“Justin, let go!”

The crash of thunder and the roar of the rain were deafening; the cliffside echoing the thunder’s crash and piercing the air.

“No!” Justin cried, “I won’t! I can’t!”

Vinyl’s grip lessened, and due to the pouring rain, Justin’s grip was
slipping.

“Vinyl! Hold on!” Justin called, trying to tighten his grip on the girl, a gesture, unfortunately, in vain.

Another five seconds pass, and Vinyl slips down another inch.

“Vinyl, grab back onto my hand right now!” Justin commands, looking down at her with a pained look on his face.

She slips another inch further.

“If I grab back on then we’re both gonna die!” Vinyl screamed, “Just let me go already!”

“No! I’ve already said that I will not let you go! Do you hear me, Vinyl Scratch?! I won’t!”

Justin’s hand had slipped all the way up her forearm, and now only
Vinyl’s limp hand separated her from falling.

Vinyl looked up, with tears in her eyes; running down her face with the cold rain.

“I love you, Justin.” Vinyl said, closing her eyes.

“Vinyl, No!”

Justin’s grip finally slipped, and Vinyl fell, a soft smile gracing her face.

<__*__>

I stood behind the black curtain. Only a thick sheet of fabric blocking me from the large crowd.

“Justin?”

I turned my head to see my stage manager, a short and odd man by the name of Jeremy Node.

“Yeah, man?”

“You’re on stage in,” Jeremy looked down to his tablet, “five minutes.”

“Got it.” I grunted.

Resuming my gaze back down to the holo-screen, I read down the article of a man who had disappeared in the year 1862.

He had an almost identical disappearance to the on that took me four years ago.

I read another paragraph of the article before turning off the screen and standing up to stretch.

Same odd light reported, not a single piece of evidence remained of him… And the town was someplace called “New Orleans.” It was apparently known for its paranormal activity. I read.

Then again, I thought grimly, it was during the time of the American
Civil War, so many people speculated that it was some Union soldiers who had taken him; so many people held their tongues and simply went with the more rational answer.

I grimaced. It could’ve very well been Union soldiers, and this could be just like the Titan Seven lead- a wild goose chase.

Jeremy stuck his head out of the curtain. “Your band is on in 30!”

“Better tuck that away for now.” I muttered under my breath.

I stared at the curtain blankly, drawing the concern of one of my band mates.

“Hey bro, are you alright?”

I glanced over at my friend and band mate, Alexis Rail.

“It’s nothing, Alexis.”

“You know I hate that name!” He fumed while punching me in the arm.
“I know, I know.” I said while laughing.

The two others, Josh Ferwood and Griffin Thorne, walked up behind us.
Josh wrapped his arm around both Alex and my shoulders, placing himself in the middle of the R3surrected-sandwhich.

“How’re my favorite party people doing tonight, eh?”

I pulled myself out of the drummer’s half-hug, and calmly put my HUD glasses on. I turned the outer opacity all the way up to ‘mirror’, and the glasses sparked an electric blue before slowly turning darker until they reached the point of being mirrors in front of my eyes. Surprisingly enough, they did nothing to distort or darker my vision.

Oh, had technology certainly advanced in the hundred years I’ve been gone.

I turned back to my band mates and grinned. “You guys ready?”

“Hell yeah!”

“You know it.”

“Did ya really have to ask?”

I parted the heavy curtain and walked on stage with a swagger in my step and my head held high. Behind me, my band mates were doing the same.

I made my way to center stage and grabbed the drop down microphone; I paused as my HUD glasses flashed an electric blue.

“How are you all doing tonight?”

The chorus and cheers and an overall cacophony answering my question pulled at the corners of my lips.

I turned back to my band mates briefly, before looking at the crowd, smiling wickedly. “Then let's hit it !”

<___*___>

Griffin shredded the last chord off of his guitar; ending the song with a powerful roar.

“How was that?”

Another cacophony of cheers and screams from the crowd answered the rhetorical question.

“Well, we’re glad to hear you guys and gals enjoyed it so much! Our next show will be in Los Angeles, on Earth, in two weeks! We hope to see you all there!”

The crowd cheered once again with renewed vigor as we jogged off of the stage.

We slowed to a comfortable walk as soon as we exited the stage, and Josh, being the most talkative of the four of us, tried to get us to speak up.

“So,” Josh questioned, “What’re you all doing for the week off that we have?”

“I’ll be down at the beach; God knows I haven’t been there in forever.” Griffin answered.

“Heh, you just want to hit on all of the half-naked chicks.” Josh jeered.

“Aw, leave him alone Josh,” Alex said.

“Yeah, at least he can get some. Unlike some of us here.” I smiled as we all looked to Josh expectantly.

“That was one time! And how was I supposed to know she wasn’t interested in men!” Complained Josh.

“Oh, I don’t know; maybe if you had looked next to her you’d have seen her girlfriend.” Griffin stated flatly.

“Hey!” Josh said quickly, “I realized that after the fact!”

“Heheh, yeah right.” We all laughed.

We said our goodbyes and parted ways; all of us going to our respective vacation locations.

I knew where I was going, and I needed to take a visit to one of the most haunted places know to man.

I was going to New Orleans.

<__*__>

Canterlot, Equestria

Celestia, the Regent of the Sun, The Sun Incarnate, Immortal goddess and Ruler of Equestria, was bored.

Simply bored.

After the whole dilemma with Blake and Justin a week ago, her mundane life of enforcing tariffs, passing laws, and overseeing royal courts had finally caught up with her.

Maybe I could raid the kitchens again… Celestia thought to herself.

Celestia quickly shook the thought out of her head. She had raided the Royal Kitchens for cake an hour ago.

Just as she was about to send one of her Royal Guards to the sun as an experiment out of sheer boredom, her sister, Luna, barged in through the door.

The guard would never know how close he was to an almost certainly fiery grave that day.

“Tia! I have found a way to view Blake’s world!”

The bored look on Celestia’s face was replaced with one of intrigue and curiosity.

“Really?” Celestia questioned, “How did you create this spell?”

“Well…” Luna trailed off.

“Lulu, what did you do?” Celestia asked, carefully, more out of concern than anger.

“I promise I didn’t do anything illegal this time!” Luna stammered quickly, “I simply used a magic trace sample that I had one of my Night Marauders, Lightning Dust, go and retrieve from your fight with Blake. I then used that to pin-point the ley line co-ordinates of Blake!”

Celestia nodded in a calm manner, after a bit of thinking. “Excellent work, Lulu. Using his own magic signature to find him. Brilliant.”

“Exactly!” Luna bubbled.

The Sun Queen stood up from her throne briskly.

“Well then,” Celestia smiled, “Let’s see how our favorite little headstrong young man is doing, shall we?”

Luna closed her eyes, and fired up the spell that she had dubbed, ‘The Shadow of the Moon,’ Her hands glowed a soft shade of blue, and a large rune began to etch itself into the marble floor of the castle throne room.

“Lulu,” Celestia said in an astonished gasp, “this is the most intricate spell I think I’ve ever seen you perform aside from raising the moon!”

Luna opened her eyes, to look to her sister and smiled, but otherwise kept her focus on the spell.

After several minutes of casting, the rune’s inner circle began an opaque mirror. It was almost as if it were a symbol of Satire, as the mirror showed all but the caster themselves. The mirror finally gave off a soft glow of blue before instantaneously becoming blank once again.

This time, however, the mirror depicted a world the likes of which neither of the princesses could imagine.

Earth: 2562.

<__*__>

Ponyville

"Spike!"

The green haired teenager flew out of his bed in a panicked fashion, holding onto the ceiling fan for dear life.

"What! Where's the fire! Was it Manticores! Oh no!" Spike wailed, "The other drakes are here to take me!"

Spike swiftly dropped from the ceiling fan and began running to the panic room before being enveloped in a purple haze.

"No. Nothing like that, Spike."

Twilight flew Spike inches from her face. "This is much, much worse."

Spike shivered unconsciously. "W-what could be worse than a Manticore attack?"

"Two Manticore attacks!" Pinkie Pie giggled as she appeared behind Twilight.

"Pinkie!" Twilight said, exasperated, "This isn't the time for jokes!"

Twilight dropped Spike unceremoniously on the floor, and began pacing around the lobby of the library.

"Aw," Pinkie groaned on the floor, "when is there not a time for jokes!"

"Princess Celestia is coming!" Shouted Twilight.

"Oh," Pinkie smiled, "then there is time for jokes!"

"Yeah," Spike said as he sat up from the floor, "what's wrong with Princess Celestia coming here? You seemed to have impressed her every other time."

"This may be true, Spike, but have you seen the condition of the library lately! Today's book shipment arrived exactly twelve minutes and forty-three seconds late; the books aren't in Tuesday's order either! They're in Monday's! That's not even counting all of the new checklists I'd have to make to sort all of these things out!"

Spike shrugged. "Maybe we could get the rest of the girls to help?"

"Oh, oh, oh! Yeah! That would totally make things go faster! Wouldn't they Twilight!" Pinkie bubbled.

"Oh! The girls! That's right! With my recent lack of checklists, I forgot that I need the girls here for the Princess! Pinkie-"

"Yes ma'am!" Pinkie answered, wearing an army helmet.

"How did you... Never mind. Pinkie, I need you to round up all the girls. This includes Vinyl as well. The Princess explicitly told me that she wished to have Vinyl present."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

"And as for you, Spike." Twilight said while floating several different books around her.

"Yes, Twilight?" said Spike, shoving himself to his feet.

"I need you to make sure all of these books are in order, using Tuesday's order please!"

"You got it, Twilight!"

"Alright," Twilight muttered happily to herself, "I may actually pull this off."

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted, however, as the sound of a teleportation gate and harsh white light flooded the library.

Author's Note

If anyone is wondering, this is actually the sequel to my previous story, Getting Home.

It is not necessary to read that story to read this one, but it may clear up some things.

To anyone who has read Getting Home and is reading this; Congratulations! Here's a cookie.

THIS WAS FOR YOU ALEX

Cover art: Me. Edited: Sanity.