like that one." Since the beggining of the conversation, Discord had been examining Sonic. The hedgehog had magic subtly radiating off him, but it wasn't his magic. It was Peirha's magic.
"Anyway as I was saying." Twilight said, deciding to ignore Discord. "So you went through a portal and ended up outside of Ponyville?" She asked Sonic.
"Yup." Sonic confirmed.
'A portal? Well that would explain why Sonic has magic residue on him, and it would confirm my suspicion.' Discord thought, deciding to leave Sonic and Twilight to talk. He figured hanging out with Fluttershy would have to wait until later. Thus he teleported to Peirha and tapped the stone. "Hello. Would you mind speaking now?" He asked it.
"Yes"
"Goo- wait a minute, that means you don't want to speak!" He got no response. "I know why there was another magical surge now. It's because you opened a portal to send a hedgehog named Sonic here!" Still no response. "Is this what you mean by experiment?"
"Yes"
Discord sighed. 'I guess that's all the information I'm getting, isn't it?' He noted and teleported away.
"Yes"
"But that doesn't make sense!" Twilight said, clearly agitated.
Sonic just sat there, hoping he wouldn't be a victim of the unicorn's anger.
After several moments of Twilight mumbling several ideas about what's g- "Aha! I've got it! Wait right here." Twilight suddenly shouted, startling Sonic (and me) then running off to another room, leaving behind a relieved hedgehog.
Sonic was now worried that he may have had a part in driving a pony mad. He waited several minutes until Twilight finally returned. "Okay, I sent a letter to Princess Celestia because she sent me a letter earlier today telling me that there was a magical surge and I think you may have something to do with it." Twilight explained at a rapid pace.
"Uh, no offense, but... Are you okay?" Sonic asked, worry evident in his voice..
Twilight seemed to have calmed down a bit. "I'm fine... Probably. I just need more time to think it over." She assured. "In the meantime you could explo-"
Pinkie suddenly dropped in from the roof. "Hi Twilight I just dropped in to-" She stopped when she noticed Sonic. With speed that could rival the hedgehog's, Pinkie ran up to him. "Ooooh you look cool. Who are you, what are you, where are you from, you're obviously not from here because I've never seen you before and if I haven't seen you before then that means you're new, I know that because I know everypony in Ponyville, but I don't know you!" She energetically rambled.
To Twilight's shock, Sonic replied rather calmly. "Thanks, I'm Sonic, I'm a hedgehog, you're right about me not being from here and it's nice to meet you uhh, what's your name?"
"Oh woops, I forgot." Pinkie said sticking her tongue out. "I'm Pinkie Pie!" She waved.
'Pinkie Pie? Well that's definitely the most girly name I've come across, like, ever.' Sonic mused. 'Then again, Shadow's the edgiest... I wonder which is worse?'
"Oh wait, if you're new then that means I can throw you a 'welcome to Ponyville, Sonic' party!" Pinkie exclaimed. Unfortunately Pinkie left before Sonic or Twilight could get a word in edgewise.
"Well I guess I have that to look forward to." Sonic remarked.
"I'm more surprised that you were able to keep up with Pinkie." Twilight admitted, still trying to process how anypony could keep up with Pinkie's Pinkieness.
"I've had alot of experience with people like her."
"Right." Twilight shook her head and got back on topic. "Anyways, as I was saying, you can explore Ponyville a bit until Celestia replies back, just don't go too far."
"No need to worry, I'll be here when I need to."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you will." 'He's alot like Rainbow, only, he's not a pegasus.' Twilight mused in the back of her mind.
Sonic gave a salute, with the wrong arm, then zoomed out of the castle.
The lord of chaos watched the scene with Twilight, surprise guest Pinkie, and Sonic unfold. He didn't think Sonic was bad, but he still wanted to be safe rather then sorry. He watched as Sonic sped through town, nopony else noticing nothing but a blue blur. Discord then had a stupendous idea and he was about to enact it, but suddenly the earth shook. Discord may've been in the air, but it was hard not to notice the houses shaking and Sonic trying to keep his balance. Some ponies noticed Sonic, but most had their attention on a giant bear, proper name, Ursa minor.
'Shouldn't that thing still be hibernating for two hundred and forty seven more years?' Discord thought. He turned his attention to Sonic, seeing him look around, possibly thinking of ways to defeat the giant. After a few seconds he saw Sonic asking for directions to anywhere to get food. The pony he asked was surprised he wanted to know that now of all times, but still told him anyway.
Sonic sped towards Sugercube Corner and bursted through the door. "Hi! no time to explain, I need a cart of cakes!" Sonic told a tall orange stallion.
"What?" The stallion said, slightly worried he was getting robbed. Suddenly a familiar Pink pony rounded the corner.
"Oh, hi Sonic!" Pinkie beamed.
"Pinkie, I need a wagon of cakes asap!" Sonic shouted.
"On it!" Pinkie replied,instantly pulling a wagon of cakes out of nowhere.
Sonic decided he could question it later. He grabbed the wagon's handle and sped off back towards the Ursa minor.
"What just happened?" Mr. Cake asked.
"There's an Ursa minor attacking Ponyville... again." Pinkie sang as she exited the bakery to gather her friends.
Rainbow Dash, flew around the Ursa, making sure it was attacking her and not Ponyville. She just hoped somepony would tell Twilight and the rest of her friends about what was going on. Luckily though, she saw a cake be thrown onto the Ursa's snout, making it turn to the thrower. Rainbow looked in the same direction, seeing a blue... Spiky thing, with a wagon full to the brim with cake. The Ursa roared, causing the breath it released to push the spiky thing back. The spiky thing ran towards the plains outside of Ponyville, dropping cake in it's tracks. The Ursa followed in pursuit and Rainbow stayed behind it, making sure it followed the cake. She might not've known the plan, but it was pretty easy to figure out.
Rainbow had several questions in mind, but she was okay with asking them after they got rid of the Ursa minor. Once far enough from Ponyville, Rainbow flew ahead and caught up with the spiky thing.
"I have alot of questions, but I think knowing your name is fine for now!" Rainbow shouted over the sound of thundering steps.
"Sonic!" He replied. "By the way, do you by any chance know where this thing came from?!" He pointed to the Ursa.
"Yes, actually!" Rainbow confirmed. She knew pestering Twilight about it would work out in the long run.
Sonic was surprised that she actually knew, but he wasn't going to complain. "I think I have enough cake to lead him over there." He then thought of another thing. "Oh, could you tell a pony named Twili-!"
"Already done." Discord told them as he popped in.
"Discord!? What are you doing here? Wait, why can't you just get rid of the Ursa?" Rainbow asked.
"Because my little Dashie, that would be no fun." Discord explained briefly. "Besides I think you have 'bigger' things to deal with." Discord pointed out that the Ursa was very close now.
"Dash," Sonic referred to her by, since he didn't know her first name and he hoped her name wasn't actually Dashie. "Get behind the Ursa, let's get moving!" He sped off again, leaving a blue trail and cake in his wake. Rainbow looked to where Discord was, but he seemed to have disappeared. She took flight higher into the air and followed behind the Ursa.
It took about five minutes to get to the cave, and Sonic just ran out of cake, forcing him to manually lead the Ursa in. Rainbow watched with anticipation, hoping nothing went wrong. Moments later and they were fully inside, now they just had to-
ROAR
All three of the life forms turned to the new voice and all three looked terrified. In front of them, stood a Ursa major. Sonic decided now was a good time to bolt, but before he could make that choice, a paw smashed down, blocking the entrance of the cave. The blue blur saw four massive claws slice through the air. He vaulted between the bottom two, though the shockwave of such a large mass swinging through the air slammed Sonic against a wall. Meanwhile, Rainbow was desperately trying to get past the paw blocking the entrance to the cave, but she was having zero luck. Discord legitimately had sweat forming on his forehead, so he decided to interfere.
He teleported into the cave and quickly attempted to hold the Ursa Major in place... but that somehow didn't work. Not only did Ursa have powerful magic resistance of their own, but there appeared to be another magic barrier alongside it. By the time Discord had processed this, another slash came out of the darkness. He acted fast, snapping his fingers to create a hole in the cave, but that was covered in an anti magic shield too. 'What's even happening?! Why's my magic not doing anything here?!' Discord stressed. Something was very clearly wrong. He made a last ditch effort to teleport Sonic out of the cave, but nothing.
The hedgehog was hit by a massive claw, splitting him in twine horizontally across the torso. His two halves splattered against the wall of the cave as red painted itself everywhere. Discord's eye twitched as he was now able to teleport the body out of the cave. Rainbow twisted around midair as she heard the teleportation sound, but found herself deathly silent at the sight before her.
Discord could only feel his own glare as he transported Rainbow and the body to a safer area.
Reporting on test 1: Interesting. I was not expecting a death so soon, especially on the first day. But I suppose I may have gotten a little carried away trying to stop Discord from interfering. Sonic still managed to stop the Ursa though. It's also good to know that the transfer system worked, Sonic was sent back to his world in a new body. Side effect is that he's unconscious, but otherwise he'll be fine.
I'll give the ponies some time to grieve, then I'll continue with my experiments.
Discord sat on his couch, having what seemed to be a staring contest with the roof. The dark reality was that he was reflecting, reflecting on how he didn't stop the Ursa major's claw, how he couldn't do anything to keep Sonic alive. 'But why?' He thought, though right after, he realized there was a better question, how?
It's not as if Discord did nothing. He tried using his magic to keep Sonic alive, but it didn't work. Why didn't it work?! He even tried bringing Sonic back to life, but something stopped him... Discord had a feeling that he knew exactly who stopped him and he needed to pay her a visit, a very unfriendly visit.
Discord appeared in front of Peirha. "You said nothing would go wrong." He said with narrowed eyes and a threatening growl.
"To my knowledge, nothing did."
Discord scowled. "You think someone dying like that is common here!? Because it's not! Not just that, but if you hadn't sent Sonic here, then he'd be fine! I'm sure Twilight and her friends could've handled it."
"Weren't you the one who said no to dealing with the Ursa problem. Rainbow asked you to, but you declined. I imagine she's not very happy with you."
Discord tried to come up with a rebuttal, but drew upon dead words. He was at fault, he may not have known, but he still didn't deal with the Ursa minor when he had a chance to. Then the thing he came here for came to mind.
"Do you know why my magic didn't work on him?" He asked.
"..."
"Answer me!" Discord demanded, but he received no reply. "I can destroy thi-" But before he finished the sentence, Peirha finally responded.
"You can't."
"What?"
"You can't.
"What does that mean?!" Discord snapped.
"You cannot destroy the stone."
"I'm the god of chaos, I don't see why I can't." Discord scoffed, his eyes glowing a grim shade of yellow..
"I mean that you can't physically or magically destroy it."
Discord raised an eyebrow.
"You may try if you don't believe me."
Peirha was so confident, could Discord destroy the stone? She could be telling the truth, but Discord still wanted to try. He poofed in a sledgehammer and grabbed it in his paw and claw. He raised it up high, then swung it down onto the stone, but instead of the stone breaking, it bounced off and hit Discord in the face.
Discord snapped his claws, making the sledgehammer disappear from his face. He snapped his claws again, trying to teleport the stone, well anywhere, but nothing happened. 'What? But... How?' Discord was at a loss for words, he really couldn't do anything to it.
"I promise, no one will die this time."
Discord turned his attention back to the stone and raised an eyebrow, but Peirha said no more. Discord floated a distance away, then teleported home...
11:00 pm, first day.
A lone E54 Bastion unit walked through the black forest, a yellow Cockatiel parrot named Ganymede on its shoulder. Everything seemed peaceful, that was until a portal suddenly appeared under Bastion, making him fall in. Ganymede flew off of Bastion's shoulder with the sudden movement, but when he looked down to see Bastion, he was gone. Ganymede quickly followed Bastion through the portal.
On the other side, he saw that they were still in a forest, but something seemed... Different. Bastion stood up, he had fallen over when coming through the portal. Ganymede landed back on Bastion's shoulder.
"Beep broop beep. Bwee brew. (I don't konw Ganymede. But this place looks similar.)" Bastion replied.
They both heard a howl in the not so distance.
"Tweet chirp. (We should keep an eye out.)"
"Bwoop. (Agreed.)" With that in hardrive and mind, Bastion started his journey through the forest. Bastion knew there was something following them, but it was not enough to engage danger protocol's. After a bit of walking, they saw light, assumingly the exit of the forest. Before they could approach it though, they heard growling and three screams behind them. Bastion turned around and saw three small ponies run past him and out of the forest, then Bastion saw several pairs of green glowing eyes peeking out of the bushes. Ganymede flew after the fillies while Bastion converted into sentry mode.
The glowing eyes disappeared, but Bastion still heard rustling in the bushes. After a few tense moments, the rustling went away. Bastion went back to recon mode and followed after Ganymede and the fillies. Ganymede, meanwhile, was watching as the fillies tried and failed to tell a yellow pony with wings about what happened. "Chirp." He sighed, to his surprise the yellow pony noticed and trotted up to him.
"Do you know what happened?" The pony asked him.
Ganymede did know what happened, but she wouldn't understand him, would she? He decided to give it a shot. "Chirp, tweet tweet. Chirp tweet. (Well, yes I do. These three fillies were following a friend of mine and me, when we heard a growl. The fillies ran past us and to here. I followed.)"
"Do you think your friend is okay?" The pony surprisingly responded to what Ganymede said.
"Chirp, tweetweet. (Most likely.)" Now he wanted to ask a question though. "Chirp tweet chirp. (How can you understand me though?)"
"It's my special talent to talk to animals and critters." The winged pony responded.
Ganymede found that strange, but he also didn't really care. Suddenly they heard the three fillies scream again, though when Ganymede turned around, all he saw was Bastion. 'Oh right, they probably don't know what he is.' He figured.
The fillies hid behind the yellow winged pony, who was also visibly scared, but she was still standing her ground.
"Chirp chirp! (Don't worry, he's my friend!)" Ganymede chirped to the yellow pony.
She looked at Ganymede, then back at Bastion, then at Ganymede again, and back at Bastion one last time. She decided to trust them for the time being, as at least Ganymede seemed kind. "O-okay." She regained her composure. "M-maybe we should introduce ourselves?" She suggested. "I'm Fluttershy."
"Tweet. (Ganymede.)"
"Bweep. (Bastion.)"
All of the ponies looked at Bastion in confusion. "Chirp tweet. (Fluttershy can understand chirps, try that.)" Ganymede told Bastion.
"Chirp chirp. (Right, I am Bastion.)" Bastion re-tried.
Fluttershy understood this time and told the fillies the two names. "Now tell them your names," She told the fillies. "If you want!" She quickly added.
The fillies looked at each other, all nodded in silent agreement. Then turned to Bastion and Ganymede, who had just landed on Bastion's shoulder. "We're The Cutiemark Crusaders!" They all shouted, perfectly synchronized.
"Ah'm Applebloom!"
"I'm Sweetiebelle!"
"And I'm Scootaloo!"
They said enthusiastically. It sounded like it was rehearsed.
"Anyway, it's getting late, and you fillies should get inside." Fluttershy told the CMC.
"Okay." They all said, begrudgingly entering the cottage.
'Why do I always agree to foalsitting them when they have their sleepovers?' Fluttershy asked herself. She looked back at Bastion and Ganymede. "I have some questions, if you don't mind me asking." She gave a patient smile.
"Chirp chirp. (Well I don't see why not.) " Ganymede shrugged.
"Tweet. (Go ahead and ask.)" Bastion agreed.
"Well first, where did you come from?" Fluttershy asked. "I haven't seen anything like you before." She pointed to Bastion.
"Chirp chirp, tweet, tweetweet. (We aren't from here, if that wasn't obvious enough, but something brought us here. I think it was a portal-" Fluttershy grimaced. "-that dropped us in.)" Ganymede explained.
"Chirp tweet, chirp... (And I'm a Bastion unit, specifically made to protect, but...)" Bastion trailed off.
Ganymede noticed the contemplative look on Fluttershy's face. "Chirp? (What's wrong?)" Ganymede asked Fluttershy. Bastion now noticed too.
"W-well I... You see, a couple of days ago a blue bipedal hedgehog named Sonic was brought here the same way... But h-he..." Fluttershy trailed off. She never liked talking about death. Bastion and Ganymede had a feeling they knew what she was going to say, or at least the basic idea.
"Chirp tweet? (Is there a way we can find out more?)" Ganymede asked.
"Yes, but... Could you stay here and keep an eye on the Cutiemark Crusaders while Bastion comes with me?"
Ganymede nodded, then turned to see if Bastion agreed and he did. "Chirp. (Stay safe.)" He said as he flew up to a window.
"Tweet? (Where to?)" Bastion asked Fluttershy.
Discord was deep in thought, thinking about why he couldn't do anything to the stone, or anything regarding the cave and Sonic for that matter. He continued to float back and forth, until he suddenly felt a faint tingle of magic. Either Peirha was upping her stealth game, or whatever caused the magic to activate wasn't prone to keeping magic on it. He teleported to where the magic roughly was and searched every rock, every bush and every bird! Wait what? He re-looked over the bird. It had some magical residue on it.
Did Peirha really just send a bird? Sure it was a relatively good thing, but it felt... Underwhelming. Discord floated up to the bird, who was on the windowsill, then spoke. "Why hello my little feathery friend." He greeted. The bird let out a chirp of panic, lept to the air, and hovered there for a moment. After a few seconds of simply stared at the mismatched creature in front of it, the thing spoke. "You know, staring's rude." Discord dramatically huffed.
"Chirp? (Hi?)" Ganymede tested.
"Yes I can understand you, but let's not get too carried away." Discord said as he turned tiny and a bigger version of himself carried him away. "Do you know how you got here? Also why are you peeking through the window?" He reappeared, still tiny, next to Ganymede.
The bird looked thoughtful for a moment. "... Chirp chirp, tweetweet chirp tweet. (It's a long story, but in short, my friend and me fell through a portal. Well he fell through and I followed.)" The bird explained off the first question. "Chirp chirp. (My name's Ganymede by the way.)"
"Nice to meet you, I'm Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony." He said formally, bowing. "You still didn't answer the window question though."
"Chirp tweet. (I was asked to keep an eye on three fillies that are in this room.)" Ganymede nodded to the room past the window, but neither actually looked.
"You were? By whom may I ask?" Discord tilted his head at a very unnatural angle, at least it would be for many other creatures.
"Chirp chirp. (A winged pony named Fluttershy.)" Ganymede admitted.
"Of course she would." Discord chuckled. "Where's this friend of yours?" Discord asked as he searched under a large matt of grass.
"Tweet chirp chirp. Tweetweet? (With Fluttershy, going somewhere. Do you know Fluttershy?)"
"Why yes. She's simply lovely! Anyhow, I'm gonna go find them, ta-ta!" And with that, Discord disappeared.
Ganymede looked back at the window... He jumped into flight when he saw three pairs of eyes looking at him, the owners of said eyes then promptly hid. After recovering he landed back on the windowsill and pecked the window, trying to tell the fillies that they're already found out. After a few moments of pecking, one of the fillies, Sweetie belle he remembered, came out of hiding and opened the window.
"Sorry for spying on you and Discord, mister bird, we were just curious." Sweetie belle admitted.
Ganymede found it somewhat annoying that she didn't seem to remember his name, but he couldn't really blame her, it was pretty foreign to... Pretty much everyone. He nodded his head in acceptance of the apology. Suddenly his stomach growled.
"Oh, are you hungry?" Sweetie belle asked. At this point, the other two fillies were in sight as well.
Ganymede simply nodded a yes. Little did he know, that one choice would lead to so many shenanigans.
12:05 am, second day.
Fluttershy and Bastion had made their way into Ponyville, both silent the whole way. The only noise was from every mechanical step Bastion took. All of the ponies instantly scattered upon seeing Bastion, hence the quiet. Fluttershy noticed that there weren't many ponies out to begin with.
"Sorry, it's just that the ponies of Ponyville are very... cautious." Fluttershy said, trying to lift Bastion's spirit. 'He doesn't have a spirit though... But he seems upset. How does something with no soul have emotions?' Fluttershy thought. She also noted that she didn't actually know if Bastion could be classified as male or not.
"Tweet chirp? (Why are they so cautious?)" Bastion asked.
"We have monster attacks very often, mostly on Tuesdays somehow." Fluttershy explained.
"Tweetweet? (What day is it today?)" Bastion asked, slightly worried.
Fluttershy abruptly stopped walking. Bastion turned around and saw a fearful expression on her face. "T-tuesday." She answered, now equally, probably more worried. They stood still for what seemed like hours, waiting for something to happen. Fluttershy then realized that it was around twelve midnight when they left the cottage, and appropriately facehoofed. "It's past twelve, so it's no longer Tuesday." She pointed out.
Bastion also realized this. "Broo. (Oh.)"
Suddenly, a wild Draconiquus appeared! Both Bastion and Fluttershy were startled, the ladder hiding behind the former in fright. The blue light in Bastion turned red as he immediately opened fire on the Lord of Chaos, unloading an entire clip into him. Fluttershy screamed as she saw the draconiquus get filled with holes, but breathed a sigh of relief when Discord promptly looked down at his swiss cheese body and took a bite out of his torso. "Hm, tastes like chicken."
"B-bastion, calm down!" Fluttershy told the machine as she saw him doing something with his dangerous firing arm. Bastion turned to her, the barrel of the gun aimed directly at her forehead. After a few tense seconds of Fluttershy having to unfortunately stare down the barrel of the gun, Bastion's lights flickered back to blue.
"Chirp. (S-sorry.)" Bastion apologized as he took a step back.
Fluttershy let out a shaky breath, then gave a mother-like glare at Discord. "As for you mister! Discord, what were you thinking suddenly appearing in front of us like that?" She scolded. Bastion noted Discord's name.
"Sorry, but I didn't expect to be shot at." Discord gave a glare to Bastion, seriously he poofed in a balloon with a glare drawn on it and gave it to him. Bastion for his part, ignored it. "Anyways, I came here to meet the newcomer, but he doesn't seem very friendly." Discord pointed at Bastion as the balloon popped.
Bastion was starting to consider shooting Discord again since he know knew it wouldn't kill him, but then he realized that if any bullets went past the mismatched creature then it could hit a pony. "Chirp chirp. (It's because you startled me.)" He said quietly.
"Do you not like being startled?" Fluttershy asked.
"Tweet chirp. (It's a bit more than that.)" Bastion replied, looking at the ground.
"You can t-"
"Tweetweet. (No I can't.)" Bastion interrupted.
'An emo robot. You don't see that everyday.' Discord mused. "Let's not start getting too heavy now." He told them.
Bastion nodded in agreement, he really didn't want to talk about it, especially since the ponies were already scared of him as is, and he didn't want Fluttershy turning on him either.
"Okay..." Fluttershy halfheartedly agreed. She didn't want to be nosy, and maybe whatever it is Bastion doesn't want to talk about is really bad, but she wanted to help him feel better... She was also just curious. "A-anyway, Bastion and I were going to Twilight's. Appearently Bastion also came through a portal... J-just like..." She trailed off. Discord's face went from slightly serious, to very serious. Bastion wondered why they were on edge about the portal, he also wondered who this other person Fluttershy hinted to was.
Discord glanced at Bastion. "What'd I say about getting too heavy?" He grumbled. "I'll keep an eye out for any threats." He said in a low voice, then vanished. Bastion was now definitely curious.
01:06 am, second day.
Ganymede flew above the CMC, all currently escaping a Hydra. He wondered how he got into this situation, that was until he was nearly hit by a fire ball, then he put his attention back on flying. The four of them saw a burrow under a large rock so they all jump in.
"Are we safe?" Applebloom asked Scootaloo, who was peaking out of the burrow.
"Looks like it." Scootaloo replied, stepping away from the entrance and sitting down. Her friends following suit.
Ganymede landed on Sweetie belle's shoulder, said fillie nuzzled him. "So now what? Do we just wait until morning?"
"Guess so." Applebloom confirmed with a shrug. "Unless we wanna take our chances with tha Hydra."
"I'd be fine with that rather than staying in this damp hole." Scootaloo sighed.
"If ya want ta be eaten, be mah guest, but me, Sweetie and the bird," Ganymede cringed at being called 'the bird'. "Are stayin' here."
Sweetie thought about correcting Applebloom on her grammar mistake, but quickly concluded that now's not the time. "Nopony should leave yet, it's too dangerous." Sweetie tried to interject.
"Fine, then when you finally decide to leave this hole and find me at the mountain, I'll say I told you so!" Scootaloo said arrogantly.
"Fine, but we'll at least have did it safely. S'better safe than sorry!" Applebloom shot back.
Sweetie felt like she had to do something, but Applebloom and Scootaloo would probably just ignore her. Luckily, she didn't have to say anything. "Sqauck! (Stop!)." Ganymede yelled, they may not have understood him, but it definitely stopped the arguing. It also hurt Sweetie's ears.
Applebloom and Scootaloo turned their attention to Ganymede, both confused as to why he suddenly squacked so loudly. Ganymede pointed at both of them, made movements with his beak to represent talking, then draped his wing over his head. It looked like what would otherwise be a facehoof. Essentially telling them that their arguing is annoying. Applebloom got what he meant pretty much immediately. Scootaloo, not so much, instead scratching her head in confusion. "What?" She asked, not sure what Ganymede's gestures meant.
Ganymede had already facewinged, so he just stared at her with a tilted head.
"He basically said to stop arguing." Sweetie Belle decided to summarize.
"Sorry." Applebloom apologized. "And Ah'm sorry that Ah basically said Ah wouldn't care if ya got eaten." She directed to Scootaloo.
Scootaloo huffed. "Well I have nothing to apologize for." She crossed her arms and turned her head away.
"What-do-ya mean you've got nuthin' to 'poligize fer?!" Applebloom got riled up again.
Sweetie groaned in annoyance. "Enough of this!" Sweetie snapped, startling Ganymede off her shoulder and standing up. "You two need to stop arguing before one of you do something you'll regret! We'll stay here until we know it's safe, then we can continue, but I don't want you getting hurt," She pointed to Scootaloo. "And I don't want you regretting the choice to let Scootaloo leave!" After that, she gave them a stern, but sincere look.
Scootaloo and Applebloom looked at each other, then simultaneously sighed. "Sorry." They both said guiltily.
Sweetie sat back down and joined the sighing group. "I'm sorry too, I just don't like seeing anypony fight." She apologized, downcast from having to yell at her friends.
"It's okay, we did kinda get outta hoof." Applebloom said, thankful.
"Yeah, well..." Scootaloo was probably about to disagree, but she stopped herself.
Ganymede landed back on Sweetie Belle's shoulder and nuzzled her.
"Thanks." Sweetie said with a small smile tugging at her lips.
It was three in the morning when a knock was heard at the door of the crystal friendship castle. 'It really needs a better name.' Spike thought as he begrudgingly got up, throwing his blankets of him and heading for the front door. Of course he had to get up early because of some conundrum, even though this was one the only days he was allowed to sleep in. He decided that he now simultaneously hates and loves Wednesdays.
He got to the front door rather slowly, wondering who in their right mind would knock at three in the bucking morning. He didn't even bother checking who it was through the slot in the door, instead just opening it. In hindsight, that wasn't a very safe thing to do. As he saw who was at the door, he had the initial thought to panic at seeing a giant metal... Golem? But he wanted to make sure he wasn't seeing things due to him being exhausted. He looked at the other guest at the door, who was Fluttershy, and decided to ask her if he was seeing things. "Fluttershy, is that a metal golem beside you?" He asked calmly, though that was probably due to how tired he was.
"I don't think he's a golem, but his name is Bastion." Fluttershy replied.
"Oh, okay." Spike turned around and kinda tried to run away in panic, but just ended up falling flat on his face. He was too tired to be scared.
Fluttershy rushed to his side. "Oh my! Are you okay?!" She asked as she gently turned him over, only to find him now asleep. She giggled at how easy it was for him to doze off so fast.
Bastion simply tilted his head. "Chirp tweet. (Well that happened.)"
Suddenly Twilight popped in with a teleport. "My motherly senses went off! Where's Spike?!" She snarled, making Fluttershy hide behind Bastion in fear. She knew not to mess with a mother bear's cubs and Twilight is the scariest bear of all, well not literally. Twilight saw Spike and immediately zipped over to him and checked if he was okay, only to find that he was sleeping. Twilight released a sigh of relief, then saw Bastion and gasped. "What are you?!" She questioned, her voice holding an aggressively defensive tone.
"..." Bastion went dead silent and his normally blue light on his head turned red. He pointed his gun at Twilight, to which she held perfectly still just in case. Several tense moments passed as they stared each other down, neither daring to make a move. Luckily for everyone in the room, Spike started mumbling in his sleep, drawing the attention of Twilight and Bastion.
Bastion's danger protocol died down, making his 'eye' blue again and letting him lower his gun. Twilight saw this out of the corner of her eye and decided to loosen her defensive stance. She'd rather resolve a problem peacefully. They turned back to each other, now drawing in an awkward silence, well awkward for Twilight. Bastion on the other hoof just saw it as simple silence.
Fluttershy found now was as good a time as any to make herself known. Stepping out from behind Bastion she gave a small wave to Twilight.
"Fluttershy?! Are you with this, uh..." Twilight was in the middle of asking before realizing that she didn't know what the machine in front of her was.
"His name is Bastion, but I don't know what he is." Fluttershy explained.
"It talks?" Twilight raised a brow.
"Well no, but he can make bird noises. That allows me to understand him." Fluttershy then gave Twilight a disapproving look. "And don't call him an it."
"Fluttershy, to my knowledge machinery cannot have sentience. I don't even know how 'he' exists. The technology is like nothing I've ever seen." Twilight began to ramble scrutinizing Bastion's chassis.
"Chirp, chitter tweet chirp. (If I may step in, Fluttershy can you translate what I say to her for me please?)" Bastion asked.
"O-okay." Fluttershy said with a nod. Twilight tilted her head at the machine, Bastion, and then looked at Fluttershy.
Bastion turned to Twilight. "Chirp tweet tweetweet chirp. (I am a Siege Automation E54 Bastion unit created by SST Laboratories.)"
Fluttershy's jaw dropped. She had no idea if she could translate that. "Uhm, he said 'I am a Siege, A-automation?.. E54? Bastion unit created b-by SSD Laboratories?' I think." She tried.
"Chirp, tweet. (It's SST, but otherwise you're correct.)" Bastion corrected.
"O-oh sorry. SST Laboratories." She re-said to Twilight.
Twilight took in the information and pondered if she recognized any of the names, which she didn't. "Is that dangerous?" She asked, pointing to Bastion's gun.
Bastion nodded.
"Is it lethal?"
Bastion nodded again.
"Could you have... killed me?"
Bastion nodded slower.
"Did you want to kill me?"
Bastion shook his head no.
"Then why did you point it at me if it could've killed me?" Twilight was slightly on edge now.
"Chirp tweet. Chitter tweetweet chirp. (It's part of my programming. If it deems something a threat then it will make me take the appropriate action.)"
"He said that it's part of his programming? And if it t-thinks he's in danger then it'll make sure he takes the appropriate action." Fluttershy translated.
"Does that appropriate action involve... Killing?" Twilight asked cautiously.
"Chirp. (Sometimes.)" Bastion replied without hesitation.
Fluttershy's eyes widened a little and she mumbled out the translation quietly. "S-sometimes."
Twilight stared at Bastion for several moments... Until they heard a knock at the door. "Who-" Twilight was about to ask who would knock at this time of hour when Discord suddenly fazed through the door.
"Discord?" Twilight and Fluttershy asked simultaneously.
"Why hello Twilight, Fluttershy and Bastion. I was simply scourering the area when I caught glimpse of a pegasus royal guard flying here." Discord explained. "I just thought you should be prepared."
"Why were you scourering the area? Better question, why is a royal guardspony coming here?" Twilight asked.
"Well I was just making sure our new guest is safe." He gestured to Bastion. "Also how am I supposed to know why sunbutt sent a pony from her personal possy?" Discord scoffed.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Then how do you know about Bastion?"
"I met him earlier today." Discord answered, waving a question mark off his shoulder with his paw.
"Did you see anything that could be dangerous?" Fluttershy asked.
"Nope." He shook his head.
"Oh, I just remembered! Bastion came through a portal, just like Sonic." Fluttershy suddenly blurted out, she wasn't loud, but it still startled Twilight.
"He did?!" Twilight asked, surprise quite obviously showing. Just then there was another knock at the door, but this time everyone had a feeling they knew who it was. Twilight let out a sigh and got up to answer the door.
"We probably shouldn't let the guard see Bastion." Discord smugly pointed out. To which Twilight, while annoyed by how smug Discord sounded, knew he was right.
Twilight let out a longer sigh. "Okay, then just teleport him and yourself somewhere else." Twilight then continued her short trip to the door. She heard a pop and saw light travel past her, syndicating that Discord and Bastion had disappeared. She opened the door and saw a grey pegasus royal guardspony.
The guard bowed. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, I have been sent here to inform you that the Changelings have attacked Vanhoover. Princess Celestia is personally overseeing the defense." The guard quickly explained.
"What!?" Twilight and Fluttershy gasped.
02:43 am, second day.
"General Hardwood, what is the state of the front line defense?" Princess Celestia asked the general, he had recently re-entered the Townhall to give a status report.
The brown earthpony named Hardwood, general of the Vanhoover gruop of the royal guard, saluted to the Princess. "We're not doing well, the Changelings are really hitting us hard. We may need to actually use are weapons." He report solemnly. While his ponies and him may have been trained for something like this, he still wasn't sure if he could take a life.
"No, we don't. continue to hold them off." Celestia replied sternly. She didn't want her subjects to have to kill anyone, it was to big a burden. "You." She pointed to one of her personal guard. "Tell my sister to send reinforcements. Also tell Twilight to be prepared in case the Changelings attack Ponyville."
The guard nodded and immediately left for Canterlot.
"Princess, with all due respect we've already had good amount of casualties. If we don't fight with equal force then more ponies could die!" Hardwood pleaded.
Celestia hung her head and after several seconds, conceded. "Fine, but only kill if you have to."
Hardwood saluted, then ran out of the Townhall to give the new orders.
"I'm sorry my little ponies." Celestia whispered.
03:56 am, second day.
There was a resounding poof as Bastion found that he was now in... A bathroom.
"I really hate that this was the first place that came to mind." Discord mumbled.
"Chirp tweet. (So how will we know when the guard leaves?)" Bastion asked.
"Oh it takes just a simple spy- I mean observation spell!" Discord corrected himself.
If Bastion had an eyebrow to raise, then it would be very high right now. Discord cast said spell, summoning a orb in the air as it showed Fluttershy and Twilight gasping 'what?!'
"Does she need any help?!" Twilight asked the guard.
"I've already informed Princess Luna to send reinforcements. And Princess Celestia wanted me to tell you to prepare in case the Changelings attack Ponyville." The guard quickly responded.
'Changelings are attacking somewhere?' Discord has had enough death for one lifetime. 'Of course my magic had to be nerfed as a war started.' He thought with an annoyed huff, drawing the attention of Bastion for a second.
"If you excuse me Princess, I need to head back." The guard said.
"Right." Twilight responded, clearly more in her thoughts than reality. The guard turned around and flew off into the night?.. Morning darkness? Discord decided to instantly teleport himself and Bastion back into the castle, startling Fluttershy and catching Bastion off guard. Twilight turned to Discord with a look of realization. "Oh of course! You can stop the Changelings in a tip of the hat! Literally!"
"... About that..." Discord said as he scratched the back of his head.
"Wait, are you going to tell us that you won't help us?" Twilight asked Discord, giving him a hard glare.
"It's not that I don't want to, but..." Discord began to think on how to tell them about Peirha. "I know what or rather who brought Sonic into Equestria. I also think she's responsible for bringing bastion into Equestria too." Discord explained.
"Not that I'm not intrigued, but how does this relate to you not being able to help?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"I'm getting to that." Discord huffed. "I've been keeping an eye on her, but after Sonic-... Point is, I was somewhat angry. I teleported to her and eventually tried to make her poof away, but nothing happened. So I decided to give up after that. I tried using my magic later, but it wasn't working for some reason. I think I may know why though." He explained.
"Do you think that when your magic connected to hers, that it somehow nullified you magic?" Twilight deciphered. "But how could that happen?" Twilight asked herself more than anyone.
"In short, yes. But I still can use magic and chaos magic, it just isn't nearly as strong." Discord answered. "So in short, I can't help much more than anypony else."
Suddenly they heard Spike start stirring from his slumber. "Oh, we kinda forgot about Spike." Fluttershy said, pointing to the small drake.
"How did he sleep through all that?" Discord asked.
"I guess he was really tired." Twilight shrugged.
Spike's eyes slowly opened and he sat up. After his vision cleared he saw everyone in the room. He aptly scratched his head in confusion, then asked. "What'd I miss?"
Reporting on test two, Intermission: It seems that everything is going well this time aside from the Changelings attacking. At least Bastion actually survived the first day, unlike our first guest. I wasn't expecting the bird to follow Bastion, but hey, the more the merrier. The only trouble it causes me is having to monitor two events at once.
There's another thing that wasn't expected though. Discord tried to interfere with my plans, but I'm happy to note that it worked. It was capable of taking away most of Discord's power. To my knowledge, I'm safe to continue experimenting.
In Vanhoover, the first battlefield of the war. Ponies were dying left and right, meanwhile Changelings were obviously winning. Celestia, in the townhall, was beginning to fear that she'd need to fall back from Vanhoover. Suddenly a messenger came into the room.
"Princess Celestia," The messenger said as he bowed. "I have urgent news!"
"What is it?" Celestia asked.
"Manehatten has just caught sight of a Changeling swarm heading their way."
That was news she didn't want to hear, this war just became more difficult. "... Tell them to hold out as long as they can. If we can win this battle then we can send a battalion of Pegasi to flank the changelings." Celestia ordered.
"Right away" The messenger said, then sped away.
Celestia came to the conclusion that they had to win this battle. Which meant that she had to let her army use anything available. "You," She pointed to a gray Unicorn guard. "Spread the word to the other soldiers that they're aloud to use their spears at all times." She told him. The guard nodded, then ran towards the battlefield.
Celestia heaved a sigh.
5:45 am, second day.
The CMC had woken up an hour ago and continued their treck to the mountain. But they seem to have hit a bit of a snag.. "Why did we try riding a Kragadile!" Sweetie Belle screamed to her friends as they ran from said beast.
"Ah dunno, Ah was followin' Scootaloo's plan!" Applebloom responded.
"Why did you think my plan was okay!?" Scootaloo asked.
"'Cause Ah wasn't thinkin'!"
"This way!" Sweetie yelled, leading them into a cave system. They stopped and saw the Kragidile fail to fit through the cave entrance.
Everyone sighed. "Wait, where's the bird?!" Scootaloo asked, sending herself and Applebloom into a panic. Sweetie Belle on the other hoof, was not amused.
"He's right here on my back." Sweetie turned to show them. Ganymede waved a hello.
"Oh."
"So now what? We're tarpped by a monsta again." Applebloom pointed out.
"Well, this cave system seems to lead to the other side of the mountain, so we should continue going." Sweetie suggested and Ganymede agreed.
"Well we can't go back anyway." Scootaloo said, pointing to the Kragidile still trying to get through the entrance.
"Good points. Ah guess we'll follow tha cave then." Applebloom said with a shrug. And so they set off deeper into the cave.
6:02 am, second day.
Bastion had began to write to communicate with Twilight so that Fluttershy wasn't needed. Meanwhile Discord watched from a corner. Fluttershy walked over to the Draconiquus with Spike following suit.
"So, if I heard rightly, then your power is not as strong as it use to be?" Spike asked Discord.
"Unfortunately, yes. But look on the bright side, I won't be annoying you as much!" Discord stated, then drooped. "Well that's not exactly a bright side for me, but" He popped up again. "At least I still have my personality." He pressed a fist against his chest.
"Well I'm just glad that nothing else happened to you." Said Fluttershy.
"So am I." Discord muttered.
As Fluttershy and Discord continued talking, Spike went over to Twilight and Bastion. "So who's this friend of yours?" Twilight asked Bastion.
Bastion quickly wrote down a reply. "His name is Ganymede and he is a Cockatiel Parrot."
"I think Fluttershy said something about meeting a parrot along with you." Spike suddenly pitched in.
"Yes, she did meet Ganymede." Bastion wrote.
"Where is Ganymede now?" Twilight asked.
"He should be at Fluttershy's cottage watching over the Cutiemark Crusaders."
"Wait, so you only left a parrot to watch over the CMC?" Twilight asked carefully.
Bastion nodded.
"Oh no." Twilight suddenly had a feeling of dread.
6:23 am, second day.
The CMC were walking through the cave, when a question suddenly sprouted in Applebloom's mind. "Wait'a second, why are we tryin' ta get ta thah top of thah mountain?" She asked.
"Because-... I don't know. Scootaloo, do you know?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Scootaloo sighed. "We're trying to find proof of a creature that lives at the top of the mountain." She reminded them.
"Oh." Both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom said. Ganymede didn't like the sound of that at all. He tapped Sweetie on the shoulder with his talon to get her attention.
Sweetie turned her head to Ganymede. "What's wrong?" She asked. Ganymede pointed a wing at Scootaloo, then facewinged. He then fell back playing dead. Basically saying that Scootaloo's idea could get them killed. "As long as we stay quiet we'll be fine." Sweetie whispered. Ganymede drooped his wings. "Don't worry, we'll be okay." She assured him.
They continued on down the cave. After several minutes they saw light at the end of the tunnel. Ganymede flew off of Sweetie's back and hovered in front of the CMC, telling them to wait. After receiving nods in response, Ganymede flew up ahead and out of the cave. He saw that right outside was a narrow path up the mountain, but the path was narrow for a reason. It dropped off into a very steep cliff.
Ganymede turned around to head back to the CMC, but he suddenly heard a loud and booming roar. He stopped for a few seconds in case anything else happened, when nothing did he flew back into the cave. As he got back he saw them talking.
"What was all that rumbling about?" Scootaloo questioned.
Sweetie Belle saw Ganymede. "Did you find a safe way up the mountain?" She asked him. Ganymede nodded. "Great! Also do you know what caused that rumbling?" Ganymede landed on the ground and imitated a monster by stomping around and spreading it's wings to make it look bigger.
"Are ya sayin' that ya saw thah monsta?" Applebloom asked the parrot.
Ganymede shook his head no, then opened his beak wide in a yelling motion. "You heard the monster?" Scootaloo asked. To that Ganymede nodded.
"That's probably all the proof we need, we shoul-" Sweetie Belle tried to say before Scootaloo cut her off.
"No, we're continuing until we get our Cutiemarks." Scootaloo said sternly.
"Ah know we want our Cutiemarks, but is it really worth nearly gettin' killed, multiple times?" Applebloom reasoned.
"Yes!" Scootaloo insisted instantly.
Her friends and Ganymede stared at her for a couple of moments before Sweetie spoke up. "Scootaloo, no. Cutiemarks may be important but we need to be alive to actually value them. Not just that but do you really want to keep putting us in danger?" She asked.
Scootaloo looked at all of them, and finally, her shell began to crack as she shrunk back. "I... No but..."
"But I'm not going to let you go alone either, it's too dangerous." Sweetie continued.
Now Scootaloo was beginning to tear up. "I'm sorry. I just want my Cutiemark so badly, and I wanted to help you two get yours too." She apologized.
Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle went to Scootaloo and hugged her. If it weren't for having a beak Ganymede would be smiling so hard right now.
Eventually they split from the hug. "So who wants to head back home and get grounded?" Applebloom asked with a smile. Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo raised their hooves. "Then let's get outta this here cave!" She declared and they all began the journey back.
7:46 am, second day.
The battle in Vanhoover had begun to settle down. The ponies held the defense effectively and obtained the upper hoof, driving the Changelings to flee. Now it was time to send reinforcements to Manehatten.
"General Hardwood, has the search and destroy team found any Changelings still in the city?" Princess Celestia asked the general.
"Yes Princess, but they were quickly eradicated." Hardwood reported. "The Pegasi squadrons are ready, tell me when and they'll be flying to victory!"
Celestia was glad that her little ponies still had determination. "Good, then send them and tell them that I wish them the best of luck." Celestia smiled. Hardwood saluted and went to the troop. Celestia sighed a sigh of relief, Vanhoover was safe and the losses came in as a surprisingly, but relievingly small amount. Unfortunately she expected the next fight to accumulate a lot more casualties on both sides.
Suddenly the messenger from earlier returned. "Your highness, Manehatten has come in contact with the enemy! Fortunately they have been able to defend well and the Changelings have already began to route." He informed.
Celestia nodded. "Good, then the Pegasi squadron should be the last step to have successfully defended both Vanhoover and Manehatten."
Meanwhile, on the opposing side of the battle. "What do you mean they pushed us out of Vanhoover!?" The Changeling Queen, Chrysalis bellowed at one of her generals.
"W-well we weren't expecting them to start killing. The ponies had never before shown that they were even capable of doing so." The general futilely explained.
"Yes they have! They just haven't for a good five hundred years. I have half the mind to impale you on your own horn." The Queen threatened. "You know what, I think I'll do just that." She said with a wicked grin.
The screams of the poor Changeling general could be heard throughout the entire hive.
8:03 am, second day.
"Where could those fillies had run off tah?" Applejack asked herself. She had seen Twilight, Discord and Spike searching frantically earlier and decided to ask what was wrong. She was pretty upset when she heard that the CMC had ran off to do... Whatever, probably more crusading. But right now she was more worried than angry.
"I should've known a bird couldn't do a Draconiquus's job!" Discord pouted.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Spike asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Why babysitting of course! How was a bird suppose to babysit three hyperactive children?!" Discord berated himself.
"Well, Ah hate tah say it but from what ya'll said it sounds like it was Fluttershy's fault." Applejack pointed out. Discord gave a 'honestly' scary glare to Applejack, but said nothing more.
"Maybe, but at least she didn't leave them completely alone." Twilight pitched in.
They continued their search for a while until the only place close to Ponyville left to search was. "The Everfree Forest." Everypony sighed out at once.
"Again? Really?" Spike groaned. "What's with them and wandering into dangerous places? Specifically the Everfree Forest!"
"Child curiosity?" Applejack offered.
"Seems about right." Discord shrugged.
"Whatever the case we need to find them! Who knows what trouble they coul-" Twilight was suddenly interrupted by a loud screech. Everypony's ears were ringing.
"What made that awful noise!?" Discord yelled out a question.
"It sounded like a Hydra from Froggy Bottom Bog!" Twilight answered.
Well everypony's ears hurt except for Spike. "The powers of dragon ears." He said smugly.
After recollecting themselves they headed to Froggy Bottom Bog, hoping both that the CMC were there, and that they weren't. Unfortunately for them they found that the CMC, and Ganymede, were there, and were being chased by a Hydra. Ganymede turned around and flew right at the Hydra. The Hydra tried biting Ganymede only for Ganymede to dodge out of the way, making the Hydra eat nothing but air.
The CMC spotted Twilight & Co. and they gallop to them. "Girls, what are you doing in Froggy Bottom Bog?!" Twilight asked worriedly.
The CMC all looked at each other, then Scootaloo sighed. "I wanted to try and get our Cutiemarks in monster hunting, or exploring." She admitted. "I'm sorry."
Applejack shook her head. "We can worry 'bout punishments later. Right not there's a huge Hydra comin' this way!" She pointed out. Everypony turned to see the Hydra, Ganymede was still distracting it.
"I'll help Ganymede distract the three headed orange peeler!" Discord volunteered with a raised paw and a mischievous look.
"That's fine with me." Opted Spike.
"Even with your powers weaker you should be able to take hits and be just fine." Twilight analyzed to Discord, who in turn rolled his eyes.
"Well duh. I wouldn't have volunteered if I didn't think I'd be safe." Discord groaned.
"Oh jus' go and help thah bird already!" Applejack scolded.
"Fine, fine." Discord grumbled as he flew up to the Hydra and started dancing to distract it. And distract it he did. He did a dance in the air, confusing the Hydra.
"Come on, let's go." Twilight called everypony to her, then teleported all of them and herself away.
The Hydra was done being confused, so one of it's heads lunged forward, trying to bite Discord. Discord easily slithered through the air, avoiding the Hydra's jaws. "You're going to have to try a little harder than that." Discord taunted. Another one of the heads opened it's mouth and huffed a fireball at Discord. Discord summoned a steel bat which he used to whack the fireball back at the Hydra.
Ganymede flew over to Discord. "Chirp tweetweet. (We need to lead it back to it's den.)" He told Discord.
"Do you know where that even is?" Discord asked Ganymede with a skeptical tone.
"Chirp, chitter. (Yup, you get his attention then follow me.)" Ganymede confirmed, then flew around the Hydra who had now recovered from the fireball.
Discord flew up to the Hydra and tapped it on the snout. "Betch'ya can't catch me~ " He sung as he flew in circles around the Hydra. The Hydra tried swinging it's tail at Discord, but missed completely. Eventually it began trying to keep up with Discord's circling, but that only made it dizzy. Discord stopped circling it and flew a short distance away. The Hydra also stopped spinning and began stumbling around, trying to chase Discord.
The Hydra shook off it's dizziness from all three heads, then it ran at Discord, but the Draconiquus just kept flying further away. The Hydra began running right through rock formations and trees, trying to catch up to Discord. It also began breathing fireballs at him. Discord slithered through the air, avoiding terrain and fireballs while following Ganymede.
Eventually they reached the Hydra's den and Discord caught up to Ganymede. "So how do we keep it here?" Discord asked Ganymede.
"Chirp. Tweetweet. Chitter chirp. (Simple. You can teleport us out. The Hydra won't know where Ponyville is from here.)" Ganymede explained.
"Oh. That's surprisingly easy." Discord observed. He then teleported him and Ganymede back to the Friendship castle. Upon arrival they saw everypony there, safe. Including Fluttershy who gave Discord a bearhug the second she saw him.
"I was so so so worried when they said you stayed behind to distract the Hydra! I didn't know if you could get hurt now because of your weakened powers." She somehow hugged him even tighter.
"And I don't want to find out!" Discord wheesed out.
"Oh sorry!" Fluttershy quickly let go of Discord, who promptly fell over. "I guess that's a yes." Fluttershy sighed.
"A yes about what?" Discord asked as he stood back up.
"About you being able to get hurt." Fluttershy lowered her head.
"Oh. Yeah that's probably not good." Discord stated.
Meanwhile Ganymede flew over to literally everyone else. He saw Applejack be absolutely in awe at the sight of Bastion, Applebloom trying to snap her out of it. Twilight and Spike were talking to the other two members of the CMC. He decided to go over to and land on Sweetie Belle's back.
"So let me get this straight, you three went to Froggy Bottom Bog because you wanted to find proof of a new monster?" Twilight inquiried.
"Yeah. We were hoping to get some sort of Cutiemark by doing it." Scootaloo said. "Though mostly me." She admitted ruefully.
"Hey, me and Applebloom were the ones who didn't do or say anything earlier." Sweetie tried lifting Scootaloo's spirits.
"Chirp!" Ganymede nodded in agreement and ruffled his wings. He knew he could have dealt with the situation better.
"Well at least you learned some things." Spike chipped in with a smile.
"I agree." Said Twilight. "But at the same time I'm forbidding you girls from going to Froggy Bottom Bog ever again. Your family and I don't want you to get hurt." Spike noticed Scootaloo's eyes get slightly misty, but concluded that it was because everypony was worried about her.
"Okay." Scootaloo said with a forced smile. Twilight wasn't able to notice since a new voice entered the conversation.
"Well Ah think ya'll were mighty brave." She congratulated the CMC as she and Applebloom came into sight. "But you're still grounded" She told Applebloom sternly.
"I hope Rarity won't be too mad." Sweetie Belle said while hanging her head.
"Nah. Knowin' her she'll pretend tah be mad when she's really jus' worried for ya well bein'" Applejack said with a chuckle.
Ganymede looked behind Applejack to see Bastion, then flew over to him. "Tweetweet? (So how have you been?)" He asked the robot.
"Beep. Bwoop buu bweep. (Relatively fine. Everyone here is so much nicer than the people on earth.)" Ganymede nodded in agreement. "Bweep boop bwop. (But I still want to know who sent us here and why.)" Ganymede nodded once again.
Suddenly a burp, green flames, and a letter came from Spike's mouth. Both Ganymede and Bastion took a moment to process that. "A letter from the Princess?" Twilight asked herself as she caught the letter in her magic before it hit the ground.
"Do'ya have any clue why?" Applejack asked Twilight.
"That's because we were recently told that the Changelings attacked Vanhoover and that we should be prepared just in case they decide to attack Ponyville." Discord dumped the exposition on Applejack.
"Wait what?!" Applejack yelled as her eyes widened. "And nun' o' ya'll thought it'd be a good idea ta tell me?! Or the others?" She inquired.
Little did anypony else in the room knew, Twilight had read the full letter. "Sorry Aj. But first I'd like to declare that Vanhoover has been successfully defended. Second; again sorry. I was just so enamored by Bastion's technical design that I completely forgot about the Changelings. I should have told you and the other girls." Twilight apologized.
Applejack sighed. "Well 'least you're sorry. But we should tell tha others now."
"But Rarity's out of town." Sweetie Belle chipped in. "How will we tell her?"
"Well she is in Canterlot, I imagine that Luna has told her." Twilight answered. "Spike and I will tell Pinkie. Fluttershy, can you tell Rainbow?" She asked, to which she got a nod in response.
"Well in tha meantime, you have a good groundin' ta get to." Applejack told Applebloom with a smirk. Getting a pout from Applebloom in response.
"I'll probably be grounded too." Scootaloo said while rolling her eyes.
"Uhh, what about me?" Sweetie asked.
"Oh I'll be up for babysitting!" Discord exclaimed, raising a paw. Everyone gave Discord a stern look, even Sweetie Belle. "Or not." He spun around.
"Then on second thought I'll keep an eye on you." Twilight told Sweetie. "Spike, do you think you could tell Pinkie by yourself?" She asked.
Spike saluted. "Aye aye!" He exclaimed. And with that, they split off.
10:32 am, second day.
Princess Celestia had just finished her final evaluation on the battles and was now on her chariot back to Canterlot. She had also sent a letter to Twilight, telling her that Vanhoover is safe for the time being.
As she arrived at the castle she saw Luna there, ready to greet her. "Hello sister, how have you been since I left?" Celestia asked.
"I could be doing worse." Luna joked. "I have informed Rarity of the situation and she has said that she will be going back to Ponyville within the day."
Celestia nodded. "Of course." She stepped off of the chariot and began walking into the castle with her sister. "Has there been any new reports from Twilight regarding the magic disturbances?"
"Not yet, but I have no doubt that she will soon." Luna answered. The two sisters walked into the castle, both receiving bows from the guards at the door. "If I may ask... Do we have a estimation on the casualties?" She questioned Celestia carefully.
"The Changelings lost approximately over two thousand troops." Celestia answered readily.
"I... I meant our casualties." Luna corrected.
"... Over five hundred." Celestia continued to not make eye contact with Luna.
"... Right." Luna knew how much losing so many subjects at once affected Celestia. It clearly hurt her, but there wasn't much Luna could do other than help in any way she could. They made it to the throne room and Celestia simply sat down on hers.
Suddenly green flames came through a slightly open window, and rolled into a letter. It landed right at Celestia's hooves. She levitated the letter to eye level, seeing a look of 'I told you so' on Luna's face before it was blocked by the parchment.
"Dear Prin Celestia
I have recently found that a machine named Bastion, alongside a bird named Ganymede, has been brought to Equestria the same way Sonic was,. Not just that, but Discord has recently informed me of where the supposed source of the magical disturbances is. He tried interacting with it, but it somehow blocked out Discord's magic, as well as either took most of it, or nullified most of it.
If this magic anomaly, or Peirha as Discord calls it or her, is so strong as to weaken Discord this much, then I am very concerned for what else it can do.
I also was concerned for you in general. The defense at Vanhoover seemed to last quite a while, and I can't imagine it was easy for anyone there. But I'm certain you can handle it, you have to of been through much worse in your lifetime and I'm sure this is nothing compared to those times.
Your friend, Twilight."
Celestia couldn't help but smile over Twilight's concern, but also be intrigued that Twilight knew where the anomaly was. Luna noticed the look on her face and giggled. "Well it looks like someone is in a better mood."
"Yes, it seems that Twilight has discovered where the source of the magic anomaly came from." Celestia confirmed. "I'm looking forward to when she finds out more about it. But I am worried about one thing she mentioned."
"What is that?" Luna asks.
"She said that the anomaly is so powerful that it can drain Discord's magic." Celestia continued worriedly.
"That doesn't bode well." Luna remarked.
"No... No it doesn't." Celestia agreed. "Hopefully it's draining capabilities doesn't translate into it's actual power, but magic doesn't just disappear. Especially that large of an amount." Luna simply nodded an agreement.
11:03 am, second day.
Spike arrived at Sugercube Corner, ready for a surprise at any moment. He entered the bakery, seeing several customers either eating sweats at one of the several tables, or buying said sweats at the counter. He saw that Mrs. Cake at the counter.
"Mrs. cake, do you know where Pinkie is?" Spike asked her.
"She's upstairs in her room, she's obviously upset about something but she wont tell us what." Mrs. Cake answered. "I'm sure that if anyone could help her, it would be a good friend like you." She was quite obviously telling Spike to try and help Pinkie cheer up, which he was happy to do.
Spike went upstairs and knocked on Pinkie's door, he soon heard a "No one's home!" from inside the room. He rolled his eyes and knocked again. "Pinkie, it's me, Spike!" He called through the door.
A few seconds later the door swung open and Spike was quickly pulled into the room and in front of a sad looking Pinkie. Complete with the drooped mane and all. "Fine, what is it?" She asked with disinterest.
"Twilight wanted me to tell you that the Changelings have essentially started a war with Equestria. She thought that you and the others should know so that you're ready just in case." Spike explained.
"Great." Pinkie groaned. "So now I know, can you leave now?"
"Well I was just gonna tell you then leave, but you seem... Sad. What's wrong?" Spike questioned.
Pinkie raised an eyebrow, like she expected him to know. When Spike continued to not say anything she decided to elaborate. "You... You should know what I'm upset about."
Spike dug through his thoughts, finally landing on what he assumed to be the reason. "Is it because of... Sonic?" He asked. Pinkie slowly nodded with droplets of tears in the corner of her eyes. Spike patted her on the shoulder. "I don't know much, but from the rumors I heard... I don't blame you for feeling sad, I doubt anyone does. But just know that me, Twilight, and the rest of the girls are here for you. And probably Discord too."
Pinkie looked at Spike and allowed herself a small smile. "Thank's Spike." She then suddenly realized something. "Oh no! If I'm feeling this downy wowny frowny then imagine how Dashie must feel." She said with worry.
Speaking of which, Fluttershy had just arrived at Rainbow's house. She slowly flew up to the door and softly knocked. It took several moments but eventually she heard her friend ask "Who is it?" from inside the house. Thanks to it being made of clouds, it was extremely easy to hear through the door. Probably too easy.
"Rainbow, It's me." Fluttershy responded, starting to grow worried.
The door slowly opened, revealing a very frazzled and clearly tired Rainbow Dash. "Hi Fluttershy. Come in." Rainbow said with very little emotion, trotting away from the door right afterward. Fluttershy followed Rainbow in, closing the door behind her. She turned to see Rainbow who was no lying on her couch.
Fluttershy trotted to the couch and looked at Rainbow with high levels of concern. "Rainbow, a-are you okay?" She asked. Rainbow seemed to ignore her, but then she spoke.
"No." It may not have been much, but Fluttershy could tell that one word meant a lot. It may not have held much in tone, but it meant volumes in meaning. That one word spoke of so much pain, trauma, and sadness, that Fluttershy nearly teared up even though she didn't even know what Rainbow had been through.
"I'm sorry." As Fluttershy said that she began crying, not hysterically, but simple soft sobs. Rainbow didn't know why Fluttershy was crying, but goddamn it was contagious. She began tearing up as well, starting to let out all that pent up sadness.
They both sat there, crying for what seemed like hours. Eventually they both ran out of tears to shed, and they both felt a little bit better.
"Sorry, I know I had no reason to cry, at least not as much as you." Fluttershy apologized.
"It's okay. But damn is it hard not to cry when you're crying." Rainbow said. They both shared a giggle at the remark.
"But, I know why you're sad... At least I think I do." Said Fluttershy.
"Go ahead and guess." Rainbow encouraged.
"I-It's because of Sonic, r-right?" Fluttershy asked. "I-i remember when Pinkie gathered up me and the girls to go follow you two, b-but when we reached the Everfree Forest..." She trailed off.
"Yeah... I'd rather whatever happened stay forgotten." Rainbow sighed.
"You don't remember what happened?!" Fluttershy asked, concerned again.
"Don't worry my head's fine... But I think my brain just... rejected it. Y'know?"
"So your mind locked the memory away?" Fluttershy questioned.
"Parts of it, yeah. Doesn't mean that the outcome was forgotten though." Rainbow hung her head. "... I also remember someone else being there."
Fluttershy perked up in interest. "Do you have any clue who it was?"
"Other than the fact they were tall, no, not at all." Rainbow shook her head.
Fluttershy thought about it, but ultimately came up with nothing. Suddenly the reason she came here in the first place resurfaced. "Oh right! I originally came here to tell you that the Changelings have began war with us, and that you should be ready just in case."
"Sweet! I'm lookin' forward to kicking some plot so I can relieve some stress." Rainbow smiled while pounding her hooves together.
Fluttershy giggled. "Don't get too ahead of yourself."
"Meh, no promises."
4:26 pm, second day.
A knock was heard at the castle door for the fourth time this day. Twilight trotted to the door and opened it, finding an exhausted Rarity outside. "Rarity, come on in." Twilight led Rarity into the castle then used her magic to close the door. "I'm guessing the train ride wasn't pleasant?"
Rarity gave Twilight a 'what do you think?!' glare, then closed her eyes and sighed. "No it wasn't." She opened her eyes and suddenly looked like she had a lot more energy. "Anyway you most likely know why I'm here."
"For Sweetie Belle right?" Twilight presumed. Rarity nodded. "Okay, I'll be right back with her." And with that Twilight went to somewhere else in the castle.
Several minutes later and Twilight returned with Sweetie Belle and Spike in tow. Rarity instantly ran over and hugged Sweetie Bell, though it was more of a death grip. Meanwhile Spike tried to hold in his mirth.
"Oh I missed you so much!" Rarity cried.
"I could tell." Sweetie squeaked.
"If I may?" Twilight asked for attention. Rarity reluctantly let go of Sweetie and looked at Twilight. "I'm pretty sure Princess Luna already told you what's going on, but there's another thing I should tell you."
"Oh no. Is it something bad?" Rarity asked.
"Not really, but the CMC basically went to Froggy Bottom Bog to try and find proof of a monster. That includes Sweetie." Twilight explained.
Rarity narrowed her eyes and turned her gaze to Sweetie. Suddenly they became eyes of concern. "Are you okay?!" She worried as she hugged Sweetie again.
"Yes." Sweetie struggled to say.
Spike leaned to his right, towards Twilight. "I guess Applejack's right." He whispered, followed by a snicker.
Twilight rolled her eyes, but agreed.
After that, Sweetie went with Rarity back home, meanwhile Twilight continued to basically interview Bastion.
The rest of the day and most of the following day was uneventful. It mostly consisted of more questions and some much needed downtime. Eventually midnight of the third day came around. Twilight was in the middle of asking how Bastion actually functioned and he was about to write a lengthy reply when a rainbow portal suddenly opened and instantly sucks him in.
Twilight just stared, dumbfounded, until she finally came back to the real world. Unfortunately she was too late. She then remembered about Ganymede, maybe he wasn't gone yet. She rushed around the castle, trying to find the Parrot. Eventually she found him in the kitchen.
"Ganymede, the portal opened then sucked Bastion into it, when the portal opens for you then I'm hopping in too." Twilight quickly explained. Ganymede was somehow able to understand her, but he only continued to stay still, waiting for the rainbow spiral to appear. After some time, it did. And Ganymede was immediately swooped in. Twilight jumped through just in time as the portal closed.
*sigh* I wasn't expecting Twilight to jump through the portal. Unfortunately this means I'll have to retrieve her... Manually... I may as well send in someone else in the meantime. I may not be able to watch it in real time, but I'll still have the recording.
Hopefully nothing else unexpected happens.
Intermission 1: I hate this part of the job -part 1
"Dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit!" Peirha yelled as she searched through the thick and damp forest. She had been searching for at least two hours. Why did her boss forbid her from using her magic in the different worlds? It would make finding anyone that managed to leave Equis much easier, but nooooo. He said something about destruction but that's all she bothered to pay attention to.
Eventually, after almost another hour of searching, she heard voices. More specifically one voice and one tweet. Peirha continued her way past the green foliage and soon caught sight of her target, who seemed to be having a panic attack. She decided not to waste time, now that she found Twilight she was allowed to use her portals again.
With that knowledge she began to move her hands, but just then... She heard a growl. She immediately spun around, seeing a bare glaring right at her. "Oh fu-" Peirha was quite literally cut off as she became a hardy snack for the animal.
Peirha awoke back up in a random place in the forest. "-my life." She finished her sentence from before she became the bears turkey. She got up, dusted herself off, then continued on her very un-mary way.
She soon found herself staring out into a giant lake bed. There was even a waterfall to her right. Unfortunately she had to now find a way around the lake, which looked like it was gonna be much harder than it should've been. With that annoying thought in mind, she began swimming. Who needs to go around anyway?
... Apparently people who don't want to be eaten by piranhas, that's who.
This was it! This was going to be the time that Peirha would... She suddenly heard a familiar growl. She turned around and was met by a 'grizzly' sight. The bear almost seemed to smile as it it tackled her so that it could chew her face off.
Peirha was really getting tired of constantly dying, so you know what? Screw the bosses rules! He won't know if she's using her powers. That doesn't mean finding Twilight would be any easier though, especially now she could be anywhere. Nevertheless she began ripping holes through the dimension to find her... Probably not the smartest thing to do.
Ganymede was currently watching Twilight argue with herself for going through the portal without even really thinking. "What if it rejected my attempt to jump through, thus injuring me, or worse?!" She stressed. "Or what if we can never go back!?" She suddenly thought of the worst case scenario. "What if our home dimension gets destroyed because so many things are out of place now!?"
Ganymede hit a tree with his beak, drawing Twilight's attention to him and snapping her out of her panic... For now. "Right, right." Twilight said as she sat on her haunches. "I just need to calm down and think of this logically." She looked around and gathered her surroundings. "Ganymede, do you happen to know where we are?"
Ganymede nodded. "Okay, maybe we should find Bastion first. Where do you think we should start searching?" Twilight asked. Ganymede jumped into a flying motion, then began to lead the way through the forest. 'I hope this place isn't like the Everfree Forest.'
Spike woke up when he heard a loud wooshing like sound. He really didn't want to get up, but he was too curious not to. He slowly got up and began walking to where he thought he heard the noise. Suddenly he heard what sounded like galloping, then Twilight frantically speaking. Spike now picked up his pace. he entered the kitchen just in time to see Twilight jump through a rainbow portal right before it closed.
Spike stood there for several moments, trying to get a hold of his thoughts. After his brain put together what happened he ran to the spot where Twilight disappeared. His breathe became frantic. Knowing the nature of portals meant that Twilight was most likely fine, but he wasn't worried about that. He was worried about where it took her and if it was safe.
Spike took deep breathes, trying to compose himself. After that he left the kitchen in search for Bastion and Ganymede... Only to find nothing, he checked the left and right, up and down, but couldn't find the duo. He was now even more distressed, he had to tell somepony.
12:04 am.
Johnny Blaze was riding on his motorcycle through New York. He had heard that Madcap had been terrorizing Manhattan while fighting a certain merc with a mouth. Though honestly Johnny believed that they were both equally responsible. Now that he was close to the fight and could even see explosions going off, he decided now was the time to protect the innocent and punish the ones who have sinned.
Johnny drove into an empty alleyway, then began his hellish transformation. Hellfire started engulfing him and his bike. His skin slowly and painfully burned off, leaving only a dusty skeleton with flames emanating from every bone. His clothes and bike had changed as well, now looking as if they were made deep in hell. Multiple unneeded, but still dangerous spikes protruded from the shoulders on his leather jacket, and on the sides of his motorcycle. He was now...
Ghost Rider.
He drove out of the alleyway and towards one of the more recent explosions, leaving flaming tire marks in his wake. What he certainly didn't expect was for a rainbow portal to appear right in front of him. With no time to react he sped through.
As he exited the portal he saw what he could only describe as a wasteland. No civilization as far as the eyesocket could see. He drifted, doing a full 180 to try and go through the portal before it closed. Unfortunately it was already gone. He summoned his chain and through it into a circular motion, but nothing happened. Something was stopping him from traveling through dimensions. The good news was that it didn't look like he was in hell.
He began looking at his surroundings again, but this time he noticed a giant blue... Hive? That was to his right. The hive had holes in it that black creatures were entering and exiting out of. Just then he saw one of them spot him, then it hissed to the others. Word must have spread through the hive fast, as a entire swarm of them were suddenly charging towards Ghost Rider. He noted that this place didn't seem like earth either.
He conjured up a large fireball and blasted it at the bugs. Their swarm formation broke, but they were still focusing their at him. As they got closer they began shooting lazer beams at him from their... Horns. Ghost Rider pressed on the gas and he drove forward and avoided the beams. He took a sharp turn to the right, towards the swarm.
He drove under them and suddenly the flames he left behind bursted into the air, easily catching some of them on fire. They began dive bombing him, but he continued to drive forward. He suddenly turn his motorcycle and hit the brakes. As he did that he reached into his neck and pulled out his chain. He cracked it through the air, hitting all the bugs that were now on the ground.
"What do you mean some flaming demon is killing our troops!!?" The Changeling queen screamed at her informant. "Grrr, have those fools retreat immediately!"
Suddenly the rest of the creatures started to retreat back to their hive, scared for their lives. Ghost Rider simply looked as they flew off, then began driving in a random direction. He eventually passed the mountains and saw that he was now in a desert area. It wasn't very different from the wasteland, but he could see train tracks leading to a large town.
He followed the train tracks as he reverted back to Johnny Blaze. As he approached the town he noticed that the houses seemed unusually smaller than he knew any house to be. He disregarded that detail as he drove into the town, it had a very Texas-like style to it. It seemed like everyone here was asleep. Probably because of it being midnight.
He spotted a building that looked like the typical town hall and decided to get off his bike and walk towards it. As he walked he heard crickets, but other than that there was an eerie silence. He knocked on the door and almost immediately heard a. "Please don't hurt us." from inside. He was honestly confused by that, he wasn't in his Ghost Rider form... Was his leather jacket really that intimidating?
"I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just want to ask for directions." Johnny implored. He heard nothing but silence after that, but eventually a map was slid under the door. He decided that was the best he was gonna get, so he went back to his motorcycle and examined the map. The map looked like more of a illustration than directions, but it still gave him a, hopefully good, lay of the land.
He definitely knew now that he wasn't on the same earth as he was before. He noted that he was in Dodge City and that there were two fairly recognizable locations close by, they were both castles. Now should he be trying to meet royalty? Hell no. But he needed to find out how to get back to his world. And he had no other ideas as to what to do. He began driving towards the closer castle, which was in a place called Ponyville... Johnny resisted the urge to facepalm.
3:12 am.
Spike arrived at Rarity's house and loudly knocked on the door. After a few seconds the door opened and a tired Rarity looked like she was about to yell at whoever knocked at this hour, that was until she saw Spike looking very distressed. "Spike? What's wrong?" Rarity inquired, now worried about what Spike is so upset about.
"T-twilight went th-through one of the p-p-portals and I coul-couldn't find Bastion or Ganymede anywhere!" Spike unloaded as he wept.
Rarity hugged the baby dragon, trying to comfort him. She had no idea what to do about this. If Spike already searched the castle top to bottom than what could she do to help?.. Finally she decided to just make sure he's okay. "Come inside." Rarity said as she lead him inside. Spike went to a couch and sat down while Rarity went to make tea... And coffee.
All of Spike's thoughts went back to if Twilight was okay. Most of him was sure she was fine, but a part of him was sombrely skeptical. Rarity entered the room and levitated a cup of tea to Spike. He took it but otherwise continued to stare directly forward. Rarity sat down beside him and pulled him into a soft hug.
"Darling, I-... I'm sure Twilight's fine. She's delt with much worse than a portal." Rarity tried to reasure Spike.
"It's not the portal that I'm worried about, it's what could be on the other side." Spike explained.
"Even so, you must have faith that Twilight will be alright. That's all we can do for now."
"I know, but I wish I could do more." Spike said as he snuggled more into the hug.
'Me too Spike.' Rarity thought. They both began dozing of when they suddenly heard a loud roar-like noise from outside, startling them both awake. Rarity was the first to get up, then look out the window. She barely saw it, but it looked like a creature riding some sort of machine.
Spike rushed to the door and because of his dragon eyes he saw the human perfectly... 'Wait, human?' He double checked to make sure he wasn't seeing things. It was a human alright and it was heading for the friendship castle. "Rarity, it's going to the castle." He told her.
"Really? Then we must go and make sure it doesn't do anything to anypony." Rarity said as she lifted Spike onto her back and ran out the door, making sure to close it behind her with her magic. As they approached the castle they saw the human looking at the castle inquisitively. Rarity slid to a stop and bit her lip as she thought whether or not talking to the creature was a good idea.
Suddenly Spike hopped off Rarity's back and walked up behind the human. "H-hello? W-who are you and w-why are you here?" Spike asked nervously.
Johnny turned and looked for the person that the voice resonated from, then he looked down and finally realized it was a small lizard thing that apparently spoke. "... Huh?" He smartly asked.
Suddenly a white pony came up behind the lizard and... Also spoke. "Spike! You don't know how dangerous that creature may be!" She then looked at Johnny and took a small step back. "B-but I do hold the same line of questioning." Johnny was now utterly baffled. The talking lizard thing, apparently name Spike, wasn't too new of a concept to him, but a talking pony?
Johnny decided to answer them, hoping he could get some answers in return. "Uhh, I'm Johnny. Johnny Blaze and I... Don't really know how I got here." He admitted.
"Could you explain in more detail on how you think you got here." Spike suggested, starting to become less wary.
"Right well, I was riding on my motorcycle until a rainbow portal suddenly sucked me into wherever here is."
Spike grimaced, not even a day and another person has been sent to Equestria. "Hm. Why did you specifically come here?"
Johnny shrugged. "It was the closest place that I thought could get me a lead on where I am and maybe get back. Where am I by the way?"
"Why you are in Ponyville in Equestria of course." The white pony replied, gaining a nonplussed look from Johnny. "Oh right, where are my manners? My name is Rarity." She introduced herself.
"I don't think that's what he's confused by, Rarity." Spike corrected.
"Yeah, I'm more confused on the fact that this town is called 'Ponyville'. That's really on the nose." Johnny said.
"mm, I suppose so." Rarity acknowledged.
"Anyway." Spike grabbed the attention back to him. "The castle is currently... Empty. But I do know a few things about that portal that forced you here if you wanna know."
"Well it's better than nothing." Johnny shrugged. "What do you know?"
"Well the portals are created by a... Umm, stone? Named Peirha. As far as we know people, or maybe even creatures similar to you will continue being sent here. That's really the most we know about the portals." Spike explained.
"It is simply horrifying." Rarity stated with a hoof held to her forehead in 'anguish.' Both Spike and Johnny rolled their eyes.
"Well then, do you know if there's a way to get back to where I'm from?" Johnny asked.
"Well, not really. The only solution we know of is just waiting it out." Spike answered.
"Well that's just great." Johnny said sarcastically. A few moments of awkward silence passed until Johnny coughed to break the silence. "Well hopefully I won't be here long. Is there anything to do around here?" He asked.
"I can show you a cool board game called Oubliettes and Ogres." Spike suggested. Johnny simply raised an eyebrow.
"No." Johnny easily decided.
"Okay." Spike shrugged in understanding.
"Hold on! I suddenly came a realization!" Rarity exclaimed.
"What's that?" Spike asked.
"Every- uhh -one that this 'Peirha' has sent here has had some sort of quirk to them. What's yours Mr. Blaze?" Rarity inquired.
"Uhm, let's just say it's a 'burning' issue." Johnny said, obviously avoiding the question.
"Why darling, you can tell us, we won't judge." Rarity said.
"I'll uh, pass on that offer." Johnny reinforced.
"That's fine, if it's something you don't want to tell us about then that's your business." Spike agreed.
"Thanks. I guess I'll just roam the land then." Johnny said as he hopped onto his bike. "Oh by the way, do you know about these black bug-like creatures?" He asked. "I ran into a few when I arrived here."
Spike pondered this question for less than a second as the answer came to his mind immediately. "Do you mean Changelings?!" He asked. When Johnny nodded, Spike elaborated. "The Changelings are a species that feed on love and can change what they look like to imitate anypony. They are at war with us."
"Hm. Got it." He then revved the engine on the motorbike.
"Wait, where did you see them?" Spike questioned.
"It was in a place that was pretty much like a wasteland. I believe it's called the Badlands on the map I have." Johnny answered. He then drove off out of town, leaving behind a pony and a dragon now wearing an 'oh' on their faces. Johnny now had something to do. First; see if the Changelings are evil. second; if they are, weak havoc on them.
7:32 am.
Johnny Blaze approached the hive he had come across earlier, now intent on judging them. He wanted to come in peace and if they all mindlessly attack, then they're as good as dead. He stopped a mile away and waited for one of the newly dubbed Changelings to spot him. Eventually one did and word spread like wildfire through the hive once again. A smaller squad of Changelings approached him, not seeming entirely friendly.
"Who are you?" One wearing purple armour demanded.
"I'm Johnny Blaze, I come in peace." Johnny responded. The changelings all looked amongst each over, then swarmed Johnny and started gnawing at him. Johnny wasted no time transforming, burning any Changeling that had their teeth on him. Now they were only biting leather, bone, and flames. Ghost Rider breathed fire, making the swarm disband from around him. He then pulled his chain out of the fire in his mouth and whipped it at several Changelings.
Some more Changelings came out of the hive and started spitting out acid-like saliva at Ghost Rider, which only burned up as it touched his flames. He shot some fireballs at the bigger swarm, then drove his bike forward. The swarm tried swiping down at him, but he easily ducked under every attack. At one point he caught a Changeling by the throat and gave it... The Penance Stare. The Changeling felt all of the pain from the ponies that it had drained the love from and the ones that it had killed. Afterwards the Changeling burned to nothing but ashes and Ghost Rider put his focus back on avoiding attacks.
"AGAIN!!!" The queen howled.
"My queen, if this continues and it get's to the hive then... We won't stand a margin of a chance." The assistant drone buzzed with worry.
"Is everyling a weakling!" Chrysalis complained. "Fine. I guess if I want something done right I have to do it myself." She growled. "Get me a squad of drones and prepare my armour." She ordered. "In the meantime send out a group to distract the 'demon' and bring it closer to the hive."
Ghost Rider continued absolutely decimating the Changelings around him, or at least he was until they began changing their strategy. They weren't attacking him head on anymore, now they were flying in circles around him and occasionally attacking him in groups of two or four. Ghost Rider started swinging his chain above his head in a circular motion, making the Changelings have to split off from around him. He then whipped the chain at a through Changelings, easily hitting them. The swarm then began all going towards the hive, but Ghost Rider wasn't planning on letting them escape this time.
Ghost Rider drove after them and was about to throw a fireball into the group before a laser beam struck him in the ribcage and off of his motorcycle. He stood up and narrowly avoided another beam and whipped his chain in the direction the beam came from to see if he could hit whoever shot it. Instead he felt the chain get pulled and Ghost Rider had to dig his boots into the ground to not be pulled with it. He sent a large mass of fire down the chain eviscerating whatever was pulling him and allowing him to pull his chain back into a stable grasp.
From the hive came a larger Changeling that had armour on, it also had normal looking eyes... Or at least more normal than the other Changelings. It stared at Ghost Rider for several seconds, then spoke. "So you're the demon that my brood are scared of? How... Disappointing. I thought you would've been bigger, or maybe more menacing, but alas; my Changelings are simply idiots." The supposed queen lamented.
Ghost Rider decided that he had enough with her attitude and swung his chain at her. Chrysalis' eyes widened as she had to actually remember that this creature, while not as threatening as she had hoped, still killed a good few of her subjects and that she had to dodge. After getting her barrings and getting into a low stance, she shot a beam at Ghost Rider. The rider simply tilted his head, avoiding the beam with great ease. He suddenly bolted forward and was in front of Chrysalis in half a second. He cracked his chain down at her, but she jumped to the side and rolled into another jump, allowing her to spread her wings and hover off the ground.
She swooped in for a horn jab, but was sidestepped then kicked to the ground. She use her magic to lift the portion of the ground that Ghost Rider was standing on, making him have to jump off. Ghost Rider grabbed onto a Changeling's tail before he landed on the ground and threw it at the queen, but she grabbed the drone in her magic and rebounded it back at Ghost Rider. He simply whipped his chain through the Changeling and at Chrysalis who rolled onto her hooves and shot a wave of magic at the rider.
The wave knocked Ghost Rider off his feet and away from Chrysalis, giving her some breathing room. As Ghost Rider landed he saw more changeling coming at him, several blasting beams. He avoided the beams and whipped any Changeling that got near, all while charging at Chrysalis. The queen shot another beam at Ghost Rider and actually got a hit, which knocked him right into the fangs of the swarm behind him.
After a few moments of the pile of Changelings mauling the skeleton, Chrysalis assumed him to be dead, or at least not a threat anymore, but she was oh so wrong. Suddenly the swarm of Changelings were sent rocketing off of Ghost Rider, who now was sat atop his motorbike and giving a deadly glare to Chrysalis, even though he didn't have eyes. The queen on the other hand, was now thinking whether running was a viable option.
Just as Ghost Rider was revving the engine on the bike, the portal opened up and dragged him back into his world, leaving a confused but relieved Chrysalis to stare at where he once was.
Spike and Rarity were now inside the castle, simply waiting, when suddenly they hear a familiar wooshing noise, which Spike rushed towards.
Intermission 1: I hate this part of the job -part 2
Peirha was still having trouble finding Twilight, even after she tore through the dimension like a chainsaw. After a few more minutes, she finally found something. Bastion. He was roaming through the forest, probably trying to find his Parrot friend. Seeing this gave Peirha a wonderful idea.
Twilight and Ganymede had just reached an open area in the forest. In the canopy they saw a large castle, obviously in ruins. Twilight was drooling at the sight of such an old structure, human no less if what Bastion said, or wrote was true. Ganymede flew in front of her view, reminding her of why they came to this specific spot.
And now that Twilight observed more than just the castle, she saw just how good of a vantage point it was. The canopy was huge and a great place if Bastion wanted to be spotted by them. Just then gunfire was heard, it sounded like it was coming from somewhere near the castle. Without even looking at each other, both Twilight and Ganymede flew down towards the castle.
As they approached they heard more gunfire, it sounded like Bastion was trying to tell them where he was by sound. Eventually they were close enough to see the bullets fly into the sky, allowing them to track down where Bastion was more easily. They saw that the bullets were coming from the opposite side of the castle, thus they went around it.
They found the presumed spot, only to find a powered down Bastion. But not the one they knew, this one was red and looked like it'd been powered down for quite some time. Suddenly the rainbow portal reappeared and begun to drag Twilight in. She used all her strength to dig her hooves into the ground, then she flapped her wings to assist her from being dragged.
Ganymede grabbed onto Twilight's ear and tried to pull her away from the portal, but only ended up tearing a part of it off. The sudden pain made Twilight lose her grip and her flapping become rapid, allowing for the portal to easily suck her in. Just as the portal closed, the sky darkened and the sun began to glow bright. Earthquakes rippled through the earth and Ganymede could feel every aspect of life be drained away by... Something... Something not rig
Twilight was chucked into a wall by the portal, then slid to the ground as it vanished. She felt like every bone in her body was aching, in fact she could tell that one literally was. She slowly but painfully moved to look at herself. Most of her coat looked fine other than a few scuff marks, but her left wing on the other hoof... She passed out, either because of the sight of her mangled wing, or because of the portal's unstable magic.
Either way, she knew that Bastion and Ganymede's dimension was gone. It was somehow erased from existence, she could feel it. She passed out right then. Right after, Spike entered the kitchen because of the noise the portal made and saw Twilight. He immediately ran over to her and made sure she was breathing, then turned to Rarity, who just entered the room.
Well Twilights back... With a few scars. I honestly didn't meant to destroy that universe, of course it wasn't Overwatch's core universe, it was only one of many in the multiverse. But nevertheless, it's gone.
I guess that's why the boss didn't want me to abuse my powers, oh well, as long as I don't tell him he won't know.
Either way, subjects 2-a and 2-b's universe has been destroyed.
........ I missed Ghost Rider kill a bunch of Changelings and be a baddass!? Ugh, anyway's the test seemed to go well and the Changelings are really scared now... Wait the test only ran less than a day?
Ghost Rider didn't die so why was he sent back early? Better question, how!? Grr I should have known something would go wrong in my absence... Well at least nothing went with him through the portal.
Subject 3 has survived and managed to kill a good number of Changelings. Further notes must be taken on how the system works.
'I've nearly got the next part finished, now I just have to get the Cominity device working and I can-'
"Peirha? Are you still working on that thing?"
"Oh, uh yeah... I am. Why do you ask?"
"Well I don't know if you noticed, but it's Christmas eve. Shouldn't you be on a holiday break or something like that? Everyone else is. Hell, even the boss is."
"But, I still have work to do and I need to keep a-"
"Nope! You're coming with me whether you like it or not!"
"Eeep! Jason! I'm pretty sure this qualifies as kidnapping!"
"I'm pretty sure you're not a kid."
"Gah, you know what I mean! I could just make a portal to escape you know!"
"Then why haven't you?"
"... Quiet you... And put me down, I can walk!"
"Why are we here, I thought we were going to celebrate Christmas, not look at... My mother's grave... Why did you bring me here?"
"Because family should always wish each other a merry Christmas."
"... No, this is a waste of time I could be using on my work."
"Peirha... You know you don't mean that."
"....... Look, I'm fine wasting time with y-... People who are alive, but there's no point in being here. C-can we just go?"
"*sigh*... Okay... If that would really make you happy then sure. Let's go, I had more things planned for you anyway. I'm sure you'll at least like those."
