Wanderer's Journey: Brony War!

by LonesomeWanderer

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Main 6, Discord, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Original Character, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 48514

How would you like it if the parasprites (Brony/Pegasister haters) started a war against you, the mane six, and most of ponykind? I believe you'd be pissed!

The scientists of Equestria have made a dimension jumping device called the D.J.D. (that's its name because the author didn't have any creative names!), when they turned it on, the bronies and brony haters of one universe come into the Equestrian universe. While both types of humans showed compassion (or something near kindness like not being a killer) at first, but then the haters "accidentally" got hit by a spell that would force them to make violent decisions!
Only a handful of the thousands of humans are not corrupt, but that's not a whole lot! One human appears one day proclaiming that he would save this world! However he didn't give us his name, so he's going to be called Wanderer.

I found Rainbow Dash riding on top of Applejack here.

Published 2013-09-08 03:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-03 04:39:04 UTC

Introduction

Author looks you in the eye... "You better have read the description first!" His voice changes back to calm, "Otherwise, enjoy the show!" He waves his hand as you go into this tale of a human and his pony friends.

Inside a human base (Near Ponyville).

Wanderer walks through several random paths in the cave searching for an exit, but having no success in finding it. Wanderer looks around the crossroad-like area he has walked into, "..." he looks up toward the hole in the ceiling. "...!" A blonde mare falls through the hole and drops onto him.

She gets off immediately and apologizes in a fast voice, "I'm very sorry! I promise never to come here again!" She looks as if she has seen the devil when looking at Wanderer. "P-Please don't kill me..." she is pressing against the wall with fear in her eyes. She has an eye that looks up while the other looks down.

Wanderer backs away and talks in a calm voice, "It's okay, I'm not like them. Do you know the way out? If you did, then could you guide me?" He looks at her with pleading eyes.

The mare looked confused and said, "You're not one of them, but I've never seen you on the human/pony military posters..." She looked even more frightened at realizing this. "Oh no... you're going to... to..." She looks like she is about to faint.

Wanderer pulls a muffin out of his bag and throws it to the blonde mare, "I don't think I need this more than you. Stay strong or we both might not get out of here!" She eats the muffin reluctantly, but when she takes a bite she looks very satisfied with Wanderer's peace offering, "See? I am a nice guy! None of the other humans in the area are though, so we'll need to be careful here."

She finished the muffin and agreed, "I know, my name is Derpy by the way. What's yours?" Wanderer responded with a long silence and looked away. "Is something wrong?"

Wanderer looks back at her and tells a lie that is also truth, "I hit my head and now I can't remember what it is. You can call me Wanderer." He rubs the side of his head to show where he supposedly hit it.

She dismisses the strange answer and says, "Alright Wanderer, let's make headway to the exit!" The pair start their walk to the exit, but when they got there they found two guards guarding the exit (What else could they do by name? Guard the cookie jar?). "Oh no! What can we do?" Wanderer runs in willy nilly while Derpy stared after him. "What are you doing!?"

Wanderer pulls out a bow and shoots an arrow into the guard on the right. The other one shoots an arrow at Wanderer, but misses, "Stay still you little-" Wanderer pulls out his dagger and rushes the guard to start a knife fight. The two start fighting and start rounding each other in an attempt to worry the other into slipping up, but neither slips up and it seems to be an even match.

Derpy grabs the dagger from the dead guard and jumps off a rock to land on the guard's back and stab him, "Stop trying to hurt him!" She successfully stabs the guard, but gets covered in blood from the guard. She looks frightened by the kill she made and looks towards Wanderer with pitiful eyes, "I-I killed him, and it's all because of-"

Wanderer jumps into Derpy and gets shot by an incoming arrow, "AHH!" He holds his side and aims for the archer that got him, but the archer has already left. "Oh god... I need some bandages." He puts his hands around the arrow and pulls it out. He screams in pain, but grabs the bandages that Derpy offers, "Thank you... I'm sorry for making you do that, and I promise that as soon as we get you home you're going to stay there!"

Derpy looked towards the exit, "Oh no! I left my daughter alone again!" She face-hoofed herself, "I need to focus on getting home as fast as I can now! I'm sorry, but can you go alone? I need to go home as quickly as possible!"

Wanderer motions for her to leave and starts leaving after she leaves, "She's shedding her feathers... that will make it easy to find out where to go first on my route..." He scratches his chin and replies to himself, "If I go towards a pony town, I might get pulverized for not being on the posters. That will be troublesome indeed... what do I do?"

"He went out the exit, I'm sure of it!" The humans were running towards Wanderer's position and he could hear them yelling profanity from where he was.

Wanderer started running towards the mare's destination, "Even if they won't recognize me on the posters, I can still persuade my way in or else I'll have to take the dumb route and sleep in a tree!"

Our hero sprints for our beloved Derpy to get shelter from the elements, but will he ever get into the town because of the circumstances? Will he accomplice his unknown goal? Will I ever learn? Will I ever answer the questions in time? "Will you just hurry up!? We have lives to get back to!" You anonymous viewers yell. Maybe I will and maybe I won't, but I will say that...

This is the end of the Prologue!

Would you like to save your progress?

Yes

OR

No (Not selectable options unfortunately...)

Author's Note

Wanderer is a fifteen-year-old that has a bow and dagger (Not a strange combination, right?). Nopony knows anything about his origins... or how he got to Equestria, because the portal closed 5 hours after the ponies opened it.

Chapter 1

Near the gate to Ponyville (made as one of the safety measures)

Wanderer walks up to the gate nonchalantly and calls out, "Hey! Is anypony up there? I need somewhere to sleep!" He gets no answer until he persists with this line multiple times, "Excuuuuuse me princess, but I need a place to sleep and you're blocking my path!"

The pony that answers him is below the open area of the window used to see who comes and goes, "Please don't come in if you are not on the posters!" Her voice is barely audible and soft. The posters she is talking about are on the side of the gate.

It was a waste of time trying to see what one had his face on it so Wanderer simply asked, "Can I please come in? I'm not on the posters, but-"

The mare answers very quickly, but in the same voice, "Then you can't come in! Go away!" Her pink mane is visible through the window and resting on top of it is a bunny who's shaking his head.

Wanderer persisted in this manner, "Please! I'm not like them, just let me in!" The mare ducked lower at him increasing his volume, "I'm sorry, but I need to go in there! Please don't run away from the window!"

She raised her head to peer out of the window and saw Wanderer waiting for a reply, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you in so easily. The rules prohibit humans who aren't confirmed as friendly."

Wanderer questions the rules point, "If I could prove I'm friendly, then could I come in?" He listens to the mare speak, but doesn't quite hear her. "Excuse me, can you say that a bit louder?"

She picks up the microphone and her voice sounds like it suddenly went back to normal volume, "Yes, but I don't think you can prove that so easily..." She doesn't look confident in Wanderer's ability at all.

Wanderer suddenly attacks this point, "Hey don't be so mean! I haven't even tried yet!" Wanderer crosses his arms and continues, "That wasn't very kind of you."

The mare suddenly squeaks in fear, "I-I'm sorry about that!" She looks away from the window in shame, "I'm being less friendly than you right now, so let me do this..." Suddenly the area started to disappear strangely (as in the area started becoming an empty white instead of colors all around you).

Wanderer jumps back at the sight of this, "AAH! What's happening to reality!?" He looks around the empty white area he is in. "Hello? Where are you? Don't leave me..." He starts to collapse to his knees, "What happened? Where did everything go?"

The mare walks toward Wanderer and replies, "You're in a test dream... it's sort of like an exam for your mind. And currently I can tell you have no friends... I think this would be a good time to introduce the A.I."

The mare suddenly disappears and is replaced by a purple alicorn, "I'm an A.I. version of Twilight Sparkle! I will be your guide for today's test. Today's topic..." she lowers her head as if thinking about something, "Friendliness! Let's start with this challenge, see if you can find me before that clock behind you hits midnight, then you'll have passed the first test. Loading up simulation... please be patient while this loads." She disappears and a town appears out of nowhere in front of Wanderer.

Wanderer looks around the town and can see that ponies are all over the place, and staring in a random direction. "This is so freaky! If only I didn't know this was a game, then I would have until midnight to explore!" Wanderer thinks to himself That A.I. didn't have any emoticons I could read, so it's likely that I either have to find her, or this entire test is fake. Either way, I have to deal with this crud!

A young colt runs up to Wanderer and calls for his attention, "Hey mister! Can you please help my mother? She is having trouble with deliveries especially with me around." Well at least he's honest with himself. He pulls a package out of... thin... air... "Can you take this to Ditzy Doo? Mom would be mad if I didn't do it!"

Wanderer looks at the clock and decides that he has enough time, "Yeah, I think I can do that! Give it here!"

The colt backs up a bit, "Good, but first you have to catch me!" He sticks his tongue out and runs to a certain point.

Time to chase the colt!

Those words appeared in front of Wanderer when he started to go towards the colt, but then the words changed.
3! 2! 1! Go!

The colt started running away at a surprisingly high speed, "Hey, don't you run away!" Wanderer yelled as he started chasing the colt, but the colt knew the area better than Wanderer, so he was pretty far away from Wanderer until he started going towards the shopping district, "You're not getting away with this! Sorry to run through! Watch out where you walk!" Wanderer starts doing some acrobatic routine to get past the ponies in his way. The colt was starting slow down from exhaustion, "You're so mine now!" Wanderer jumps at the colt, but gets stopped by two stallions carrying a trampoline, "Screw game design!" By hitting the trampoline, Wanderer flies off towards the mayor's office, and lands in front of the mayor, "Ouch............ your honor."

The mayor helps Wanderer up and points toward the alley, and the colt that was walking in the alley, "Oh no!" said the colt as he ran away. Wanderer chased after him after thanking the mayor.

The colt and Wanderer were running towards the main living area of the town and waking up all the N.P.C.'s. They happily threw their boots and other hard apparel at the pair and even threw poison mushrooms at our hero, "Hey! Stop that! That's very rude of you! Be quiet now!" All the N.P.C.'s yelled as they threw the things at the pair of runners.

Wanderer ducked and ran behind some newspaper stalls, but some of the items still hit him. "Cut that out! All I'm trying to do is catch the..." He looked up from the stall he was behind and saw that the colt was gone. Suddenly a compass appeared in front of him pointing toward the left corner on the sidewalk, "Alright punk! It's time for you to-" He saw that the street had randomly assorted fruit and vegetable throwers scattered across the street, "Oh come on! Is this seriously going to be impossible!?" He used his acrobatic skills to on top of a building and survey the area for the colt. The colt was watching the road ready for Wanderer to run across the fruit and vegetables not knowing where he was actually.

Wanderer sneaks to the edge of the building and jumps off towards the colt, "AAH! That's not possible!" Yelled the colt in panic. He started running towards the shopping district again, but Wanderer is there before the colt and tags the colt, "H-How did you? I-I mean..." Wanderer pats him on the head and takes the package, but leaves the colt confused about how Wanderer got ahead of him, "H-how did he...? I think I'm just getting out of form today!"

For completing this challenge, Wanderer feels new strength developing; he gains 100 exp.
At Ditzy's house (means of getting there............. video game logic!)

Wanderer knocks on the door and out comes the blonde he met in the intro, but she has eyes that are aligned perfectly. It must be a glitch... Wanderer thinks to himself. He holds out the package and energetically says, "This is for you ma'am! I hope you enjoy whatever is inside!"

Ditzy seems to ignore his last statement and looks into the package, "Yay! It came!" She pulls out a muffin out of the package, but in the package are an unknown number of muffins more.

Is she a muffin addict!? I'm not sure I could ever figure out how that works!

She looks at a watch on her fore hoof and says, "Thanks for sending the package, but I have to go to my job. Could you babysit my daughter? I think you'll really like her!"

Wanderer looks at her watch and reluctantly says with a closed-eye smile, "Very well! I shall take care of her for you!" Ditzy had started flying away with her outfit on, and when Wanderer opened his eyes he saw that she had already left.

That-you know what? This is sort of a game, so I should have some save point somewhere. This will be a piece of cake!

He enters the house and sees Ditzy's daughter playing a first-person shooter called Bioshock Infinite. She looked very good at playing the game. When Wanderer said hello she turned frightened by his voice, "W-Who are you?"

Wanderer looks at her with a devilish smile, "I'm Booker Dewitt and I'm here to take you away from your tower!" She giggled at this line, "You know I haven't played this for a long time! However I do remember most of it. You look like you're having trouble..."

She looks at the screen and looks a little mad, "Yeah... I'm at the last level on hard difficulty, but I can't seem to keep the guys away from the generator," she looks with pleading eyes, "My name is Dinky, and could you give me some tips?"

Wanderer looks at how the battlefield looks right now and sees that she has a minigun, an RPG, and two of all the vigors. He quickly gives a tip, "Select devil's kiss and murder of crow's! Then set up traps along the walkway. If anyone is on the catwalks, then you have to shoot them with your minigun, but if the motorized patriots come closer to the generator then you absolutely have to get behind them and shoot their gears. If you shoot off a murder of crows before a devil's kiss, you can get a fiery murder of crows which does more damage and gives a burning effect!"

She tries all the tips and succeeds in beating the game (I can't say more, because spoilers!), and when the credits started rolling she says to Wanderer, "Thanks for helping me out! I don't think I could have gotten through if you didn't give me help."

The pair hang out, playing random games and other assorted things, but a little after then both of them were feeling hungry, "You're feeling hungry too? Let's go get something to eat." They head out towards the shopping district.

In some random restaurant (I don't know any names that aren't terrible puns...)

Wanderer conveniently has enough to get a salad and whatever the filly wants, but... "What do you mean all the restaurants aren't open today!? There were some open when I went running through!" The pony who told him this ran away in fear of Wanderer's anger, "I-I'm sorry for yelling! (Especially now!)" he sighs from the exertion he let out at the pony, "Looks like we can't have a celebratory dinner, but I think I know how to make something special."

Dinky was excited (obviously...) for something special and asked, "Yay! Can we have omelets?" When Wanderer looked at her with confusion she continued, "I really like omelets! They're my second favorite food!"

Wanderer and Dinky gather some supplies for a Asian American omelet (soy flavored) at the grocery store and head back home. Wanderer started work on the omelet, and it came out perfectly. Dinky sets up table for the meal Wanderer created, "This is going to be awesome I promise you!" Wanderer looks very confident about his omelet.

Dinky tries a bite, "Hmm... it is awesome!" She shovels some onto her plate and enjoys it all very thoroughly. Wanderer just looks surprised by her reaction to the first bite, but starts shoveling the rest onto his plate as he tastes the first bite.

One lunch later...

Ditzy returns home and gives Wanderer some bits for a job well done, "Thanks for taking the job last minute! I think if you come back sometime she'll want to hang out some more!" Before Wanderer leaves he asks about a purple alicorn, "She lives at the library in the middle of town! Go there if you want to talk to her."

Wanderer has completed a quest! He gains 300 exp. and 400 bits! He feels new strength manifesting... Strength increased by 10, Agility increased by 15, and Persuasion increases by 20.

In the middle of town

Wanderer looks around for the library and eventually finds it, but what he finds is not an alicorn but a murder scene! On the ground lies a corpse of a dragon and a knife next to him. It was pulled out of the scaly body of the dragon and has been discarded onto the floor, Or at least that's what I can see here, Wanderer thinks to himself. The knife has no finger/hoof prints on it, but the blood of the dragon is on it. There's a note under the corpse of the dragon, it says "Thank you, but your princess is in another castle!"

Whoever did this is a sick freak who likes making references to other video games. That, or the author is breaking another wall!

Somepony broke down the front door and yells, "Freeze! Don't make any sudden moves!" The male pegasus is equipped with a battle saddle (It's a saddle with a crossbow extending out the top). Wanderer had no choice but to surrender to the pegasus. "I would like you to say your name. Then tell me what has happened here!"

Persuasion was high enough to keep the stallion from arresting Wanderer! Wanderer explains that he wasn't involved in the murder and that he has no info to give the stallion. "Humph, I guess you know nothing after all. I'm Sherriff Black Arrow, and I ain't sure I know as much as you do, so how about you help me investigate?"

Wanderer replies reluctantly, "Yeah, I think I can help..." Wanderer crosses his arms,"However I don't think I can go further in my investigation, so what should we do about that?"

Arrow looks all around the room and replies, "I don't know about that! I think you missed one thing!" He points his hoof at Wanderer, "One thing that could prove who the killer is!"

Usually I would hear some music to back up an objection, but I guess it might be too soon for that.

Wanderer looks at the dragon's body and looks closely, "Hmm... I think I got it... AHA!" He punches his fist into the air, "EUREKA! The wound is from arrow, and if we have a knife! There's a contradiction!"

Arrow looks disappointed by Wanderer's first contradiction, "That's nice and all, but there's something that actually tells us who the killer might be." Black Arrow goes toward the dead body and examines it, "The arrow was removed quite expertly, so we can't tell who the killer might be by that."

Wanderer approaches the body and looks really close, "You know... the wound looks deep enough to have hit a vital organ. The arrow had to have been sharpened and had to get an extra long pull on the string of a crossbow. Whoever did this was an expert in crossbows and arrows, but I haven't gotten around to know everpony here... however I think I have a good idea who here had the ability to do it!"

Arrow looks confused, "You do? Wow, that was fast." He shook his head, "Do you honestly think you have a suspect right now? Who is it?"

Wanderer walked to one side of the room and explains his thoughts, "The only one who could've done it... that's an easy question if you put the pieces together." He snaps his fingers in thoughtfulness, "The one who did it had to be able to escape quickly before anyone came in the house, but they also had to make it look like the killer used a knife to get the police off his back for being an expert in archery." Turns towards the sheriff, "However he made a mistake... he didn't try to reshape the wound so that the wound was of someone that used a knife."

The sheriff rubbed the back of his neck, "That doesn't answer our question though." He glared at Wanderer, "You have to know something more! This-"

Wanderer held up his hand for silence, "He didn't reshape the wound because of me... When he heard that I was coming, he thought that if I saw him, then I would know what he did and be able to call the police. In this event he had to rush out quickly, but most of the routes he could go were going to get him spotted."

The sheriff looks at the routes the killer took, "One lead directly to you... another lead upstairs, but he couldn't go up there, because that upstairs area is open to your eyes below. There aren't any other routes! He turned into thin air!"

Wanderer smartly replied, "Not quite... there's a balcony on this level." He points to the balcony, "No unicorn can teleport because none of them were strong enough to cast that powerful spell, correct?" When the sheriff nods Wanderer makes his way to the balcony, "If this is true, then our killer is a pegasus pony! I think I know who it is exactly now!"

Arrow seemed unimpressed, "You don't know anypony from this town though... so technically you are very suspicious! I'll take you down to the precinct now!"

Wanderer didn't seem scared by this however, "That's awfully suspicious... why don't you want me to say my conclusion? Are you afraid I'm not playing into your hoof? Because it seems you're the most suspicious here!" He points his finger, "You came in after me, you claimed not to know anything about what happened in here, and you're placing me under arrest because I am getting to the end of my string of logic! Did you kill him?" He glared at the stallion until an answer could be spoken.

The sheriff laughed maniacally and his eyes turned yellow. His voice changed to a joker-like cackle, "Yes I did it! I killed poor Spikey wikey!" He changed into a giant serpent like dragon with strange features on his body, "I'm Discord by the way, are you enjoying... the game?" He burst into more laughter and looked as if he would never stop laughing at Wanderer.

Wanderer looked very puzzled, "Um... why are you speaking like that? N.P.C's usually don't break the fourth wall..." He then thought of something that could explain Discord being here, "This is a hacked ROM isn't it?"

Discord bursts into another fit of laughter, he takes a deep breath and replies, "Sure, if you want to think of it that way. I like you! You're so fun to have around and smart too!" He coils around Wanderer and whispers, "I can take you out of this game and back into reality if you want... or you can find the Twilight of this world. I don't honestly care which path you take, except I'm not going to help you in finding that royal bum!"

Wanderer jokes at the dragon, "You sound just like the tutorial levels of....... well any game. Help me through the first part, but leave some hints in the next. Heavens forbid that you act like most of Nintendo's games!"

The dragon roared in laughter, "Y-You're a good laugh, but I can tell most of the bronies reading this are confused, so let me give you a hint. In the gilded palace or whatsoever, you'll find a mare of wing and horn."

Wanderer seemed confused, "What does that mean?" He was referring to Discord's fourth wall breaker.

Discord just grinned and replied, "I don't think I need to explain it to you, adieu!" The dragon disappears and Spike's dead body just disappeared.

Spike reappears in the room near the bookshelf unharmed. He is writing notes onto a scroll. He notices Wanderer come closer and asks, "What do you want? A mystery novel, an adventure of mighty warriors, or something to laugh at?"

Wanderer simply replied, "None of the above please... I just want to know where I might find one Twilight Sparkle." Spike nearly destroys the pen he's using, "Is that okay...?"

Spike looks at Wanderer with confusion and smiles, and using the library he avoided the question, "Oh look... it's closing time!" He shoves Wanderer towards the door and says, "You better get on home, dude! Goodbye!" As soon as Wanderer walked out the door Spike slams the door and locks it.

At the park South of the library.

Wanderer is taking a walk through the park to figure out what Discord meant by 'In a gilded palace or whatsoever, you'll find a mare of wing and horn.'

As if on cue, a pony interrupts his thinking time, "Y-You're a human..." said a mint green colored mare. She was staring in fascination, but most noticeably at Wanderer's hands, "H-Hands..."

Wanderer felt very uncomfortable near this unicorn and tried to walk away to somewhere more peaceful, "Look... I'd like to stay and chat-"

The mare immediately interrupted him with a simple sentence, "Then come on over to this park bench and we can talk... especially about your hands..." She grabbed Wanderer by the arm.

Wanderer tried to pry himself out of her grip, but she had a surprisingly strong grip on Wanderer with hooves. Wanderer sat on the bench as anyone who was forced into a social interaction would, "So... why are you interested in my hands?"

The mare smiled and pulled out a harp, "Because of this! With only my hooves and magic there's only so much I can do, but you on the other hand can play this as easily as one of the pegasi!" She sits-no more like lays down strangely on the bench and sighs, "I wish I had hands so that I could play my harp better."

Wanderer plays the harp, but doesn't seem to get the hang of it until he tries to play a specific song, the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: ballad of the goddess harp instrumental. He closes his eyes and listens to the harmonic tone of his harp playing. He seemed to get every note after a few mess-ups, and the mare exclaimed her excitement, "See? You can play so beautifully when you get the hang of it!"

Wanderer grinned, but was abruptly interrupted, how? A smack to the face sent him barreling away from the bench, by another mare who was furious at the mint colored mare, "LYRA! You said we were going to hang out here today! You dropped me for a human!" She looked as if this was a big deal.

Lyra tried to calm the mare down, "Now, Bon Bon, I just figured since he wanted harp lessons I should give him some, right dude?" Wanderer was near a tree dazed from Bon Bon's attack, and he held the harp in his hands, "See? I was just teaching him how to play harp!"

Bon Bon still looked furious, "You still abandoned me just to teach someone how to play a harp! A human at that!" The two mares looked ready to fight each other. Thankfully Wanderer got back up to distract the confrontation, "Hey, you!" Wanderer looked scared, confused, and hurt at the same time, but didn't try to run away, "What do you think of how she abandoned our date just to teach you!"

Lyra took offense to that, "Tell her that I was just going to give you an hour of teaching!" The two were yelling at the top of their lungs and attracting attention.

If I don't get them to agree, then we might have a friendship that is broken forever!

Wanderer thought to himself, he had one option, one route of logic, one way to stop the fight quickly, "ENOUGH!" The mares jumped at Wanderer's sudden increase of volume to get their attention, "Bon Bon, you need to stop freaking out about her doing things that were not on schedule. Lyra's right about you wanting only your date right now." Lyra grinned victoriously, "And you..." Lyra's smile dissipated as soon as Wanderer addressed her, "You need to keep on schedule a little bit better or things like this will happen again. You both should be ashamed for overreacting to a simple change in plans!"

They both frowned and looked at each other, but Wanderer had walked off before they could say anything. He was getting nearer and nearer to midnight and if he didn't find Twilight soon, then he'd fail!

On top of the hill overlooking the town. Time: 11:00 p.m.

Wanderer looked all over the town and examined faraway places from a distance, but could not find the palace Discord was speaking of. Wanderer was on top of the hill to think to himself, "Where is that alicorn? I've looked everywhere I was permitted to go, but I can't seem to find her." He drops to his knees and punches the ground, "Dang it! I've looked everywhere for you, Twilight!"

A voice yelled from above Wanderer, "Look out below!" The voice came from a changeling dive bombing Wanderer. He successfully hits Wanderer's back with one kick!

Wanderer rolls away from the changeling and assumes a defensive stance, "What was that for!?" His question was answered by the changeling charging into Wanderer less-defended areas, but missing when Wanderer dodges, "Oh, I see... you want to fight me! Well bring it on shrimp!"

"With pleasure!" the changeling said as it tried to hit one of Wanderer's weak spots. Wanderer grabbed the changeling and threw it against the ground, then drew his bow. The changeling kicks Wanderer so that he couldn't fire the bow, and successfully gets out of the sticky situation!

Wanderer gets out his dagger and assaults the changeling, and stuns him by hitting his head with a fist, "Go down!" Wanderer throws the changeling high into the air and drop kicks it forty meters away!

The changeling gets back up, but limps away after shooting a flare into the air through its horn. Many more changelings came at Wanderer, and almost defeat him!!

"Whoops, I almost forgot I had one of these!" He pulls out a smoke bomb he bought at the store when he was with Dinky. He runs through the town and acrobatically moves through the shopping district. He runs to a weapons shop and talks to the owner, "Do you have anything that takes a flock of changelings out in one strike?"

He nods and gives dynamite to Wanderer, "Tie these to your arrows!"

Wanderer does as said and takes aim at where he thinks the changelings would come from, "Come here you buggers!" The changelings come around the corner and Wanderer lights the dynamite and starts shooting. The changelings either die or retreat from the barrage of bomb-arrows coming their way. The street is filled with surprised ponies and the blood or guts of dead changelings.

Wanderer lets out a breath that he didn't know he was holding and fainted... the last thing he sees is a purple mare running to him.

Back to reality in an ICU-like area.

"Ugh..." Wanderer sat up and looked around, no one was in the room. "Hello? Is somepony there? At least someone I can talk to?" the reply he got was silence. He sighed and got up to look around, "Man... I wish that someone could answer the questions I had... hello? This is usually the cue for someone important to come out and speak to me..." No one answered him, and in response to the responsive silence he went towards the door and tried opening it, "Grr... ah, it's no use! I might be trapped!"

"Isn't that great for me then?"

Wanderer turned around to see a pink pony holding onto the other bed in the room. She looks depressed, but looks as if she has been in here for a long time. Her mane is straight, but it... seemed off about who Wanderer was looking at. "You must be... the somepony important I was asking for?"

She laughed and smiled devilishly at Wanderer, "No... I'm just another pony like the rest of them..." she tried to get closer to Wanderer, but failed to move away from the bed, "Come closer... I have a secret to tell you..."

Wanderer reluctantly walked towards the pink pony while considering the offense he'll get for breaking doors or walls, "What is it?"

She looked around the room as if someone could hear them and whispers to Wanderer, "They're never letting you or me out of here! Isn't that fun?" She turned toward the mirror before continuing her secret, "They are always watching us to make sure we aren't up to something funny. I hope you know what that means..."

Wanderer understood what it meant perfectly, but didn't want to believe it... They never trusted the humans in the first place when he tried to go in. He tried to ask the pink pony questions, but she held her hoof out and said, "We can't discuss that until next chapter! Silly human, you'll have to wait before getting your answers! I'll tell you in the morning! Goodnight."
The end of chapter 1...

Would you like to save your progress?
------>Yes

OR
------>Yes
You have no choice in this matter... too bad for you!

Chapter 2: Referance finisher!

It was about 6:30 in the morning, but the lack of clocks made Wanderer unsure if that was the actual time. Our hero woke up to get the pink pony's answers, but she seemed to be speaking to the mirror, "Why don't you let us out? I'll throw a big party when we get out!" She was doing this during the night too, but I don't understand why she would do this little ritual to get out. The pink pony turns around as if she heard Wanderer talking out loud and said, "You're awake! Good... so what did you want to ask me?" she said with no emotion.

"I think you might already know most of my questions, but..." Wanderer searched for his first question to ask, "Um... Why did they put me and you in here?"

She looked disappointed in his question, "Because they don't want savages running amuck! You might be able to guess my question, but... where did you come from?" She devilishly smiled when she said it.

Wanderer tried to avoid this question as best he could, "I was asking the questions here! That question doesn't even matter! Now, why do ponies find a pony dangerous?"

"I'm Pinkamena Diane Pie. The supposedly most dangerous pony hiding behind parties! That doesn't seem fair even if you aren't a pony yourself." She smiled when Wanderer backed up a little, "Yes... run away little coward! I'll still be able to kill you from here though!"

Wanderer was shaking all over and tried reaching his weapons, "Oh, right... they took my precious bow and dagger for safety... If you're so dangerous, then why haven't you broken any doors or walls yet?"

"Because I can destroy fourth walls, but not real walls. Those bronies reading probably don't even care what happens to you!" She continued by replying to her own show of ability, "See? That's how I break the fourth wall!"

Wanderer had no idea what she meant, but tried to get one more answer out of her, "So... I'm guessing you know what happened in that game right?" She nodded, "Where was Twilight?"

She laughed at him, "You really think they would let you find her? That's probably the funniest thing I've heard since humans were a thing!" She stared and exclaimed, "Of course, they wouldn't try to cheat and keep her out of the game, because that purple pony that ran toward you was Twilight."

"How did you know that?"

"I looked back a page!"

Wanderer started to understand what she meant by breaking the fourth wall, "Do you do that often?"

She strayed off topic instead of answering, "Maybe we should get out of here instead of asking why and do you. Try to find your way out and I'll follow."

Pinkie has joined your party!

"So... this is kinda awkward," said the confused Wanderer, "I don't see any way we could open that door." He points toward the door and it opens, "It understands that I want out!"

Pinkie looks at the expectedly and says, "They opened the door? Why would they do that?"

Wanderer shrugs, "Who knows, but hey, we can get out now!" He looks down at her leg, "Do you think you can walk?"

She replies with a frown, "I don't think so..." she perked up right away though, "I guess you'll have to carry me!"

Wanderer picks her up and runs out into the hall, "So... since we don't have anything else to talk about, could you tell me in more detail why they made... THIS PLACE!??"

Pinkie immediately answers, "To make sure any bad people or ponies stay away from the battlefield. So if you were in the cage with me, that means you are a threat basically."

Wanderer retorts foolishly, "But I was peaceful near the gate!"

"Do you honestly think that will affect anything? A human could act peaceful just to sneak in and kill everypony!"

Wanderer looked up ahead and saw a blockade, "Whoa! That's a big one!" (That's what she said) The ponies manning the blockade started aiming at Wanderer and fired upon them, "AHH! NO-NO-NO-NO!" Wanderer ran for cover and managed to get hit by one bolt.

He put Pinkie down and looked over the cover, "If only we had a ghost that could help us out here!" Pinkie said to no one in particular. Suddenly the blockade blew up, "D-Do we really have one?"

Wanderer picked her back up, ran, and replied, "No... I believe dumb luck had a hand in this... or maybe not."

The ponies in front of them were the timid mare from last chapter and a beautiful white siren next to her, "Oh... you're the human from earlier, right?" Wanderer smiled, but didn't answer.

The white pony walked up to Pinkie after he put her down, "Are you alright Pinkie? Your leg looks bad... Fluttershy, go with the human to where they stored all the supplies taken from us."

Fluttershy perked up and said, "On it! I'll see you later Rarity!"

Pinkie looked up at Fluttershy and said, "Be careful, Flutters!"

Wanderer tapped Fluttershy's shoulder and said, "Do you know the way, because I don't..."

Fluttershy looked at a map, then started moving towards a hallway, "T-This way..." She looked more nervous without Rarity around. "Please try to be careful when we go through the café."

A café? Seriously?

Wanderer thought to himself. "Let's go then!"

They get near the café, and ambush a human and pony exiting the area. Wanderer immediately grabs the crossbow off of the pony since the human didn't have a bow and shot one of the humans eating, "Can't you guys just pay attention like normal people?" he knocks over a nearby table and takes cover behind it.

Fluttershy hands him a jar that shook and had a pink aura around it, "T-This was made by Twilight Sparkle... it makes explosions when the glass of the jar shatters."

Wanderer throws it at another knocked over table and makes any thing in that area disappear, "What the-? I don't think that exploded!"

Fluttershy quickly replied, "I think I just gave you a disappearing concoction. Whoops..."

Whoops!? That didn't just kill them! It sent them to oblivion!

Is what Wanderer wanted to say, but instead asked, "Um... where did they go?"

Fluttershy muttered something and shot a pony, "I don't think you want to hear about it..."

Oh brother... Wanderer jumped over the table and jumped off another to land on a human. He dropped onto the human and shot their head with the crossbow, "Thanks for eating with us! Now dine in hell with the rest of Sparta!" he looked around and noticed no one else was in action, "Yay! We don't have to fight anymore!" He suddenly looks around, then calms down, "Good... No one to prove me wrong!"

Fluttershy looks across the room and says, "Your equipment is in the room over there... I hope you enjoy being free."

Wanderer looks at her suddenly and replies, "But... I don't want to stop helping..."

Fluttershy looks at him with sudden confusion, "Huh? Nopony will trust you when you go into town though."

Wanderer clenches his fist and replies, "I-I don't care! As long as I can help out, I will do my best for the ponies! Unicorns, Pegasi, or Earth pony; I will protect them all!"

Fluttershy looks angry instead of happy, "WH-What!? That's the dumbest thing I've heard today! You will die! Die someday to the opposing forces-"

"Protecting the ponies! I won't die alone for no cause!" Wanderer yelled back. He looked serious about the move he was making, "Though I guess you're right... If I even leave the camp which I will... then I won't be trusted." He held his hand against his chin, then slammed his fist into it, "I guess I'll have to do something really nice, that way everypony will trust me when I do leave."

Fluttershy looked a little disappointed, "That's all you're going to do? That doesn't make sense, just admit it... What's your plan?" She pressed.

Wanderer just shrugged and said simply: "I'm going to wing it! Even if you don't believe in my ability to succeed, I will. No matter what, I will find the best way to gain trust!"

Fluttershy allowed him to go into Ponyville, but still didn't trust him. Most ponies didn't welcome him with forehooves. Others wished him luck, but little did Wanderer know that the next chapter held a rookie mistake on his part.

The end of Chapter 2!

Do you STILL want to save your progress?

YA!

OR

NA!

Author's Note

I hope for Wanderer's sake he stays safe!

Chapter 4: Operation Hellstorm

Wanderer woke up in the middle of a room, it was quite large, but seemed devoid of anyone except himself until he stood back up. "Hey, he's finally awake. What's with you?" A female human asks before helping Wanderer back up, "Seriously, you ran into that trap, so why didn't you run away like a smart person?"

Wanderer replies with disdain in his voice, "I'm fine, thanks for asking. If you saw the area I was in, then you would know that I couldn't get out of there at all."

Rarity and the crusaders walked around the corner and seemed fine. "How are you doing darling? Any bangs or bruises?"

Wanderer answered with annoyance in his voice, "I'm fine! I don't need a mommy to lick my wounds for me."

The crusaders remained silent until Applebloom walked forward, "Do you think we're gonna get out of here mister?" This seemed to worry the other crusaders.

Wanderer raised a fist, "Of course, but... we need to put our heads together and think of a plan..." He suddenly turns toward the female human, "What's your name? It'd be nice to know everyone."

She replied, "I'm Katherine. I'm an asset in the army. Now that that's done, how about some ideas? I say we go through the air vents."

Sweetie Belle objected, "We'll never know where we'll end up, and without weapons... it's not a viable option!"

Wanderer tried his own idea, "How about... we ask for the keys? Oh, guard!"

The guard yells at him, "I ain't coming over there!"

"But I found booze the other day!"

The guard replies, "You ain't got nothing on you..." he took another sip of his glass of beer.

"Ain't got nothing means the opposite of what you think it means!"

The guard ignored Wanderer after that statement, "That only works in video games kid. That won't work so..."

Rarity tried, "IDEA!!! Wanderer, come over to this wall!" Wanderer did so and prepared for whatever she had planned, "We're going to break this wall down! Get ready to punch when my magic transfers into your hand!"

The magic went into Wanderer's fist and he tried breaking down the wall, "HIYA........... OUCH-OUCH-OUCH-OUCH!" He immediately backed away from the wall and inspected his hand. It wasn't broken at least, "How..." He suddenly looked up, "Magic fizzle tag, it makes magic useless." A piece of paper is a unicorn's weakness, Whoo-hoo!

The group tries multiple ideas, but don't get good results. After a while they all took some relaxing time, "Hey you, boy! The boss wants to talk to you!"

Wanderer went with them and met the one of the more holy villains in Equestrian history, "Well, if it isn't Mr. Wanderer! How nice to see you, I didn't think I could find you so soon after that desecration of my sanctuary."

It was Chrysalis, queen of changelings. Why was she here, leading an army of humans? Because she's evil! Also her changeling army wasn't working very well at infiltrating Cantorlot.

"Isn't this sad? I ran away from you because I knew you might kill me, but it seems mere chance has brought you your prey... huh, that's a little more sad than I thought would happen." Wanderer reminisced. He and Chrysalis obviously had a past between them, "Anyway I don't think you want me alive after destroying the nest, huh?"

He sits back in the chair and relaxes, "Sure, go ahead and try. Just remember that if you keep me, then a weight is lifted off the other humans shoulders."

Chrysalis snickered, "You think that I should let you live? You destroyed my home!" She slammed her hooves against her desk, "I should make you burn like you did my parents!"

"Ooh, watch out! We've got a revenge seeker in here!" Wanderer chided, "Really, you need to think strategically when you kill your enemy, because if you hang me, I know a good trick to avoid having a broken neck. I also know that a firing squad won't work, because I've dodged arrows blindly before and I can do it again! You know that as well as I do!"

Chrysalis seemed to have not many options to kill Wanderer, "I know of something, but I guess you'll have to wait... take him back to the cell!"

Wanderer goes back into the cell and sees new arrivals, they were Derpy and Dinky. Derpy looks at Wanderer in surprise, "Y-You! Why are you here?"

The door behind Wanderer closes with a bang, "The same as you... waiting for a redemption." Derpy looks a bit surprised, but says nothing, "Now, I'm assuming that's your daughter? Dinky, how are you doing?"

Dinky answers, "I'm fine, but why do you know my name?"

Wanderer quickly shoves the question aside, "If you'd been in my life, then you woulda known why... anyway has anyone gotten any ideas?"

Rarity answered for everyone, "No, I don't think we can do anything to get out of here..."

One of the guards opened the door and said, "Come on, it's lunchtime."

In the lunchroom.

Wanderer was eating the slop they served, "Ick, this tastes strangely like my worlds school lunch..."

Katherine looked a bit worried for him, "You eat this slop at your school?"

"It was a joke..." Wanderer still sulked while eating, "However... speaking of school..." He thought for a couple seconds, Maybe if I do that... then everyone would go into a full on battle, time for some risk and reward! Time... for Operation Hellstorm! After he told everyone how it was going to work he suddenly screamed for everyone to hear, "IDEA!!! FOOD FIGHT!!!!" Wanderer yelled as threw a plateful of slop at a random human.

He looked very mad, but a spark of mischief gleamed in his eyes, "Alright, everybody, you heard him! FOOD FIGHT!!!!!" The lunchroom bursts into a frantic fight of food, the guards try to calm everyone down, but end up being in the middle of the fight too.

Wanderer quickly initiated Operation Hellstorm and said to everyone that was in his cell a few minutes ago, "Quick! Run!"

The group ran out of the lunchroom and toward the armory and got their equipment back. They tried to get as much of the other equipment too, and ran back to the lunchroom. It was still chaos in there!

Many of the guards had slop on their faces and all the inmates were still food fighting. The weapons were thrown into the middle of the room and everyone grabbed a sword, crossbow, etc. and started assaulting the guards that were blinded by the food in front of their armored helmets.

None of them could anticipate attacks coming at them. Most of the guards died, the other part of them ran away because of the sheer fear that this army was going to kill them.

One guard even yelled, "Every man for himself! We are not Spartans!"

Everyone was evacuated, but Wanderer stayed to talk to Chrysalis, "So I guess your so-called army sucked! Do you mind if I let you live?"

Chrysalis gave words of sadness, "Why should you? You killed my family, my original army, and my home! I have nothing to live for and you say that I can still live with this? You honestly understand pain," She looked at Wanderer's bandages, "but don't let me escape it?"

Wanderer turned away from her, "Because I didn't simply do all the things that you think I did. I told the changelings to run away, I burned your house when your parents weren't home, and I don't like bloodshed... it ruins the carpet of your office and it's not right for this universe." The carpet was black and seemed to fit the room very well. "It's best if you try and figure this out yourself. I only wanted to send a message, but someone figured out how to make it seem like I had a grudge."

Chrysalis was left in the dark, alone as Wanderer left her office and headed outside of dungeon. It seems she wasn't the main villain... who could it be? Someone who can use magic and be able to get out before anything can happen to them. Who knows, but that's how a mystery works, it leads you in an infinite circle full of doubt. Many questions can be uttered about Wanderer and his goal, but maybe only one of them will be answered in the next chapter...

The end of Chapter 4... new scenes added!
Initiating the beacon of Chrysalis's house...

Wanderer was standing on a hill overlooking the nest, "Alright, I just need to send the signal that I'm here so that she'll know what to do..." He checks his equipment. He has a Molotov, his battle supplies, and a deck of cards, though all of the cards were aces of hearts (that becomes relevant for spell casting later...), "I guess I have everything... don't be nervous!"

Chrysalis returning home...

She was walking around block, when she turned the corner, her house was on fire and she could hear the fire crackling, she was stunned that it was being burned, but still yelled, "M-Mother! Father!" She sprinted for the house, but stopped in front of a boy that dropped down from the second-story window, "WH-Who are you, and what have you done to my home!?" She lashed out with her magic, but he evaded every strike and eventually was able to run away quickly.

The inside of the house was on fire, but Chrysalis didn't care what happened to herself, she ran in and tried to find her mother and father. She eventually found them burning with looks of terror on their faces. They were burnt to death, and it looked like the father had a note, but it burned up before Chrysalis could read it. She ran as soon as she heard the wood cracking and the house collapsed. She made it out okay, but was furious at the boy. Outside was a note, "I'm Wanderer, if I did anything wrong, then you should try to find me, however as my name implies, I'll not be found so easily, because of this ever expanding world. Best of luck to you! Try thinking before going though with whatever plan you have!"

He killed my parents for fun!? That little brat!

That's how she came to hate Wanderer, but what villain could be cold-hearted enough to kill two changelings just to get Wanderer set in the middle of crosshairs?

This is an optional scene...

Wanderer sat in a chair in front of you in a white room, "I bet you want to know the why, what, who, and where about me huh?" He smirked, "If you want I can answer your questions, but first you have to ask me in the comments, or if you're feeling like Flutters, then you can just PM Author. Why do I call him Author? One: He's responsible for the stuff you're reading, and two: his internet persona is LonesomeWanderer which could possibly cause problems with him trying to reply through the story to people, because your first thing to do with internet personas is shorten their name. So by instinct you'd call him Wanderer, which is my persona. You don't need to ask anything, but if you want to, then go ahead! I don't care and neither does Author!" He gets up and leaves, "Goodbye! Until next time!"

Save your progress like a wimp?

Well... yes...

OR

Why are you insulting me? I'm not a wimp!

Author's Note

I think I'm just going to keep doing the save thing every chapter, but with different dialogue every time. Nobody will really care, but I just want to have fun doing this. I had very few reasons to make this like I said!

Note: Katherine won't become very important until later... she'll act like a party member until she becomes important to Wanderer and the ponies. You can also ask her questions if needed, but until she becomes important I won't let her answer certain questions... please don't ask for love interests...

Chapter 5: Girl for a day!?

Ponyville camp...

"You'll be fine darling!"

"This is the worst idea, I know since I've made bad ones before!"

Wanderer and Rarity were arguing over her plan, a simple infiltration plan, but Wanderer had to take on the look of a girl... wait... huh?

"I don't see what the big problem is darling! You'll be accepted by the brutes almost immediately!"

Wanderer was blushing at this point, "Yeah, but happens to me when they want a piece of this action?" He suddenly felt even worse, "Oh no! I'm not going after getting that picture stuck in my head!"

Fluttershy spoke up even though her voice wasn't very strong, "There is no other way that will get us in though... please...?" She tried putting on a cute face while begging.

Wanderer sighed in annoyance, "Don't let me regret this..." He struck his fist against the ground, "Ouch... I'll... do it... where's the dress?"

Rarity whisked him into her tent and behind one of those dressing walls and got to work on his (I mean her) appearance.

Two hours later...

Katherine, Derpy, Fluttershy, and the crusaders stood in front of Rarity's tent. Rarity had called them to see what they had thought of Wanderer's appearance.

Rarity walked out of the tent and said, "Ahem... ladies, I present to you, Yumi!"

Wanderer walked out reluctantly with a red face, he had a jacket on and his hair had an extension covering his left eye. He tried his best to sound like a girl, "So... how do I look?"

The group was very surprised by how he looked and each of them tried not to laugh at how perfectly he looks as a girl.

"Um... I think it... suits you." Fluttershy said through clenched teeth, she obviously was trying to not laugh either.

"I... like her hair." Sweetie Belle wasn't hiding her laughter very well either.

Scootaloo and Applebloom couldn't say anything as they laughed to each other. Wanderer looked much more embarrassed and admitted, "I want revenge after this..." He muttered to himself.

Katherine said in a soft voice, "It's going to be alright, don't worry!"

Rarity quickly shoved an earpiece into Wanderer's hands, "Put this on your ear so that I can communicate with you when you get into the camp." Wanderer still looked embarrassed so Rarity added, "Suck it up darling! If you go in like that, you'll attract too much attention!"

Wanderer regained his composure and let out a sigh, "I'm going now!" He walked away from camp and went towards Ponyville.

Wanderer stood in front of the gate hoping that someone would notice him (her), but nobody was guarding the gate. He spoke into the earpiece with his girliest voice, "Man... there's no one here... I wanted to go in the front door, but it looks like no one knows the meaning of guard."

Katherine spoke back, "It could be that they're celebrating their first town captured."

"A party!?" Pinkie yelled, it nearly destroys Wanderer's eardrum.

Rarity spoke for everyone: "Pinkie, what are you doing here?"

Wanderer was climbing the wall while they bickered, "I'm here because I heard "celebrating" and thought that somepony was having a party! However it looks like the only thing going on is a party for computer nerds. I don't mind!" Pinkie explained, as usual no one knows how she got there so quickly.

Wanderer got to the top of the wall and jumped down onto the roof of a building, he then whispers into his earpiece, "Yumi has come to town!"

Katherine read out his objective, "Alright, you need to find Octavia and Vinyl Scratch. You also need to find out how we assault the castle!"

Wanderer looks toward the gate control room, "I could try to get to the gate controls after finding those two if needed."

Rarity confirms this, "It'd be best if you did that! Good thinking!"

Pinkie suddenly bursts laughing, "Come on! Anypony would think to do that! Even the bronies that play one or two video games!"

I seriously doubt she'll stop that... oh well! Wanderer thought to himself before jumping down to street level and going into a nearby club. It was full of humans dancing to the beat of some techno music. On the stage were an exhausted Octavia and Vinyl Scratch playing music. They both looked sick of playing for the club.

When Wanderer entered he saw some women softly speaking to men and following them into rooms blindly. This looks like a real life club, maybe I should be careful and look even more gothic. "Hey lady!" Wanderer scared to turn to the voice tried to walk away with his dignity, "Get over here and dance with me on the floor!"

Wanderer forced himself over and tried to dance, but couldn't dance well, so he started making gossip, his voice squeaky he said, "So... um... what do you think about the ponies playing that music?"

The man answered, "Fantastic!" Suddenly the music stopped and everyone looked at him, "Err... I mean..." Two men came out of a door that said "Private" and dragged him into it. The music came back on and very faintly you could hear him screaming, "AH!!! I DIDN'T MEAN IT!!!"

Wanderer made his/her way through the dance floor and made it towards a point of interest (Place closest to Vinyl and Octavia). He made his way to them, but suddenly some woman yells, "Looks like a lady wants to dance for us on stage!" The cheering for Wanderer was very approving and loud, don't forget loud! "Come on up little lady! The woman was on top of the stage and waiting for Wanderer, he made his way onto the stage and stood next to her, "What's your name?"

Wanderer muttered something like, "I-I'm Y-Yumi."

The woman tells everyone: "This is Yumi! She seems very shy, but try to be nice when she unleashes the best of her dancing!" Every one was cheering or laughing.

I didn't want to dance in front of everyone when I talked to them! I don't think I can do this!

One voice cut into his mind, "Dude! Cut that out! You're killing the jam vibes!" It was Vinyl who spoke, and she smiled while saying it, which probably meant she knew who he was. Of course... women know a lot more than men! That, or everyone in here is an idiot! Wanderer thought to himself. Vinyl quickly put a new disk onto the DJ table, "Here's a blast for everyone from DJ-PON3!"

Wanderer suddenly felt his body moving on its own, Well this feels like a miracle! He noticed Vinyl using her magic. When he looked at himself he looked like he was positively glowing, It's nice to know somepony knows I can't dance, but she's exhausted. An excuse to get her off the stage! He kept to the rhythm, but at some point he could do it by himself.

The crowd was imitating Wanderer's dance, which was a simple back and forth movement with a hand swipe and turn. The music was a mix of classic bass violin and techno bleeps and bloops. After this music ended, both Octavia and Vinyl fainted from exhaustion. The crowd instantly went into a riot, throwing things at Wanderer because nobody was operating the turntable. The woman was in shock and couldn't do anything.

Wanderer made a quick decision, "EVERBODY, SHUT UP!" He yelled as girly as he could, everyone remained silent to hear what he had to say, "Now... these two ponies cannot play in their condition, because you asked to much of their ability. We're not going to have any more music to punish your wants!"

"But one of them has every-night jam sessions!"

Wanderer quickly yelled, "How do you know that fact? She's a pony that was just obtained yesterday, right?"

Everyone gave that guy the stink eye before the two men took him away, "I'M SORRY!!!" He screamed from the private room.

"Anyways... I'm going to take them to their rooms so that they can rest! Good night!" Wanderer yelled to everyone as he carried the ponies to the rooms. He quickly opened the window and took them out of the club.

As soon as they got out Vinyl and Octavia woke up, "Dude, are we out of that place?"

Wanderer placed them on the ground, "You both faked that? I'm proud of the show of deceit!"

Octavia spoke elegantly, "Thank you! Time for us to leave this horrid place! Where is our first stop?"

Wanderer got them into the gate control room, but there was something wrong... "There are dudes in there dude!" Vinyl said as they opened the door.

Wanderer walked in as though he didn't care that the men were in there. The men aimed bows at him, but were surprised when he fell down acting like he was exhausted, "Hey, girl! Wake up!" The smaller of the two said as he shook Wanderer awake. When Wanderer acted to wake up, then he was pulled closer to the man, "Are you okay? Do you need medical attention?"

Wanderer pulled out the man's dagger deftly and softly said, "I-I'm fine, but..." He suddenly stabs the man's neck, "You're not!"

The other guy pulled back the bowstring and shot an arrow at Wanderer. The arrow was stopped by the dead body Wanderer made. Wanderer took the bow and shot the bigger of the two and spoke into his earpiece, "Rarity, I hope that invasion plan is ready."

Rarity answered in a determined voice, "Of course darling! We're waiting for you to open the gate!"

The crusaders said, "We're in this fight too! Open that gate now!" Wanderer did so and saw them lead the charge into Ponyville, "We're going to take you all down!" They yelled as they ran in. The streets erupted into a full-on battle.

Wanderer just stood near the window overlooking Ponyville, "This is a great achievement! Nopony seems to be getting a scratch!"

Suddenly a flash lights up Wanderer when he takes off the hair extension, "Yeeeeaaaah! I bet everyone in the military will want to hear about that heroic deed!" Vinyl says after putting away her camera, "Dude, you might become famous because of this! Maybe if you're lucky..." She takes off her sunglasses and stares at Wanderer with her velvet red eyes, "Maybe even get an audience with a princess!"

Wanderer looked strangely at her, "I highly doubt that. Though, that would be nice..."

Octavia simply looked out at the fighting, "This fighting would get their attention of course. However... this fighting needs to stop! I can't believe we have to fight for a simple good night's sleep!" She looked very angry about the fighting.

Wanderer looked at her and said, "If you want your life back, then you may have to fight for it."

Octavia snapped, "I know that! But why do the humans want to fight us so badly? We never did anything to deserve a princess's death!"

Wanderer was surprised to hear this, "One of your princesses died?" Octavia nodded, "I'm sorry, I never knew... you do realize that is a lie, right?"

Vinyl suddenly spoke up, "No, Celestia is dead. Everypony tried to find her, but she presumed dead after we started getting attacked by the humans. Why do you think she's not dead?"

"I think a god-like deity would be able to make herself disappear. Dude, how could you not realize that?" Wanderer answered.

Besides... if she's dead, then who called me?

Octavia replied with newfound malice, "She's as mortal as us! It's possible she did die!"

Wanderer spoke back, "Even so, that princess can make herself invisible at any time... she is an alicorn after all."

They ran down to join the fight, but all the humans were defeated as soon as they came down. The streets were lined with the bodies of humans. Both on ours and theirs... I guess I jinxed it when I said none of our guys were getting any scratches. Oh well... you fight some, you lose some, Wanderer said coldly.

Here comes morning, to change the time of day!

"Do you understand why I need somepony to guide me now?" Wanderer had explained what kind of situation he was in for two chapters straight.

Rarity was the first to answer, "Of course we do, but..." she scraped the ground with her hoof, "We don't have anyone that isn't a big asset to the defense of this town to give to you."

Katherine raised her hand, "I'll go! It'll be nice to go back to Cantorlot!"

Rarity objected, "You have gate guard duty starting tomorrow! Sorry... we don't have anypony."

Wanderer looked at strangely, "What do you mean? There's one pony and..." he paused, then put on a confident smile, "I didn't say I needed an escort."

Rarity acted surprised, "Looks like you're finding a loophole. Alright, who is it? Is it Derpy?" She started laughing as anyone would. However Wanderer never changed his expression, "Y-You're seriously..."

"Of course, she would be training along the way seeing as how you don't seem confident in her ability." Wanderer replied.

Derpy came over to them and asked, "So who is running off with him?" Rarity reluctantly pointed at Derpy, "Um... y-you're kidding... right?" She looked between Rarity, Wanderer, and Katherine, "I-I don't know what to say... I have a daughter to take care of, and I can't go off on another adventure or she'll assume I don't like her anymore. Why do you even want to go there anyway?"

Wanderer crossed his arms, "I know that a certain pony there was one of lead scientists that made the D.J.D. thing. He's um... the Doctor? Do you know him?"

Derpy's eyes shot open, "Y-You want t-to see the Doctor?" She immediately looks away, "Now my choice is much harder..."

Wanderer gave Rarity a strange look, "You sure there isn't a way I could easily get there and back quickly? She can't leave her daughter alone."

Derpy answered for Rarity, "There is no better route to Cantorlot. You go straight to the city on foot or by wing."

Wanderer clapped his hands, "That does it then! I shall go across the land to find the Doctor!" He took a fierce stance, "Look out, Cantorlot! Here comes the Wanderer!"

"HOLD IT!" Derpy cried out suddenly, "I've made my decision!" She points her hoof at Wanderer, "I'm coming with you!"

Wanderer stood a bit back from her, "Whoa girl! No need for shouting!" He looked at each of them, "Well... if you got some kind of plan for that kid of yours, I'll let you come with."

Derpy replied, "I'll have Cherilee babysit her."

Wanderer thought to himself for a second, Do I really want to drive a family apart? That'd be kind of rude. Time for the decision! He then replied, "Best if you got ready for whatever we're going to face on the road. We might run into some other humans, and I want to bring you back to Dinky without any scratches."

Derpy happily answered his request of her, "I will! Thank you!"

The cards have been set into motion, Ponyville has been saved by Wanderer, he now knows where to go, and on the way to the gate he found a penny! Find a penny, pick it up, and all day, you'll have good luck! What was I doing again? Be prepared for a fight! This won't be some run-of-the-mill average fight sequence, it'll be a fight for his life!

The end of Chapter 5... after a short amount of time in the white room! (You again, don't need to see this unless you absolutely need his backstory)

Wanderer was sitting in a chair, he notices that you've entered and says, "Oh, hey... I think that my adventures are very tiring, but with the support of you people, we can keep being creative. For instance... listen to this haiku Author made..."

"The white room, empty...
"As if haters owned this place.
"Emptiness be theirs!
"For I have a life to act...
"They aren't bad, but they...
"Never seem to get nicer here.
"Either way, I belong...
"No matter what they say there...
"That is all portrayed!
"Here, in the empty universe!
"I'm full of questions,
"but do not have any time.
Sincerely yours, Author."

Wanderer coughed, "You're not here about haikus though, you're here to hear my answers... Here's the first one!"

Humbucker asks, "Who are you and how did you end up in this predicament?"

"Of course this would be the first question... get a snack, this may be a little long..." Wanderer starts off, "I can't tell you my name, but hear me out first! I have amnesia, and no I don't mean the game. How I got into this trouble is because of your gods, Celestia, Jesus, etc. and with a good reason... sort of. I was taken down with my universe of Pakuna by a paradox. Surprise, surprise, right?"

He waves his arm, "Of course, you aren't believing my amnesia story right now, but here's some more info: I cheated death!"

He stands up and walks back and forth, "My universe had its own source of magic, and I knew how to use the dark arts. Lo and behold the paradox came and I decided to initiate my plan... a sacrificial thing to be honest. Basically, those cards I keep with me are like my light arts, but if I combine certain cards, I can use the dark arts to teleport myself into heaven and the gods would see it as I had been killed by someone random. However..."

He sat back down and looked away awkwardly, "I done messed up! I used the wrong set of cards and ended my life by myself, but my gods saw this not as a suicide, but as an offering of my soul to purge any and all paradoxes. This wasn't what I had expected to happen and I even tried to tell them that I did it to get out of being put into the never-ending nightmare. They just said, 'This was your choice. No matter what you try to do, we will have you save multiple universes in danger of paradox implosion.'"

He suddenly hits the chair aside and grabs the camera, "I have to live for an infinite amount of years looking out for the balance when the gods can't do anything about it! Do you know how many times I get called out for a paradox? Three, that's right, three times every ten years! I don't have anything to do here! They don't even let me have any fun while I wait inevitably for another universe to get into trouble!"

He throws the camera against the ground and stomps on it until it can no longer get a signal. A new one appears in it's place while Wanderer continues, "The gods are worse than... I have no idea, because they never restored my memory! They just thought, "Oh, hey! Let's scatter his teen mind into a bunch of pieces and put them into random universes!" They don't even have the dignity to let me remember my friends!"

Wanderer walked towards the fallen over chair and sobs, "Now that you know my history, just leave, there are no more questions anyway. Think about your future before doing something stupid like me."

Well... this calls for one thing! Saving your game now! Say something back!

A-Alright... (Insert statement here)

OR

I-Is he a-alright?

Chapter 6: Mysterious occurances...

The pair was sitting under an apple tree, eating what else? Wanderer had kept the jacket that Rarity used to make him look like a girl and wore it more often. He said wearing it reminded him of the victory in Ponyille. Victories are good memories, aren't they? Enough, time to go back to the story.

Wanderer turned to Derpy and asked, "Do you honestly think it was a good idea to leave your kid behind? If it was me, I woulda stayed with her..."

Derpy looked back, "She'll be fine, she even handles herself well without me. I don't think this is a problem."

Wanderer stood up and yelled into the branches of the tree, "Get out here this instant Dinky! Crusaders, you come out too."

They all came out of hiding, Dinky fell down and looked confused, "How did you know where I was?"

Wanderer pointed to the leaves on the ground, "If you hide in a tree, you have to stay still, or else the leaves fall. Now why did you follow us? Be honest, all of you!"

The crusaders cried in unison, "We want to prove that you're not as strong as us! We're going to follow you until your journey is over!"

Can't do much against them...

Dinky looked pleadingly at her mother, "I want to stay with you! Your my mother, but you always go out on expeditions to find your precious Doctor! I always find that you come back with more than a scratch, or more recently, covered in blood!"

Derpy frowned, "You can't follow me Dinky! The way Wanderer and I are going has enemies somewhere along the way!"

Dinky yelled, "I don't care! I want my mom to stay home! I'll follow you until you're done if I have to!"

Wanderer scratched the back of his head, "Kid, she's right. There'll be more bad men than the ones that took you to that dungeon. If you don't-"

Dinky interrupted, "I told you I don't care! Make my mom stay home, or I will follow!"

Looks like persuasion doesn't work on this... I could try... no, that would only work until she got halfway to the town,

Wanderer thought to himself, he turned to Derpy, "Sorry, you should be the one to choose."

Derpy looked surprised, "Y-You don't have anything to say to her?"

Wanderer looked off into the distance, "Maybe... however it's your child! Her strong will and young mind will only lead her on one path currently. Your decision, is give up seeing the Doctor and go home with your child. Otherwise, we'll have to take her with us!"

Derpy looked between Wanderer and Dinky, "I-I..."

Scootaloo stepped forward, "She needs you, but if you go away from her, then she'll be completely lost as if no one had given her a life in the first place." The words coming from Scootaloo were surprising (And not surprising considering she never mentions her parents), she continued, "You can't leave her behind, or else she'll feel abandoned by you." Scootaloo looked down as if trying to hide a deep pain from a long time ago.

Derpy thought for a little longer, then decided what to do, "Dinky, you are strong. You've handled me coming home everyday with the same thing: scratches, blood, but no Doctor. Now I have the ability to perhaps see him again, but with you..." She paused to think about what words she would use, "I think he would love how you've grown under your own care."

Dinky looked happy, but at the same time she was crying, "I-I love you mom!" They both hugged while tears of joy came down from Dinky's eyes.

Wanderer eventually broke this bonding moment by saying: "Alright, all's good with you two now! Let's get moving before the time of day turns to dusk."

The bridge to Cantorlot, it was made for the trade ponies, but has been an abandoned route, because of the frontline battle that never seemed to end.

Wanderer looked at this stone structure, "Are you sure this is the best way? I mean, I've seen better ways..."

Derpy courageously stepped forward, "Come on! Let's go!"

On the wall of Cantorlot.

One pony was using a telescope to observe the battlefield, he eventually saw Wanderer's group, "There's a group of anti-pony ponies on the bridge! Archer, fire at the oil barrels!"

Back with Wanderer

Wanderer looked back mid-way across the bridge, "Say... what do you think those barrels were for?"

Derpy looked back at him, "Do you really want to stop and question barrels?"

Wanderer bit his lip, "I hate barrels!" Suddenly an arrow flies through the air, "Um... is that arrow on fire?"

Sweetie Belle suddenly screamed, "I realized what those barrels are! They're-"

One of the barrels exploded and sent a shockwave towards them, "RUN!!!!!!!" Wanderer yelled out to everyone. Derpy picked Dinky up and flew to the wall while the crusaders and Wanderer ran for their lives as the bridge collapsed very quickly.

There must be some system in the bridge, a bunch bombs that act almost immediately to fire in useful spots!

Derpy and Dinky made it, but the expanse of the bridge was too long for the crusaders and Wanderer. Applebloom turns her head while running and asks, "What are we gonna do mister?" Wanderer quickly pulled out a card and focused energy into it, "What kind of idiot pulls out an ace of hearts here!?"

Wanderer finished charging the card and yelled, "Teleport!" The crusaders had been teleported over to where Derpy and Dinky were, but Scootaloo was still running somehow, "That didn't get you? How in the-?"

The bridge collapsed under them, and Wanderer quickly grabbed Scootaloo and held her near his chest as they fell down.

"Man... nothing exciting is happening today." Complained a human near the bottom of the bridge.

"You can say that again... it's like the only way to get exciting thing to happen is by wishing to the gods above!" complained the human next to him. He looked up and noticed Wanderer and the bridge falling.

"Exciting thing coming down!" Wanderer yelled as soon as the second human said something. Both of them were smashed by the rubble of the bridge. Thankfully Wanderer and Scootaloo landed safely, but Wanderer sprained his ankle on the fall.

Scootaloo noticed almost immediately, "Are you alright? Your leg looks bad."

Wanderer didn't show pain on his face, "I don't care! We need to find our way back up there! Hey! Derpy! Do you know any safe way up?"

Derpy yelled back down, "There's a slope ahead of your position!"

Wanderer yelled in unison with Scootaloo, "That way isn't safe! There's humans in that direction!"

Derpy yelled in anger, "There is no better way!"

Wanderer looked across the ravine and saw incoming hostiles, "Incoming! Scoots, get down!" They get into cover, but cannot move due to many incoming arrows, "Looks like you're going to have to show off some speed for us, Scoots. Take this battle-saddle and go to the slope without me."

Scootaloo courageously smiled, "Nope! Time to defend my friend!" She came out of cover after every barrage of arrows to shoot an enemy, "Take that, you... you... I don't know what to call them..."

Wanderer and Scoots seem pretty screwed, so let's switch perspectives!

Derpy's Point of View

"Um... Derpy, we need to help Scootaloo!" Applebloom exclaimed, "I don't see any way out of that!"

Derpy looked down and said, "No I'm sure they'll be-"

Sweetie Belle chimed interestingly, "They have no chance of getting out of that situation. They're cornered by those humans, and even if Wanderer is shooting his bow with Scoots shooting her crossbow, they only slow them down."

Derpy looked at Sweetie Belle with a glare, "So they need some kind of help?"

Sweetie Belle pointed to the top of the wall and said, "We should get someone up there to focus fire on the area that Scoots and Wanderer are in."

Applebloom facehoofed, "That's never going to work! They shot at us when we were crossing the bridge!"

Derpy added, "Besides, how are we going to get the commander to do so when we have no clearance ourselves?"

Sweetie Belle insisted, "If we don't, then Scoots will die! And Wanderer-but mostly Scoots! Think about the kids!"

Derpy sighed in annoyance, "Alright! Let's find our way up."

On top of the ramparts, Derpy finds one of the most impulsive mares in Equestria, Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Rainbow!" Derpy said as she approached.

Rainbow Dash got a sudden look of fear in her eyes, "Derpy!? What are you doing here?" Derpy explained the situation Wanderer was in, "So you need me to divert some troops in his direction? Oh, Derpy Hooves..."

Sweetie Belle exclaimed, "Rainbow Dash! Scoots is down there too! The Cutie Mark Crusaders need to regroup, but she's cornered with Wanderer!"

"Scoots too? Alright, Derpy! That's seriously the last straw!" Rainbow yelled. She was turning a shade of red now, "First you broke the ballista, then you broke a section of the wall, and you put a filly's life in danger! I seriously have had enough of you! Your ditzyness is ruining the defense of Cantorlot!"

Wanderer was heard yelling, "Hey, if you haven't noticed, I'm still stuck! Send backup!"

Rainbow Dash pointed at the battlefield, "Then you took a human of unknown origin to Cantorlot! How can we trust you near our cities anymore? Leave, or I'll be forced to-"

Wanderer suddenly yelled, "Scootaloo! Stay down, there are too many out there! AHH!" His scream of pain lingered in the air for a brief moment, then he yelled, "I need medical attention for a filly, this isn't a joke! And would someone perhaps, GIVE ME SOME HELP!?"

Rainbow Dash's face turned frightened, "Scootaloo? No, I have to help them out!" She flew off towards the battlefield.
Back to Wanderer!

Wanderer was patching Scootaloo up after pulling out the arrow that had hit her flank, "You can't fight, alright? Let me see if I can get us out of this."

Scootaloo pointed towards a rainbow crossing overhead, "R-Rain...bow...D-Dash." She fainted.

Wanderer looked at the rainbow and saw a Pegasus diving towards him, she landed and asked, "Is she alright?" When Wanderer nodded she pulled out a... mini nyan cat? "Eat this. It'll heal all wounds and enable a state of super speed."Wanderer shrugged and ate it, it tasted like a cat and a piece of toast (I hope none of you know what that tastes like together. e_o (Eye twitch)). Suddenly an aura engulfed him and his leg was working properly, "Now the effects are hard to get used to, so just ease into-" Wanderer suddenly flashed over to a nearby human and stabbed him with the his own sword, "Them..."

Wanderer was killing humans left and right in a matter of seconds, but after about 10 kills he ran back to Scootaloo and picked her up, then ran into the ramparts, "Now that was probably the most fun I've had since I came here!"

Rainbow Dash finally caught up and said, "Wow, I've never seen that kind of reaction to a tyan cat. There really is something really strange about you."

Wanderer bowed and said, "Thanks for the compliment, but most of my speed came from this girl, who needs medical attention by the way." He whistles toward the infirmary, and two ponies came and took Scootaloo off in ten seconds flat.

Applebloom asked, "Hey, Rainbow Dash! The cutie mark crusaders need training, can you please get us some training after Scootaloo recovers?"

Rainbow Dash looked at her with disdain, "You need to stop this illusion that you're going to be major asset in the battle, Applebloom. You're not even old enough to properly carry a battle-saddle."

Derpy spoke up, "So... is the Doctor around?"

Rainbow Dash quickly answered, "Stop thinking about him! He's... not here anymore."

"Actually... I think you're wrong!" Wanderer objected to Rainbow Dash, "There's a contradiction in that statement." Wanderer pointed out.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"This is some kind of joke right?" Rainbow Dash replied, "You have evidence that I'm lying?"

"This is my evidence!" He pulls out a hat that used to belong to Applejack, "Guess who's hair I found in this hat?"

"Applejack's, so what?"

"Wrong! The hair in here wasn't blonde! It was brown!" Wanderer pointed out with precision.

Rainbow Dash jumped back in surprise, "What!? Where did you find the hat?"

Wanderer pointed toward the ravine, "Down there! There was an area near where I fell that held this hat. I don't see why you should keep lying Rainbow, the Doctor was wearing this hat whenever he had to go somewhere. If he has no disguise, then ponies would be all over him wanting to know why he started this travesty!"

Rainbow Dash sighed, "Fine, he's in Cantorlot, but I won't say anything more than that."

Wanderer asked, "One more question, why did he go places these days?"

Rainbow Dash replied, "He's trying to fix the D.J.D."

"That's all I wanted to know, thank you!" Wanderer walked off on his own, Derpy followed him while the crusaders went to check on Scootaloo. Dinky also followed, but was silent the whole way to their destination.

Cantorlot residential district

The trio was walking down the street, not paying any mind to anyone that approached them. Until a stallion stepped in front of them, "I-I want your money! Give it here!" He was holding a crossbow with his magic near Wanderer's head.

Wanderer didn't flinch, but Derpy stood behind him in fear, "Now, now... I think you'll do well to put that down." Wanderer looked around, "Besides, have you seen what they do to thieves in these parts?"

"SHUT UP! Now give me your money!" The stallion snapped.

"Well... I guess I can give you a lesson," Wanderer commented before he slid underneath the crossbows aim. He quickly grabs the crossbow and lets it go nearly the same moment after replacing the bolt, "You're using the wrong bolts, dude. The effectiveness of those is the same as me spitting."

The stallion fired the bolt, it was as Wanderer said, it was just a stick. The stallion checked a pouch and saw he had no bolts, "Y-You took my bolts?"

Wanderer gave them back, "Sell these instead of killing ponies and humans for money. It'll do you better to listen to what I say." Wanderer looked intensely at the stallion when saying: "Besides, killing me gives no merit here." Wanderer started walking toward the royal district.

Derpy and Dinky followed Wanderer as he left, "How come you didn't think he'd have shot you when you grabbed his crossbow?" Derpy asked plainly.

Wanderer answered plainly, "Because he wants money, and if he had a crossbow, then he could threaten anyone into giving him money..." He let out a long breath, "How much has this small war affected the ponies?"

"Well..." Derpy began, "I hear that all major cities in every country are much poorer because they have no arrows or bolts, so they have to buy most of them from here."

"Hey! Give us your money!" Yelled a pack leader of three humans, "If you don't, there'll be trouble..."

Wanderer pointed towards a market stand, "I left them in there."

"Don't be stupid! Give us your money!" They were approaching slowly. Dinky immediately hid behind a nearby weapon rack.

"Derpy, get out of here!" She flew away, one of the men chased after her, but the others stayed and fought Wanderer.

Time for a boss battle!!!!!

The leader threw a scimitar at Wanderer and said, "Let's fight like men! It is coward killing time!"

Wanderer caught the weapon and charged at the man, "This will be over shortly!" He swung the scimitar, but missed.

"Too slow kid! Now die!" The leader yelled as he swung a claymore.

Wanderer quickly rolled to avoid death, and successfully avoided it. Now was his chance to get an upper hand, but... the human draws a card? "What?"

"Sorry... but they paid me to do this." The card flashed violently in his hand, "Goodbye... Wanderer!"

Wanderer pushed the human, but it was too late. The human and Wanderer simply disappeared...
We should check on Derpy!

Using her wings to her advantage, she successfully got away from the human chasing her, but she couldn't tell where she had gone. "This is... the royal district? But that wasn't there before..." She said to herself when she noticed the giant portal in front of the palace stairway. None of the ponies acted like it was there, "Hey, what's that portal?"

"What portal? I hope you're not getting loopy, or perhaps you already are..."

How rude! Besides that, how can he not see the portal standing out in the open? The portal was in plain sight as Derpy said, but it wasn't seen by any onlookers.

What has happened to Wanderer? And Derpy for that matter? How is she the only pony that can see the portal? Am I just going to ask questions all the time in the next chapter? Find out next time... on Wanderer's journey!

Saving your game... while your game saves, how about a riddle?

Sam and his lawyer are in the jailhouse, the judge is not allowing bail, but Sam is allowed to leave. Why was he able to leave jail?

Answer correctly,

OR

Answer incorrectly,

OR

Just sit there in silence...

Author's Note

There will be two chapters with the same number... one will be in Wanderer's perspective, and the other will be in Derpy's.

Chapter 7: Derpy: Learning the basics of loss, and shooting!

Continuing from Derpy's last known moment.

The portal still lingered in front of the palace, but Derpy didn't try to do anything with the portal, but stare at it with great curiosity. She eventually tried going through the portal with curiosity driving her a little mad. She came in looking the way she came in from. The sky was red, most of the buildings were destroyed, and in the distance, Derpy could hear explosions.

On the other side stood Wanderer, but different... he didn't wear his jacket and he was sobbing on the stairs, "I blew it! This happened all because I made that stupid mistake!" He noticed Derpy as soon as she came through the portal fully, "What? Somepony actually walked through that portal? Who are you?"

Derpy looked at him in surprise, "Don't you remember me? I ran when you tried to fight off those two humans." She explained what happened in detail.

Wanderer cocked an eyebrow, "You aren't making sense, fellow stranger, unless... oh now I know what happened!" He looked behind her expectantly, but there was nothing behind her, "Ah, drat. Get comfortable ma'am. You're not going back to your dimension for a little while."

Derpy shot a glance of fear toward him, "Wh-What do you mean, I'm not going back for a while?" Oh no! I forgot I left Dinky behind when I was being chased! She asked after Wanderer's long pause, "Is there a way back quickly? I really need to get back to my child!"

Wanderer looked shocked, "You have a kid? Man... I'll explain, this is the dimension in which I made terrible mistakes, and you aren't supposed to be here. You must have spent a lot of time with me in the dimension, so you need to go back to where we were when you were separated from me. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Derpy looked around and replied, "I understand, but I stumbled here accidentally..."

"WHAT!? YOU DON'T REMEMBER!?" Wanderer suddenly snapped, "Sorry... you seriously don't remember?"

"No, why is that such a bad thing?" Derpy asked with curiosity glazing her eyes.

"Because if you don't remember the way back, then you'll never find the portal back to your dimension."

This sounded serious, even if this Wanderer could be a fake copy trying to lead her astray. "Do you think you could lead me to the residential district, I think that's where I lost you."

Wanderer put on an awkward smile, "Yeah, about that area..." He looked away, "You'll have a hard time getting past the humans. They pretty much have the area under control."

Derpy snapped, "I need to get back to my dimension though! How do I sneak past them?"

Wanderer jumped onto the nearest building, "Follow me! I might know a way there!"
Above the residential district.

The street was full of humans and weaponry, it looked as if a war could be fought in this one street. Derpy had been staring down at the street trying to think of what route she could take, and then...

"Hmm... I know! Wanderer, you carry me like a backpack and get me to that portal!" Derpy said sounding like she realized the answer to the hardest puzzle ever (Speaking of which, have you figured out the one from last chapter?).

Wanderer seemed to comply, but reluctantly so. "What if this doesn't work?" He asked as if it could fail immediately.

"It won't, now go!" Derpy held onto Wanderer's back while he ran across as much rooftops as he could, then he dropped down into an alley nearest to the portal. He snuck his way past a market stand and made halfway to his goal before someone called his attention...

"Hey, you! The boss doesn't want to be disturbed!"

Wanderer turned towards the man and replied, "I know, that's why I'm moving quietly! You blew my stealth! Now shut up!"

"Wait..." The man yelled to his comrades as soon as he realized what was going on, "IT'S WANDERER! GET 'IM!"

Wanderer suddenly burst into a sprint for the portal, but it was blocked by the reinforcements, "Come on then! I will fail, but for a noble cause!" He threw down an ace of hearts and was teleported with Derpy to the portal, "Time for you to leave! I can't come with, so go!"

Derpy grabbed a crossbow from a weaponry stand and reluctantly shot one of the humans, "I won't leave until you're safe!"

Wanderer smiled sheepishly, "Aw..." He suddenly ran towards Derpy and kicked her into the portal, "You're not dying in my dimension! Now find my alternate persona!" As Derpy flew through the portal, she could see Wanderer fighting for his life, but eventually an archer gets an arrow into his knee, then a heavy human grabbed a claymore and swung for Wanderer's neck, Derpy covered her eyes by the fatality (I was alive, but then I first took an arrow to the knee, then a claymore to the neck).
Cantorlot residential district.

Derpy fell down onto the hard concrete. Neither Wanderer nor Dinky were there, and Derpy began to cry, Why did he have to die? It's all my fault! No one in particular came up to ask what was wrong with her.

Except one... "What's up sugarcube? Why are you crying all alone?" Applejack had just come into the street as Derpy was crying.

"I-I... Someone died because of me... a friend is who knows where... and... and..." Derpy explained through the tears.

It got through to Applejack, "Who's your friend? Ah'm pretty sure ah saw some refugees on the horizon."

Derpy answered as clearly as she could muster, "His name is Wanderer..." Applejack walked off toward the police station, "Wait... Applejack..."

Applejack stopped and turned around, then asked, "What is it sugarcube?"

"Could you teach me how to defend my friend for when he gets back here?" Derpy asked politely.

"I got some papers to file, so technically you're saving my life here." Applejack sheepishly smiled, "Yeah, let's get to that target range! It'll be nice to be away from so many papers!" Applejack represents the element of honesty, so she basically has to monitor guard duty day-to-day by commission of Twilight Sparkle, Seems odd how a ranch girl like Applejack would be the guard leader... and that's Derpy's thoughts about this.
Target range!

"Alright sugarcube! Keep your feet steady before shooting!" Applejack cheered Derpy on as she approached the targeting area. She fired off a bolt, but missed, "Honey, make sure you stare down the target before you shoot!"

"Okay!" Derpy said as the battle saddle reloaded the crossbow. Derpy tried concentrating on the target and fired, but missed again... why? Her eyes weren't looking directly at the target.

"Derpy! You need to narrow your eyes at the target, both of them!" Wanderer had entered without anyone noticing, "Miss Applejack, are you having any problems teaching her?"

"I can do this..." Derpy said as she strained to un-cross her eyes, she got it and aimed with new found sight, then fired. The target made a sound reacting to the bolt, it sounded like a victory fanfare. She only realized then that the bolt had hit the head of the target. The great achievement here was that the bolt was stuck in the middle of the head.

"Nice shot! A true marksman with un-crossed eyes if I do say so myself!" Wanderer cheered.

"Nice job, mom!" Dinky cried out.

"It was a shot that deserves a medal!" Katherine super-praised.

"That was amazing sugarcube!" Applejack praised, "It was even better than our lead sniper!"

If my eyes weren't always like this, then I could do that? Derpy thought surprised after hearing everyone praise her. "Thank you all!" Derpy exclaimed to everyone.
In front of the staircase that used to have a portal.

"And that's what happened to you?" Wanderer clarified after being filled in.

"Sounds like a bunch of horse apples... Wanderer was with me the whole time." Dinky replied to her story.

"Now, now... I believe her... even if the nearest someone should call me crazy." Wanderer admitted, "I'm already a little crazy from our adventure, but... I think it's finally time to find our Doctor!"

No white room on this chapter perspective, but if you go on the other one there might be...
Save derps all around!

Derpy says: "Derp!" She crosses her eyes, and smiles.

AND

Wanderer says: "Derp!" He attempts to cross his eyes like Derpy, but only embarrasses himself.

Author's Note

Remember that some details here are explained in the other perspective...

Chapter 7: Wanderer: *insert clever title here

Chapter 7: Wanderer: *insert clever title here

Where is Wanderer? He's in the Everfree Forest! It has more bad stuff in it now!

The humans, Wanderer, and Dinky appeared in the middle of the forest. Wanderer quickly ran to Dinky and pulled out a card, "Stand still, Dinky! This won't end well if you don't!"

The leader looked at Wanderer confused, "What are you doing? Is that the card I used?"

Wanderer used the card on Dinky and answered, "What you did was not supposed to attempted! What you did basically, was use a power you're not supposed to use. Now disappear from existence!" Suddenly the leader and his pawn disappeared into thin air, "There... Dinky, do you know where we are?"

Dinky answered coldly, "Away from my mom, but also in the Everfree Forest."

"Obviously we need to teach you man-AH!" He screamed in fright when a bush rustled. A pair of timber wolves came out into plain view, "Another battle? Why...?"
Time for a random encounter!

Wanderer pulls out his sword and makes an attempt at circling them to get their attention off of Dinky, but they didn't seem to care. At best I can at least break their backs! He ran in and broke one of them, and when the other faced him, he kicked it and gave a flurry of blows to the head.

Both timber wolves were defeated! Time to cele-wait... they're not defeated!

The parts of the wolves started to combine and create a bigger wolf. It let out a fearsome roar, and in doing so, it scared Dinky off into another part of the forest.

Wanderer ran next to her, but still had the wolf chasing after them, "Geez, when does this thing run out of steam!?" Wanderer asked before grabbing an explosion bottle and throwing it at the timber wolf. The effect was temporary, the wolf was destroyed, but Wanderer and Dinky still ran away. "Let's go into that conveniently placed treehouse!" Wanderer yelled as they got near one.

They ran in to a zebra balancing on a staff, "Visitors? I didn't think this would occur..." The zebra came back down to Earth and looked with her head leaning to one side confused.

Wanderer spoke in a begging voice, "Is there a safe path out of this forest we can find? We'd really appreciate not losing our hinds."

"Are you mocking the way I speak?" the zebra replied angrily, "An introduction is best, I'm Zecora, and no there is not a safe way out of this forest."

"Well then may I ask, what is the safest way?" Wanderer snapped.

"We really need to get out of this forest miss Zecora." Dinky added in.

"Did you really need to bring a child here with you?" Zecora asked, "If she dies, then I don't know what you'd do."

"Cut out the stupid rhyming and just lead us back to civilization!" Wanderer snapped.

Zecora walked towards the door and said, "Follow me, then. We'll find civilization."
Six minutes of walking later...

"We made it!" Wanderer exclaimed as they got closer to Ponyville, "Now to get back to Cantorlot! Thanks for the help, Zecora!"

"I hope you stay safe in your travels," Zecora said before walking off, "Hope your journey goes well!"

That was sort of another rhyme! Why I oughta-! Wanderer thought to himself before feeling a shockwave from nowhere, he grunted and looked towards Cantorlot, "I hope your mother is okay..."

"Hey! My mom went through a lot! I bet she's fine!" Dinky said with confidence, "Besides... I think she'll be fine because she's a pegasus! I wish I had their speed!"

"Looks like Zecora calmed your anger towards your mother, huh?" Wanderer started walking and scratching his chin at the same time, "Why is she your mother? She's a pegasus and you're a unicorn, that doesn't make much sense."

"I don't want to talk about that..." Dinky said suddenly saddened.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to pry." Wanderer apologized.

"Darlings! What are you doing near the Everfree forest?" cried Rarity. Following her was Pinkie Pie and Katherine.

"Rarity? I mean... I could ask you the same thing colonel! What are you doing away from your post!" Wanderer asked angrily.

"You and I both know that's a bunch of horse apples! Especially when I send you and Derpy to Cantorlot and you come back next afternoon!" Rarity looked worried, "Is she...?"

"She's fine, but I need to get back to her, or else... I can't escort her back to her beloved Doctor." Wanderer explained, "I've got to get back to Cantorlot fast! Do you have a tyancat to spare? According to my knowledge, she could be in danger."

"What if she's not? You move very quickly, so just trust she'll be fine..." Rarity thought for a moment, then gasps with realization, "IDEA!!!"

Wanderer looked at her annoyed, "Please never do that again!"

"Sorry darling, it's my thing!" Rarity smiled sheepishly, "Anyways, you can go on the cart that travels between Cantorlot and here!"

"How come I didn't just use that in the first place?" Wanderer angrily asked.

"It would make too much sense silly! Besides, how else would you going with Katherine to Cantorlot build up without this?" Pinkie explained for Wanderer and the readers.

"Um... I swear I didn't have a hand in... whatever she just explained." Katherine held her hands up as she said this. She seemed innocent.

"Whatever... let's just get a move on!" Wanderer cried out as they all ran to the cart.

The cart was very spacious, but smelled of dung and urine. On the side was graffiti, it read: "See if you can survive living in this dump!" People can be very nice... but others, not so much.
It took half an hour to transport Wanderer, Dinky, and Katherine to Cantorlot, then it took another half hour to find out that Derpy was at the shooting range.

Wanderer entered the range and saw Derpy miss a shot, then another, "Derpy! You need to narrow your eyes at the target, both of them!" He turned to Applejack as the rest of team entered, "Miss Applejack, are you having any trouble teaching her?"

"No, but-" Applejack was interrupted by Derpy getting a perfect between the eyes headshot.

"Nice shot! A true marksman with un-crossed eyes if I do say so myself!" Wanderer cheered

Everyone gave her praise for her truly amazing shot, but Wanderer sensed something in the corner of the room. It looked like a dark cloud of smoke, but as soon as Wanderer turned to face it, it simply disappeared. That... must be the villain! Wanderer deduced, I'm pretty sure everybrony knows who it is.
The stairway to the palace!

"And that's what happened to you?" Wanderer clarified being filled in.

"Sound like a bunch of horse apples... Wanderer's was with me the whole time." Dinky replied to her story.

"Now, now... I believe her... even if the nearest someone should call me crazy," Wanderer admitted Besides... I knew that would happen... I am Wanderer of universes after all! he proclaimed in his head, "I'm a little crazy from our adventure, but... I think it's finally time to find our Doctor!"

Derp saves all around!

Derpy says, "Derp!" and crosses her eyes.

AND

Wanderer says "Derp!" and tried to cross his eyes, but embarrasses himself.

Author's Note

Should've mentioned this a little earlier...
Katherine is about Wanderer's age, sports a camo shirt, and her hairstyle is short, but styled.

Chapter 8: Thieves!? Trial!? For more info... just Google it!

Front door of the castle!

The group of Derpy, Wanderer, Dinky, and Katherine stood in front of the massive front door.

"Look out castle dwellers! Here comes Wanderer!" Wanderer yelled unexpectedly.

"I'm sure they have nothing to fear." Katherine bluntly added.

"Ouch, that hurts, but is true..." Wanderer admitted in defeat.

Opening the door led to a crime scene! Police tape blocked the way towards a pedestal.

"Well... it seems wherever I go there is some problem," Wanderer complained.

In the corner of the room is a middle aged man playing a six-string (it's a country guitar).

"I think you guys should go look for the Doctor without me." Wanderer admitted.

"Alright, but why?" Katherine asked curiously.

"Don't worry... I just want to find out what's going on here." Wanderer walked towards the man in the corner without looking back towards the group he left.

Update: Wanderer left his party! Duh, right?

Wanderer approached the six-string player and asked, "Hey, what's going on with that pedestal?"

"They are trying to figure out who took some treasure called the crown of this Celestia chap," He replied in an orderly British accent. He pulled out a flute, "I found this a little while ago... would you play with me, good sir?"

"Why not? I think I know how to play a flute..." Wanderer grabbed the flute and started playing along side this man.

Some of the proper mares and stallions walked past without giving them so much as a glance, but some of the lower ranking ponies threw a bit or two into the man's guitar case. After a few minutes passed... they both stopped playing and the man stood up, "That was very good flute playing! Unfortunately... I can't work with you anymore."

As if Wanderer knew the whole time, he placed his hand on the pocket that usually holds his wallet, "Really? Now let me guess..." The man ran off as soon as Wanderer paused, "That's what I was afraid of..."

The thief ran out the front entrance and jumped over the hand rail, Wanderer in hot pursuit, gave chase by doing the same thing. They both land simultaneously on the roof of a house and the thief jumps down towards a window that looked Asian.

Past the window was a group of women and mares in kimonos, drinking red tea. They all had taken a sip before the thief came barreling through the window, "Ah, hello fair ladies..." he said with a certain etiquette before jumping through the next window. Wanderer came through the window and followed the thief through the next window.

The thief had reached street level when Wanderer landed on the adjacent rooftop, he was making a mad dash for the exit to Cantorlot! At least Wanderer thought so...

The thief stopped in the middle of the streets and looked around for Wanderer, and he started walking towards the main road of the town. Wanderer snuck his way on the roof towards the thief and pounced onto him, "Give me back my wallet, you thief!" he yelled as he landed on the thief's back.

"BOTH OF YOU! FREEZE!" A violent voice struck through the air. The crowd parted to make a group of guards visible, the leader had a blue mane, white fur, and a shield as a cutie mark (A.K.A. Shining Armor, it's obvious), "Look what we have here, two thieves."

"Wait... neither of us stole anything... well except him, he took my wallet!" Wanderer let out an objective shout.

"We're taking you to the round table trial to decide whether that's true or not!" Shining Armor replied as all the guards surrounded them, "There's no use in denying that we're taking you either way."

Great... because of a simple thief, I have to go to court. Wanderer complained in his mind as they were dragged away to the courtroom lounge.

Inside the pre-court lounge...

The furnishing in here is nice at least... benches near the window are always good in my book! That thief won't stop trying to break the windows though...

"Why did I have to go to court for something so simple? Murdering someone is acceptable, but thievery doesn't seem very needing of a trial," Wanderer finally spoke aloud, "Could you tell me your name, sir?"

"Why do you want to know my name?" The thief spoke calmly, even though he was trying to break double paned glass a minute ago, "There is nothing to speak to you of little boy."

"Oh there is... a lot," Wanderer replied, "Besides, what is so bad about me knowing your name?"

"Fine... It's Vince..." Vince answered, suddenly his eyes narrowed at Wanderer, "Now allow me to ask, young chap, what are you going to present as your case against the round table?" The thief asked.

"The round table? You mean like King Arthur?" Wanderer asked, Is the round table that bad?

"Oh, it's worse than that... basically, the table is going to be filled with detectives, but if you know the right tricks..." Vince pointed out, "You can get by those chaps easily."

Wanderer raised his hands, "Whoa buddy, let's not lie on the stand here! If we do that, they can only suspect us..."

"Not unless I use my best poker face..." Vince objected.

"No, I mean I think that if you lie about where you were, then you won't be able to leave this place." Wanderer quickly pointed out.

"W-What!? How would you know?" Vince asked in surprise.

"Trust me... being the thief you are..." Wanderer held a guitar pick up to Vince's face, "You should respect your betters!"

Vince checked his pockets and praised Wanderer, "Very nice pick."

The bailiff comes into the lounge, "Trial... is about to be in session... Go take your seats." The bailiff sounds very bored out of his mind. So what if I'm getting like, sixty an hour? This job doesn't really speak to me... Wanderer figured that was what the bailiff thinking.

Round table courtroom...

It was as it was as the title of the courtroom entitled, the court didn't look like a regular court. More like it looked like a room with a single throne and a round table in the middle of it. Surrounding the table were Shining Armor, Princess Luna, and Applejack... there was also Princess Twilight Sparkle sitting in the throne. Wanderer and Vince took their seats and looked towards Twilight along with everyone else.

"Court is now in session for the trial of... who stole the crown of Celestia?" Twilight simply stated.

"Ahll right, your majesty. Time to show the evidence we have collected up to this point," Applejack said to everyone, "Luna, if you would please..."

Luna pulls out a bag of evidence, "The things we found at the crime scene were a phoenix feather, a pocketknife, and this gem..." Luna holds the gem with her magic for everyone to see, "This was once a gem in the crown, but it was taken out for an unknown reason. In any case, we think that this is proof that Vince took the crown and hid it in his hideout." Luna let out a long breath signaling that she was done.

"The first piece of evidence that has proof we're talking about is: Vince likes wearing those darned phoenix feathers." Applejack stated.

"She's right, I love wearing the feathers of any phoenix I kill," Vince admitted with a devilish smile, "I quite enjoy the feast they make is both scrumptious and hot!

"The second piece of evidence shows that he used it to open the glass casing," Applejack added to her last statement, "We couldn't find out why the gem was taken out, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that this varmint is the thief of the crown!"

"IGIARI!" Wanderer suddenly yelled, "Wait... sorry, got my language mixed up..." He tried this again, "OBJECTION! Though those two pieces of evidence have some merit, but... your logic is flawed a little." He shakes his head, "No, I don't see the thief wanting to stay near the crime scene just to play a little guitar."

"I also went back because I thought there was a phoenix in the area." Vince admitted with guilt.

That doesn't help your case at all!

"Then why did we find his fingerprints on the pocketknife?" Luna chimed in for Applejack, "If that doesn't prove his guilt, then what does?"

"Could we speak about the feather?" Wanderer asked, "Is there some kind of quality to it? Like for rubbing out something?"

A non-stop debate is about to begin! All characters, but Wanderer and Twilight will take part in this until Wanderer yells "OBJECTION!" Weak points will be highlighted in bold, but there will be multiple weak points, choose wisely because only one will work, Wanderer! That is how this works for you people who are not familiar with Dangan Ronpa. For more information... just Google it!
Begin non-stop debate!

Luna started, "The feather can't absorb fingerprints, but it does absorb the magic traces on an object."

"My feather was on the crime scene!? When did I leave it there?" Vince suddenly yelled.

"When you went ahead and stole the crown, that's when!" Applejack exclaimed.

"OBJECTION!" Wanderer yelled before anyone could add anything in. SUCCESS!!! A+!

"Why is that on the crime scene if our culprit was trying to keep his thievery a secret?" Wanderer asked, "The feather as you said, only absorbs the magic trace on an object. We humans have no magic."

"That's right, chap! If I wanted to take your crown, I would clean my fingerprints off of the pocketknife with a rag!" Vince added in, "Smashing, now can I leave?"

"Not so fast! Even though you made a good assertion, sugarcube, that doesn't mean he knew about it." Applejack objected.

"Well... that went well until you said that..." Wanderer scratched his chin, "What would he want the gem out for though? It's a crown, but I doubt it's weight can be too much with a gem in it." Wanderer shook his head, "This is starting to seem obvious who didn't do it, I'm sure of that!"

"Then let's talk about something else," Applejack remarked, "Shining Armor, how about you show off some more evidence?"

"Sure thing," Shining Armor enthusiastically said, "This piece of cloth of Vince's cloak had been found at the scene of the crime!"

You're basing all this on a piece of cloth? Seriously, dude? Wanderer thought to himself.

Begin new non-stop debate!

Shining Armor began, "That piece of cloth is all the proof we need, I'm sure of that!"

"And why, chap, is this affecting my smashingly open-shut case?" Vince asked.

"Because it has a strand of your hair on it!" Applejack continued.

"But that couldn't prove it was me right chap? I don't think I would leave my cloth there to rot."

"OBJECTION!" Wanderer yelled. SUCCESS! A+!

"You're all wrong again..." Wanderer smashed a fly on the table, "If you knew by what Vince has already told us, then you would know that he wouldn't leave evidence pointing towards him. I'll admit..." Wanderer paused to look for the right words, "The real culprit was actually a unicorn!"

"Hold on, now! How can you prove that?" Luna asked, "You have no witnesses in this court, and there is little eviden-"

"The feather!" Wanderer snapped, "Why haven't you suspected that was used to eliminate all traces of magic? Come on, your highness!"

Applejack jumped at his conclusion, "So... the culprit is a magic-user that took the crown?" Wanderer answered with a nod, "But there's a problem with that! We can't pinpoint the real culprit in a town full of magic-users!"

"There's actually an easier way to do this..." Wanderer pointed out, "What if, only the ponies here are the possible suspects? Twilight, Luna, and Shining Armor can use magic, so we have to determine which of them is the true culprit!"

"What!?" Luna yelled in fury.

"I-I couldn't have done it!" Twilight said suddenly knocked back into reality with Wanderer's accusation.

"Sorry, but you neither of you two are my suspect, which means..." Wanderer points his finger in Shining Armor's direction, "You were the one who did it!"

"W-What!? No, I did not!" Shining Armor yelled furiously, "If it was me, then I want to hear some proof!" He pointed his hoof at Wanderer, "Proof that only I could've done it!"

"With pleasure..." Wanderer said in a cold voice.

A climax sequence is about to begin! This is one of the last puzzles in the round table courtroom! Try to reconstruct the crime's sequence of events and use them as the last nails in the culprit's coffin! That's another piece from Dangan Ronpa, so enjoy! Unfortunately, in Dangan you had to construct the events by yourself, so Wanderer is going into it immediately! So before he does exactly that, try to figure it out on your own!

Begin climax sequence!

"Now..." Wanderer began, "The first thing the culprit would have to do was steal the phoenix feather and pocketknife. The pocketknife had fingerprints because of its owner never having washed it."

Wanderer continued, "The owner was most likely off gallivanting with his six-string and earning money from the citizens. While he was doing that, the culprit slipped into the palace and used the pocket knife to open the glass case..."

"When he opened the case, he had to make it look like Vince had done it, by planting the pocketknife on the scene and cleaning it using the phoenix feather!" Wanderer elegantly danced the words into place, "But he knew that the crown was valuable and tried hiding it so that he could more intensely frame Vince."

"He made some obvious mistakes though, for instance saying that these items of importance were not clean..." Wanderer pointed out, "Which can only mean one thing..."

Wanderer paused-as the screen showed both him intimidatingly yelling and Shining Armor scared-before yelling a phrase.
"YOU'RE BUSTED, GOOD SIR!"

End of climax sequence!

"I-I-I-I object, to..." Shining Armor fell silent, "I... I... D..."

"OBJECTION!" A voice screamed out against this, and when everyone looked around, they all realized it was Twilight who had yelled at the top of her lungs, "He couldn't have done this, Wanderer! I know him well enough to know that he couldn't do it!"

Wanderer remained silent, Is she serious? It's frickin' obvious it was him! She can't refute anything I've said up to this point, can she? One way to find out... "If that's how you feel about this, then enlighten me."

Upcoming is the logic chess section! Wanderer only has this puzzle in front of him now! Logic chess works using statements as chess moves, but like real chess, Wanderer loses if he takes too much of our time. Twilight has two pawns, one queen, and one king on her side of the board this time. If you're wondering where this section came from, then the answer is: "Ace Attorney Investigations 2" Hope you enjoy it!

Begin Logic Chess!

Why do you think he's not the thief?

"If you think he's not the thief, then you must have some reason..." Wanderer pointed out.

"I do, Shining Armor was with me when this incident happened." Twilight replied.
Wait patiently...

"If you insinuate that he did this, then explain how he went there while with me!" Twilight said making every detective happier.
Go in for a question!

Wanderer sends a pawn forward, "I wonder what time it was when he was with you... care to explain?"

"He was with me in my room when the incident occurred."
Go in for the kill!

"If he was with you, then I'd like to know when you fell asleep, because..." Wanderer wagged his finger at Twilight, "He could've snuck out of the room at that time!" He sends the pawn to destroy one of the pawns, and succeeds!

Twilight jumps at this accusation, "Well... how could he sneak out anonymously? If he left my room while I was sleeping, then I think I would've known!"
Go in for another kill!

"You do realize that your brother is the leader of royal guards right? If he threatened them, then he could've walked out without you knowing!" Wanderer sends a knight to destroy one of the pawn, and succeeds!

Twilight tried regaining her composure and succeeded, I think... "I'm afraid that won't work on me..."

Huh? She's still going? What could be her excuse to save her brother this time?

What's the reason?

"You must have some reason for still believing your brother has a way out of this... spill the juicy deats!" Wanderer said.

"Alright... if he went out of the room, then he would've been getting some extra ingredients for my delicious tea." After Twilight said this, Shining Armor started motioning that the tea was a death sentence.

"Can I taste the tea?" Wanderer asked. As if in immediate response, Twilight shoved a cup into his face. Wanderer drank it, "Hmm... it needs a little less of... everything." He pointed towards the tea cup, "Never mind that! This tea tastes completely bogus! AHHH!" He started trying to wipe it off his tongue, "If Shining Armor really did get more of this, then he must want an insta-kill to his gullet!" Wanderer yelled while still wiping his tongue.

"I-It's really that bad?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, I don't think any sane person in the room would like a drink of this smashingly bad tea!" Vince replied after drinking a tiny sip, "The mixing is screwy, too much sugar was added in, and worst of fantastically all, this teacup is the worst one I've ever seen chap!" Vince being British, most likely having tea his entire life, could give the longest critique about a single sip of tea.

"O-Oh..." Twilight looked disappointed, and suddenly the queen was taken out of play!
Ask if there's another reason he couldn't be suspect.

"Anyways, enough about tea... is there anything else that Shining could've been doing instead of getting ingredients for tea?" Wanderer asked worried to hear if she had an answer.

"Other than the fact that he had duties that night, nothing else..." She said all the while smiling.

Great... now I have to prove he wasn't playing royal guard captain. Wanderer thought to himself, "Well... can anyone testify to saying she's right?"

Shining Armor spoke up, "She would be the one you need to ask."

"Hmm... I say it's possible!" Vince finally stated, "I know how Shining Armor assigned duties and stole the crown at the same time chap!" He turned to Wanderer, "Mind if I take over for a second, sir?"

"If this evidence of yours is without a doubt going to reveal the truth," Wanderer spoke in a serious tone, "Then go ahead, my friend!"

"Alright, then..." Vince began, "I'm going to let out the largest secret ever since the human's arrival chaps! So listen carefully!" He devilishly smiled while saying all this.

Perhaps I should've just said something else... however I must hear these juicy deats!

"The fact about Shining Armor is..." Vince continued, "He is very fond of my smashing music!"

"What're you going-?"

"He what-?"

"I-HUH-!?"

The words came flying out of everyone's mouths at hyper speed, and what made it clear that this was true was the fact that Shining Armor flinched at the accusation!

"W-What does that prove? So what if he likes your stupid music! I still say that he is innocent!" Twilight roared back at Vince.

"Wait... it makes perfect sense!" Wanderer yelled out to everyone.

"You believe-"

"That little-"

"Magnificent guitar player?" Shining Armor accidentally let that slip out.

"This is the true story behind the thievery!" Wanderer exclaimed.
Re-climax sequence!

"The real reason Shining Armor took his time outside of Twilight's room was because he wanted to hear the serenade of our thief," Wanderer began, "However, being the leader of the royal guard he was, he knew that Vince had to go to jail!"

"So to make him suspected of a crime, Shining stole the pocketknife from Vince and took a phoenix feather when Vince couldn't do anything about it!" Wanderer exclaimed, "If he hid the crown and left Vince's stuff there, then Vince would be seen as the culprit."

"So in total, Twilight..." Wanderer began, "You're brother was trying to get Vince arrested, but got arrested this time! Which means..."

The screen turned into Wanderer and Vince intimidatingly yelling at a angry Twilight, and they both yelled:
"YOUR BROTHER IS BUSTED, SISTER!"

The king on Twilight's side of the hypothetical board broke, and the entire courtroom fell silent. Not one of the detectives, Royal captain, or Vince said anything. Everyone knew what the verdicts were for Vince and Shining Armor.

Twilight remained silent until Shining Armor said this: "Sis, please say something to our winner."

Winner? What does he mean? Wanderer thought to himself, He probably means me, but why am I being called winner?

"Heh, you're right!" Twilight seemed to regain her composure after that accusation thrown at her, "Congratulations... Wanderer!"

Wanderer made a surprised grunt before asking, "Wait... was this all planned out? You wanted to see what I could do here?"

"Yes, and well... some other reason, but that doesn't matter," Twilight began, "I wanted to see if you still existed... All I had ever seen of you was of the news story, "A Wanderer saves Ponyville! What heroic deeds shall he do next?" Remember that day, Wanderer?"

"I do, but was everyone in this?" Wanderer asked.

"I was," Admitted Luna.

"Shucks, I had a hoof in this too." Applejack admitted next.

"I must admit, seeing you squirm for my sake was rather smashing, chap." Vince said in his usual British accent, "Then allowing me to provide a statement to save my own life. Rather impressing..."

"Even I had a hoof in this, and you accusing me was actually scaring me more than it should've." Even Shining Armor admitted to acting in Twilight's plan.

Everyone knew what the actual use of this trial was? That's totally unfair! Wanderer whined in his thoughts, Then where...

"Where did the crown actually go then?" Wanderer asked with much curiosity edged on his voice.

"Like you figured, I hid it in my room!" Shining Armor answered enthusiastically.

OH, WHAT THE HECK! I figured it out by following this charade!? Wanderer added up.

"So, this was a fake trial all along?" Wanderer asked while grinding his teeth nearly to dust.

"Pretty much!" Twilight uttered those words in a ignorant voice, "So... trial adjourned... Wanderer follow me please."

In Twilight's chambers... (Psst... there's nothing lovey-dovey going on between them!)

The room was pretty much a library instead of a private room, but it had two beds in one upper area, and a table to eat off of, so it must be a living area.

"I know it must not seem like much to you, but make yourself at home!" Twilight insisted that Wanderer come into her private chambers for a questioning session.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming in!" Wanderer exclaimed as he was basically pushed into the room.

"Now, first I want to know how you came here mister!" Twilight used as her first question.

"Go ask Pinkie, I'm sure she can look back a few chapters..." Wanderer avoided the first question with a fourth wall break, it was pretty successful at least!

"Okay then... how about we talk about your cards?"

"Again, talk to Pinkie."

"Enough about Pinkie! Answer the questions for me!" Twilight suddenly snapped.

"Nah... I think you're forcing this a little too much, so I can deny anything that you say." Wanderer admitted.

"Why do you refuse to answer my questions? They're just simple! Answer with complete honesty: what is your real name?" Twilight shouted again.

"If you-" Wanderer said partway, but then Twilight slammed her hooves on the desk before Wanderer said anything else, "Look... I don't want to say anything about myself, don't you get that? Now, I think I want to go back to my personal investigation if you don't mind."

"Answer my last question then," Twilight begged, "Who do you think you are?"

Wanderer silently glared, but eventually gave this as an answer, "I think I'm just some human trying to make this place a little better for everyone... either that, or I'm just the world's fool. I think I like either option, but I'll go with world savior." Wanderer waved goodbye, "Tell Vince I want his next phoenix feather."

Wanderer left the room and the party he left was heading up the hallway, "Wanderer? What are you doing here? Why are you here?" Derpy asked quite suddenly when she spotted him.

"Just a little visit to the princess... she's nice, but not my style!" Wanderer playfully skipped along to another section of the palace, and found a maid that stared at him strangely.

She finally asked, "I think I want a word with you."

He expressed his answer in an elegant bow and moved into one of the maid's quarter's dormitories.

When they went into the room and closed the door, the maid suddenly changed into Chrysalis, "I needed to speak with you Wanderer." She sounded afraid, but didn't look at all harmed, "I know who put my parents in that fire of yours."

"Really? I've been waiting, what," Wanderer playfully started, "Five chapters now? Seriously lady, get your info faster!" Wanderer shook his head.

Chrysalis ignored this statement and put this on the table: "He isn't like you or me! He is dead, but at the same time alive! You must know who I'm speaking of, he's worse than me, or Discord! He even just took over the Crystal kingdom! He's..." Chrysalis opened her mouth to spell out the name that has been avoiding us for about seven chapters, but suddenly...

Cliffhanger! The end of Chapter 8!

Sudden cliffhanger!? This calls for some, ANIME-LOUD SAVING!!!!!!!! MAKE YOUR CHOICE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Author's Note

I don't own anything Dangan Ronpa or Ace attorney related... Don't sue me! I know ace attorneys!

Chapter 9: Brothers of the same coin/card.

"Yo, Doctor! Where are ya?" Wanderer shouted as he walked down a narrow hallway. He and the others split up to find the Doctor-obviously-and Wanderer took it upon himself to look in the lower floors of the palace, but he hasn't found anything suspicious.

I wonder if I should just give up and tell the others the basement was a waste of time, Wanderer thought to himself. As if an answer presented itself, a door off to his left opened with a slight metallic groan.

A stallion came out of it, but wasn't shocked as to seeing Wanderer standing in the middle of the hallway. He seemed calm and more perplexed by his intrusion. "Don't you know this level is off-limits to your kind?"

"Ah... well..." Wanderer stammered, "You see... I needed to use the restroom and the one up-you're not going to believe me, are you?" Wanderer interrupted himself.

"Nope, not at all," The scientist hit a button on the side of the wall and spoke out, "There's a human down in Sector C, would you please arrest him?"

"Already got guards down there."

It's as if the guards were waiting for that cue. They appeared out of the shadows and surrounded Wanderer, "AHH! Ninja guards!" Wanderer was caught off guard, but immediately regained his composure, "Sorry... I need to see the Doctor, it's very important I tell you!"

"You're a lying little kid, why should I trust you?"

"Your words sting like the snake bite I got in another universe! I appreciate your time..." Wanderer bowed.

"'In another universe'? What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, bye-bye suckers!" Wanderer suddenly pulled out a card and vanished in a puff of smoke.

The guards were caught off their name, and split into individual doors to find Wanderer. The scientist went back into the room he was in a while ago.

So where was Wanderer? He was standing in the same place, invisible! He turned off the cloak and ran down the hallway, looking at all the nameplates to see which one would hold the Doctor. Before long, he finally found the door, it had a plate that had crumpets and tea piled on it. Wanderer picked the plate up and walked into the room.

"Now connect this to this and... no, that won't work..." A quite sophisticated voice came from behind curtains.

Wanderer walked through the curtains and saw the D.J.D., it looked like an giant circle embedded into the wall, with many wires connecting into it. "Um... I have your tea sir..." Wanderer said in his lady-like voice.

"Okay... put it on my table." The Doctor said without looking back over his shoulder. Whatever he was doing to that machine, he couldn't divert any attention at all.

"So... how is the repair of that machine going?" Wanderer asked before the Doctor plugged in a cord.

"Get out... I am working!" The Doctor yelled.

"Okay... geez..." Wanderer tapped his foot on the hard ground.

"Geez? Usual maid don't say that..." the Doctor turned to look at Wanderer, "Oh... you're Wanderer correct? I heard Twilight fawning over your good deeds in Ponyville."

"Yeah, that's me. I came here to ask how I could help." Wanderer was looking at the Doctor with begging eyes.

"I don't think that you could help me, unless you know something about traveling between universes at will." The Doctor looked back at his work.

"How did I get here ten hours after every other human then?"

The Doctor's eyes shot wide open, "What did you just say?" He ran up to Wanderer, "You really have that ability?" His face was full of surprise and fascination, "Let me do something really quick." He suddenly pulled out a strange device and waved it over Wanderer's entire body like a metal detector.

"What in this universe do you think you're doing?" Wanderer asked for curiosity's sake.

"Done!" The Doctor acted as if Wanderer's question didn't exist, "You seem to be telling the truth, you do have that ability!"

"Wait, I can't go by will! The gods determine where I go."

"Then we're just going to have to find out how to unlock your full potential," The Doctor excitedly exclaimed, "This will be fun, don't worry! Try to imagine this universe in a different way after I give this to you." He ran over the machine and gave a cord to Wanderer.

"Um... okay..." Wanderer held the cord tightly as he imagined the universe as a place commanded by a murderous version of the mane six. The image of the universe appeared in the D.J.D. and Wanderer jumps back in surprise, "It... looks like a wasteland!"

"It's not that BAD!" A frighteningly loud voice pierced through the portal forcing the Doctor and Wanderer to stumble back. Wanderer dropped the cord, and the portal closes.

"Th-That..." Wanderer began in a frightened voice, but couldn't bring anything else out.

"Wow! That is amazing!" The Doctor exclaimed with excitement, "Do you think we could send the humans back to their universe if we use your powers?" He was acting like a colt in a candy shop, and had enough money to fill his bags with all the candy he could desire.

"Whoa now..." Wanderer held his hands up in fear, "I can't open a portal to a universe I've never been to before. Wait... how did I know that?"

"In any case, this is a major breakthrough," The Doctor was enthusiastic, "Even though we can't send them home, we have the ability to travel between universes!"

"For one month and a half," Wanderer slowly began, "I can't stay here forever. Now how do we fix these raging humans?"

"Them? I think we just need to send out a mega-spell that turns them back to normal..."

"How come the ponies have never used such a thing?" Wanderer asked, "You seemed to find that info out pretty quickly."

"That's because I'm the Doctor!" The Doctor answered enthusiasticly, "I've seen Equestria in different ways that you could never imagine."

"Then you must have to the Fallout Equestria universe. You realize now that in that universe, the ponies were pretty much sticking themselves into hell using the mega-spell, right?" Wanderer explained.

"You're right..." The Doctor tapped the device on his head like he was thinking, "I'm trying to make this machine do a sort of... how do you put it?" He searched for the right words, "Make an explosion of a spell without being a problem for Equestria. I think I'm almost done with it, but I need a changeling plant."

"What am I looking for?"

"Go to the changeling nest and look for a plant that looks like a tulip, but also like a changeling."

Wanderer was kicked out soon after that sentence was uttered.
Near the entrance of the palace.

"Hey, chap! Remember me?" It was Vince who welcomed Wanderer, still playing the six-string, "Where have you been? I thought you might hang out with me after the trial."

"I would, but I need to find a changeling plant, I came here to wait for my friends." Wanderer replied.

Vince laughed in reply, "That's funny, friend! You made it sound like you need to go into changeling territory."

"Because that's what it's supposed to sound like. I'm really going into changeling territory."

Vince suddenly looked fearful, "Um... you're not kidding, chap? That place is dangerous, most ponies don't even try going that way!"

"Well... I guess I'll have a smashing old time." Wanderer imitated Vince's British accent.

"The accent is my thing, chap."

"I'm still going you know."

"I know... but I still need to warn you that it's dangerous." Vince looked down at the floor, "I remember going there with a friend, and she died."

"I'm... sorry about your friend," Wanderer clapped a hand onto Vince's shoulder and exclaimed, "Don't worry about me though! I have my own abilities to keep me safe, just you watch! I'll come back alive!"

Vince smiled, but said nothing else. After a moments silence, he went back to the corner that had his six-string, "Hey! You're stealing my guitar, chap! Thieves shouldn't steal from each other!" It seems he'll be occupied because of a thief of a thief. Poor Vince...
30 minutes later...

Derpy, Dinky, and Katherine were walking back to the entrance, they all looked a little sad. Derpy ran up to Wanderer and asked, "Did you find the Doctor?"

"Yes, I did, but I need to go somewhere for him." Wanderer answered plainly.

"Why? What could he want you to find?" Katherine asked with confusion clouding her eyes.

"Classified... just remember," Wanderer began as if this was a horror movie, "If I come back in less than two days, then you consider me your enemy. No matter what I say!"

"Why!? You're our friend!" Derpy asked in fear.

"You'll see if you act nice to me tomorrow." Wanderer gave a sly smile, "Just do what I say, okay?"

"Um..." Derpy couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"See you guys later! I have to go now!" Wanderer walked away before anyone could ask any more questions.
One day later, at the changeling nest.

Wanderer was walking through the nest looking around for the changeling plant. Where are the changelings? I told them that they should leave for the night back then (first day of disaster), but none of them seem to have come back since then.

Every turn Wanderer made had nothing but silence awaiting him. However, when about ten minutes passed, he found himself staring at the changeling plant.

"Alright!" He exclaimed as he ran for the plant. Once he got near it, a dead body fell, "AHH! I-I..." And another, "AHH! Stop haunting me, universe!"

Suddenly one more body fell before a crowd of changelings appeared out of nowhere, "You're under arrest for murder! Come quietly and we might not hurt you!" So they did come back...

"So basically... either way, I'm getting hurt?" Wanderer commented.

"Just come on..."

"I have a better combo to go through, watch!" Wanderer executed a series of movements; He grabs the flower-like plant, then uses the nearby trees to propel himself over the guards. "Au revoir, suckers!

"After him!"

Wanderer runs towards the exit, but is stopped by an angry wall of guards. This way isn't a good one, okay? Wanderer told himself. He rushed through most of the town, all the while trying to stay away from any citizens or royalty. Speaking of which...

"Wanderer, what are you doing here?" Chrysalis had caught up to Wanderer.

"Running from your guards! They think I'm a murderer!" Wanderer sprinted to avoid further speech about this.

He finally reached a dead end though, there was no way to avoid the oncoming assault of guards. This is it! Before I die... I must give my thanks to whoever screwed me over! He pulled out several cards and began moving his lips as if he was chanting.

"There he is! Get 'im!"

"Instant transmission!" Wanderer yelled as they piled on top of where he was.

The guards looked around frightfully, but almost as soon as Wanderer disappeared, he reappeared behind them all. He tried to sneak away, but they noticed before he got far.

"Look... I think I should start running again." Wanderer said as he turned to run again. The changelings however, were faster and surrounded him. "Okay... if you need to force me into jail, then... I will fight you all!"

The first changeling approached ready for battle. He strikes out with his forehoof. Wanderer grabs it and throws the changeling into a small crowd. Wanderer jumped over the piled changelings and headed for the exit. It still had guards walling it, "Okay, that's it!" Wanderer pulls something out, "Don't get out my way, and I will detonate!"

The guards grunted before moving out of the way. Wanderer ran between all of them and dropped the 'bomb,' however on closer inspection, it was just a ball of paper covered in black marker.

Wanderer kept running until he was out of breath and looked back at the nest, "That probably wasn't the best thing to do, but I got the plant! Now I have to get back to Cantorlot in the next day or longer." He instructed himself, "I wonder if everyone has been following my orders back there. I hope they have, because if they didn't, then we're screwed basically."
Speaking of them, how are they doing?

Derpy, Dinky, and Katherine were eating in a hotel room.

"Hey, mom. What do you think Wanderer meant when he said to consider him an enemy?" Dinky asked.

"I've been a little suspicious of that too. If he wanted us to consider him an enemy, then wouldn't he just attack and then leave?"

"No, it can't be that simple." Katherine deduced, "If he were to do that, then he would lose the trust of his friends when he came back. So that means..." She looked around the room to see if the other two had figured it out.

"He must have a double!" They all shouted.

"Ah... I see you've figured it out," A voice came from the now-open window, "Nice to see that my twin brother expected me to attack this place." The voice's source was now visible, it was a complete copy of Wanderer, but he didn't have a jacket, "I'm Dekari, unlike Wanderer I actually remember who I am. And unlike him, I actually don't care what happens to you lot." He pulls out a card like Wanderer's, "Now be good ponies and die!"

The trio ran out the door before Dekari had the chance to charge his card. "Okay... everyone run! I'll hold him back!" Katherine exclaimed.

"But-" Dinky was cut off by Dekari kicking the door.

"Just go! Warn Twilight that Dekari is coming!" Katherine yelled. The two mares ran off. Katherine stood in front of the door with a card in her hand, "I hope you're ready big brother!" The door slammed open, and Dekari held a card in his hands.

They both called forth a spell, but the intensity of it sent the building down into the ground.
Back to Wanderer.

He gasps as he awakens from his dream, "Man... I don't want to meet him again." He wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked in Cantorlot's direction, "Is that fire? Oh no... he's there! NoNoNoNoNo!" He shook his head in defeat, Tomorrow brother, we shall fight for all of Cantorlot. I'll win because I'm the protagonist of this story.

Even though Wanderer had his mind set focused on fighting Dekari and winning, yet he still didn't want to fight. Understandable, but sadly even though he is the protagonist, he might not even win! What will happen? Tune in next time, on another exciting episode of Dragon Ba-I mean, on another exciting chapter of Wanderer's Journey.

The white room.

"Yeah... I guess I forgot to tell you guys about my family." Wanderer began, "When I tried to do that whole suicide thing, I also told my sister and brother about it. Sorry for not telling you, but to be honest I couldn't remember much back then."

"Dekari was very mean to kids our age, so I assume that he went somewhere out of the gods reach and obtained Wanderer's powers somehow." Katherine said, "I assume as much anyways. If you thought, 'how did Wanderer predict this?' then he has an answer."

"Remember how I threw a fit about not being able to do anything in ten years except for a six-month period? Well... that wasn't the complete truth," Wanderer admitted, "I would try to look beyond the gods sight and see if I could speak to my brother unconsciously." He looked away, "I found him, once. Instead of greeting me with open arms, he tried to kill me. You can see how much tension has been built up between us since that day."

"I believe that this is the gods way of saying, 'you need to fix him or you'll never come back home.'" Katherine deduced, "I hope that there is a way to fix Dekari, because I miss mom!"

"I think that's all there is to it. So you can leave now." Wanderer coldly stated.
I wonder how this will end, would you like to save?

Yes please!

OR

NO WAY! SCREW THAT!

Chapter 10: The Tainted 6: Rainbow Dash

In front of the ravine in front of Cantorlot.

It was dead silent, no one was in the ravine. Not even the hustle and bustle of the city was heard. "Dekari! Wherever you are, I'll find you!" Wanderer yelled out toward the seemingly empty city.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash approached from behind, "Sup? Why you yelling at Cantorlot?" However that wasn't her speaking. It was the griffin standing next to her.

"Because..." Wanderer began, then let out a sigh, "It doesn't matter anyways...two questions: who are you, and how do I infiltrate Cantorlot?"

"Excuse me?" The griffin asked, "Nopony is supposed to go in there. After Ditzy Doo told us that something dangerous happened, we had to evacuate." She pointed a talon at herself, "I'm Gilda by the way."

"If you evacuated, then why are there no humans down there?" Wanderer asked.

"The Doctor finally got a psy-beam producing device working. Twilight fixed the humans, but now Cantorlot screwed." Rainbow Dash answered grimly.

"Don't have to put it like that, geez..." Wanderer complained.

"Point is, you can't go in that city anymore!" Gilda snapped, "I heard from one of the troops that a building collapsed and the death toll was at least in the triple digits!"

"Th-That high!?" Wanderer replied shocked. Isn't this place supposed to be a safe wonderland? I hate stories that go over the deep end! Wanderer thought to himself.

"Yes!" She said in an annoyed tone, "We're heading back to the camp, so come on!"

"Rainbow Dash..." Wanderer began, "Where's Derpy now?"

"Why are you asking?" She asked in an annoyed tone, "I banished her from the camp."

Wanderer's heart almost fell dead, "I-I-I..." He tried to utter a single sentence, but ended up lost by the shock of it all.

"Calm down, she'll be alright on her own. Come on, let's go ba-" Rainbow Dash began.

"Wh-Where is she? She doesn't deserve to be banished!" Wanderer shouted out.

"Whoa dude, calm down! She is the reason all of this happened!" Gilda pointed out.

"Where is your proof?" Wanderer asked.

Rainbow Dash pulls a rock out of her saddle, "This fragment of a bomb."

"...That's a rock," Wanderer pointed out.

"What are you talking about?" It seemed what Rainbow Dash saw was exactly as she described it; It looked like the fragment of a bomb to her. However... in reality, it was just a rock.

"Listen... I see a rock when you see a bomb fragment. So... there's something wrong with your head." Wanderer stated nonchalantly.

"Oh, just shut up already!" Rainbow Dash suddenly snapped, "I've had enough of your lies! Now prepare to die!" Her eyes turned red in the center and black everywhere else.

"CRAP!" Wanderer jumped back before she struck. He almost fell into the ravine.

"Now then, we're going to fight this out, and you're going to give in simply to your defeat!" Rainbow Dash charged into Wanderer and sent him over the edge.

He landed with a hard thud. The surrounding area had been reshaped for a battle that only RD could fight in with an advantage. "Well... aren't I screwed?" Wanderer said to the empty air.

Rainbow Dash dived down to where Wanderer lay. She had her hooves out in an attempt to land on his chest. "Whoa!" Wanderer suddenly yelled before rolling away from the targeted area, the ground under her hooves is shaped like a bowl now.

She charges in to fight in close quarters combat. However, Wanderer is prepared for the situation, "No thank you ma'am!" He yelled as he deflected each and every blow. This went on until RD went into a kick combo.

Wanderer tried to back away, but was unsuccessful! The kick combo sent him flying! RD followed his flight and grabbed him, then threw him into the ground below. She slowly came down and asked with a devilish smile, "Do you give up now?"

"To the devil's smile? No thanks," Wanderer smugly answered, "Besides... if I let you go out free, I'm basically dooming this universe. So, how about you give me your full cooperation?"

RD laughed at this, "You're an idiot! Worse than that ditz!"

Wanderer pulled out a card, "Stop insulting my friend!" He suddenly breaks the card as if it was glass, "Let's do this! Super-power up!" Wanderer's eyes glowed blood-red and his clothing reacted as if he was in an anime in a hyper powered mode (his clothes looked like they were fluttering in a strong windstorm).

He and RD charge at each other and initiate an unending combo. Blows were given, taken, and deflected in mere blinks of the eye. The pair seemed to be evenly matched until the super power on Wanderer wore off.
Meanwhile... above the ravine.

Gilda simply stared as her friend tried to kill this stranger. The stranger tried to keep the fight in his advantage, but if no one intervened, then the battle was as good as over. They would lose the energy to keep fighting eventually.

Gilda looked at the 'bomb fragment' one more time, "Th-This is a joke! It's just a stupid rock!" She yelled in frustration. She then realized, That guy was right, there is something up with Rainbow!
Back with Wanderer.

No, this isn't good! She's fueled by my brother's rage towards me! I need her restrained or else she'll kill me for sure! Wanderer realized.

"Ready to give up yet?" Rainbow asked.

"N... not really," Wanderer panted, "I... I... I've still got some energy."

"Okay, I'll make sure this time that you're dead!" She replied.

"Would someone come and restrain you already?" Wanderer asked quite obviously.

"Sure, why don't I do it!?" Wanderer looked behind Rainbow and saw Gilda approaching swiftly. She grabbed Rainbow from behind and yelled at Wanderer, "Whatever you're doing, do it fast!"

"Alrighty then," Wanderer pulled out a card, "Mind fixer!" He placed the card on Rainbow's forehead and entered her mind.
In Rainbow Dash's mind.

Wanderer dropped onto what looked like a raceway. Literally, he dropped into the middle of it, and the racing pegasi were coming at him. He quickly ran towards the finish line, while the pegasi were on his tail. He somehow got to the finish line first, even though the pegasi were like speeding bullets to him. He turned to look back at them and saw that they were charging at him!

"Yo, don't kill me!" Wanderer shouted. None of them listened. Since none of them listened, Wanderer tried to run away towards the stands, but was grabbed by the cyan pegasus whizzing by, then put down on a platform.

"What are you doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous to be on the track?"

"Well... I guess I just wanted to beat you guys at speed." Wanderer shrugged.

Rainbow Dash looked at him questioningly, "We travel about five hundred kilometers an hour and you wanted to beat us at speed?" She giggled.

"Hey! Don't laugh at someone's dreams! Uncool..." Wanderer looked away blushing.

"Heh... sorry... anyways, do you need my autograph?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Sorry... I don't accept autographs, but I do have something to tell you!" Wanderer began, "You're causing a rampage in the real world!"

"What? It looks like someone's high again." Rainbow joked.

"This isn't a joke! What you're seeing here is just an illusion!" Wanderer tried to convince her.

"What I see here... is a crazy kid." She joked again.

"Cut that out! What would the other five think of this kind of behavior!?" Wanderer exclaimed.

"Other five? What are you talking about?"

"Y'know, that whole mane six business." Wanderer explained.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"What?" Wanderer looked very confused, "You don't remember Twilight, Applejack, or Pinkie Pie? Not even Rarity or Fluttershy?"

"Well... I remember Fluttershy, but she was just another mare in my flight class." She shrugged.

Wanderer couldn't believe what he was seeing. Rainbow had the memories of her friends forced out and is now in her own paradise. "So... what are you doing these days?" He asked in hopes that he would get something out of her.

"Huh? That's a little off topic, but I am the leader of the wonderbolts." She suddenly smiled, "Jealous?"

"Actually, no... I don't care for racing." Wanderer sighed, "But now that I think about it, I have a friend that is much faster than you."

"No you don't, I can clearly see that you're lying!" RD smiled.

"Honestly, are you a racing horse, a wonderbolt leader, lie detector, or none of the above?" Wanderer asked.

"What are you trying to say?"

This is getting way off track. "How about we stop here and I show you something?" Wanderer asked.

"What?"

Wanderer pulls out a deck of cards, "Pick one, and I shall see your future." Rainbow pulls out a random card reluctantly, "That one? Maybe you should look closer at your choice..."

On closer inspection, the card showed no hearts, spades, diamonds, or clubs. It showed a picture of what was going on out in reality, Rainbow Dash was struggling to get out of Gilda's arms ineffectively. "Wh-What kind of joke is this?"

"It's not a joke, skittles." Wanderer remarked, "That's you trying to kill me. Thank goodness the griffin is there though. Remember her, and how much fun you'd have together?" Wanderer had no idea if it was true, but he said it anyway to see her reaction.

"I-I can't believe this..." Rainbow shook her head, "What's going on?"

"A certain fellow put locks on your memories. Now in reality, you are actually a sleep-walker or flier in this case." Wanderer explained, "If we don't get you out of this world made from your desires, then I can't guarantee that people and ponies are safe around you."

Rainbow stayed silent.

"Ignore me all you want, but if you really want to kill that friend of yours and me, then stay here. I'm sure you might break her wings and other body parts..." Wanderer put on a devilish smile, "Have a nice day Ms. Dash!" He turned to walk away.

"Wait..." Rainbow Dash began, "I don't remember who that is, but I don't feel like she deserves to die! What do I do to stop this thing that I am in reality?"

"Well... first you have to-"

"Don't leave us, Rainbow Dash..." A chorus of voices called out. The crowd was getting out of their seats and walking toward RD. They looked hollow, but angry at the same time somehow.

"Alright, first we need to find the core of your memories! Let's see, um..." Wanderer scratched his chin in thought. "Wait... all your friends live in Ponyville! Get there now!"

The pair ran past the crowd and Rainbow Dash flew them the rest of the way.
Ponyville's remains.

The town looks like it has been hit by a bomb shower and then smashed repeatedly. The center of town had a giant tree standing as if nothing had touched it. "That must be it! Your memory core!" exclaimed Wanderer.

"How come it's a tree?"

"It's many branches symbolize memories." Wanderer explained, "Sometimes though, it'll depend on the pony at hand."

They both ran to the tree, while the hypothetical air was full of a certain suspenseful feeling. When they got to the tree, Rainbow Dash asked, "What do I do?"

"It's actually really simple actually, touch the tree," Wanderer instructed, "Then you should remember everything!"

She did as Wanderer instructed. A light emanated from the trunk of the tree and shined down upon her.

"Right... I'll see you in the real world!" Wanderer waved goodbye, then disappeared.
Back in reality.

Wanderer's eyes shot open and he stood up. He looked down at Rainbow Dash, "Hey buddy, you still want to kill me?" he asked sarcastically.

"Wh-What happened?" Rainbow managed to ask.

"Gilda, it's fine to let her go now." Wanderer told Gilda, "You were brainwashed basically. I helped you out of it, but there's not a whole lot of time left. Where is Derpy?"

Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head, "Ouch, that hurts. Um... Derpy probably went somewhere in the Everfree forest to drown out her sorrow. She seems to do that after she encountered a bully on the street."

"Alright, goodbye!"

"Hey, hold on buddy!" Gilda exclaimed, "Are you concerned for RD's safety at all?"

"I would be, but she can stand on her own or with her friend. I've got to go and see Derpy now!" With that, Wanderer ran out of the ravine and towards the Everfree.
At the edge of the Everfree.

"Yo, Derpy! I need to talk to you!" Wanderer yelled at the depressed-looking mare, "There's-"

"Go away!" She yelled before running into the forest.

Why must they always run away? Wanderer thought to himself. "Derpy, stop running! You have wings! Not the point though!" He ran after Derpy as quickly as his legs could carry him. He kept shouting at Derpy to get her attention, but inevitably so.

He finally cornered her at a tree house. She looked angry, scared, and confused at the same time, "Y-You got me in trouble! I don't want you to be near me any more!"

"You don't understand," Wanderer exclaimed, "That wasn't me, that was my evil twin brother! I know that it's hard to believe, but please trust me!"

She still didn't move with the same expression stuck on her face. If I move any closer, I endanger what little trust she has in me. What do I do? Wanderer scratched his chin in deep thought.

"Are there visitors outside? On what business do you abide?" Zecora came out of her house dressed in a robe, "Come inside with stride! Lest you want to become a feast to some plight."

The pair still didn't move, Zecora stared in silence. Wanderer kept his hand to his chin, while Derpy looked ready to run at any moment. I have her cornered, but she doesn't want to try to run away or beg for mercy... how do I get her to stop being afraid?

A growl is heard from behind Wanderer. When he turns around, he sees a giant bear made of mostly stars. It roars in his face, then circles the frozen protagonist. "A-Ahh... it's a bear." he said silently.

Zecora looked at Wanderer confused, "What are you doing? It will make you its stomach filling!" she called out silently.

Wanderer answered by looking back with sweat beading down his face, his expression quite clearly said, "Help me..."

The bear looked like it was about to pounce, "Wanderer! Wake up!" Derpy suddenly yelled.

Wanderer came back down to Earth and prepared for the bear's attack, "A-Alright, you stupid mutt! C-Come and get me!" he was so scared that his insults weren't as good as usual.

The bear charged at Wanderer and jumped so that it would land on him. Wanderer pulls out a card, "I hope you enjoy fireworks! Meteor strike!" a meteor came out of the card and struck the bear, "YES! Home run, baby!" Wanderer shouted as the bear flew off to another part of the forest.

Derpy watched as the bear trailed off into the night sky, but said not a word when Wanderer looked back.

"Look... Derpy, I'm sorry for what happened to you. And to prove it," Wanderer stated with a serious stare, "You can hit me in the jaw as your way of releasing frustration. Go ahead..." Wanderer approached, kneeled, and spread his arms in a 'come at me, bro' sort of fashion.

Derpy released a fury-filled punch into Wanderer's jaw, but he didn't respond to the hit. "You coming into my life has made it terrible to live each minute! Nobody cares that I've left! Not even Fluttershy would!"

Wanderer looked her in the eyes and smiled, "I cared..." he weakly stated, "If you got hurt, then it would be like I failed to protect my loved ones. Speaking of which... where's Katherine? Is she...?"

Derpy's eyes widened, "I-I don't know... she might be..."

Wanderer closed his eyes and remained silent. He got up and went towards a tree, "What did she do?"

"She stopped some person from attacking Dinky and me."

Wanderer opened his fury-filled eyes and fiercely punched the tree, "KATHERINE!!!!!" he kept punching the tree leaving an impression on the tree's trunk, "YOU IDIOT!!!!" he stopped punching, his fists now bloody, he fell to his hands and knees, then sobbed, "Y-You know he's too much for you... but you still tried to fight him. WHY!?"

"Calm yourself! You cannot stop what she has done now!" Zecora exclaimed.

"SHUT UP! You just... don't understand..." Wanderer sobbed heavily. He stood up, "I'm... I'm sorry... I'm just... tired of all this." He waved goodbye, "Derpy, take your time here if you need. I'm heading back to Ponyville to dry up my sorrows. I'll see you later." he left soon after saying that.

Wanderer has found out about his sister fighting Dekari. Now he's going back to Ponyville to "dry his sorrows" as he called it. However, Rainbow couldn't have been the only pony tainted by Dekari's spell. There may be a surprise awaiting our hero next time on Dragon Ba-dang it, I did it again.:twilightangry2: On the next chapter of Wanderer's Journey.

Now would be a good time to save. Pick your option now!

Let's save now!

OR

I still don't want to save! NO!!! Don't save for me!!! (Saved anyway, hehehe!)

Chapter 11: Bringing some truth to life!

Coming back from the Everfree, Wanderer stopped off first at the Apple acres. He was lucky enough to have been there on the day of the month that the Apple family sells their famous apple cider.

"Hey there! Remember me?" it was Applebloom operating the cash register.

"Oh yeah... you're part of the cutie mark crusaders... I'm not here on a personal visit though." Wanderer dropped two bits in front of Applebloom and retrieved his glass of cider. He walked towards the fence and sat on it, then took a sip of cider.

He looked at the fields and fields of apple trees and said out loud, "Huh... weird. Somehow I thought there would be more ponies operating this field."

"All we need is one family." Applejack had walked past and heard what Wanderer said.

"Seems like a lot of work for just three ponies, if we're counting you're sister." Wanderer looked out across the sea of green, "How many trees are out there? Seems like hundreds could be out there."

"You're close, but I don't remember the exact number of trees holding the apples." Applejack admitted.

Wanderer jumped off the fence and handed Applejack the mug, "I'm done, it was the best thing I've never tasted before. See you later!" he cries as he runs off.

Wanderer had been walking around the town for several hours after leaving the Apple acres. His new-found confusion was pointed towards the town hall, "Does anyone even do anything in these parts anymore? Cantorlot isn't going to save itself they should know!"

"There you are!" Twilight had snuck up from behind followed by a few guards, "You and I are going to talk."

"About me? C'mon, you have to try and break the ice a bit. Going in for an attack first is foolish." Wanderer countered.

"I need to know more about your powers." Twilight insisted, "How did you get here? How do you use magic by cards?" the questions came at Wanderer like arrows from a wall full of archers.

"One: I got here because of your cowardly deity." Wanderer explained, "Two: It's not easy to explain how magic from cards work, so you're not getting an answer there. I haven't finished my card magic school yet."

"Huh? No resistance this time?" Twilight asked curiously.

"No... but if you want more answers, I want you to call off the guards and have us talk privately." Wanderer explained with a 'c'mon, this is obvious' kind of tone.

"Alright then... come to my library after noon." Twilight demanded.

"Sure... oh no!" Wanderer looked like a frightened puppy.

"Wh-What!?"

"It's past noon now!" a wide grin spread across his face and he started walking away. Twilight paused, but followed after him.
In the library.

"This book is... interesting..." Wanderer commented on one of the books he was reading, "However, it's starting to get a bit steamy in this scene."

I grabbed a hold of the shower knobs and twisted, it made a creaking noise in the effort to get the water pouring all over my skin. Mikusoba was in there with me to scrub my back, but I had better plans in mind. I planted him firmly against the wall and-

The door to the library opened and Wanderer quickly put the book back on the shelf and looked at Twilight expectedly, "So, what's your first question?"

"I want to know what you meant by 'your cowardly deity sent for me,' what did that mean?" Twilight asked with curiosity edging her vocal sword.

"That is an easy one... you see, I'm commanded by the gods of all universes." Wanderer explained, "There's a god that basically runs a single universe and generally is worshipped by the minors in the world; like how you worship Celestia."

Twilight focused intently on what Wanderer was saying, and her silence was the sign to keep going on.

"Now here... your leaders, Luna and Celestia are the gods, but you may remember that I said there was only one main god per universe." Wanderer continued, "Can you tell me who would have the better grasp on this universe than the other?"

"Celestia..."

"Because...?"

"She had a longer ruling time here in Equestria?" Twilight curiously answered.

"Close, but there's one more reason that she's the god of this universe." Wanderer replied, "Her mother and father died forcing Luna onto the moon right? If you think about it, one of them was the main god, but heritage can also be an answer to how Celestia got to be main goddess."

Twilight was scratching her chin with her hoof, "If that's true, then why didn't Luna get the main goddess abilities?" she asked confused.

"That's another thing that is good to know about heritage, sometimes there will be more than one child under the god/goddess. It will depend on who was much more worthy of the abilities, Celestia got the abilities because she didn't have the chance of using them for pure evil. If Luna got the abilities, she would use them to destroy the world as Nightmare Night." Wanderer explained.

"So... Celestia called you, but according to the royal guards... she's..." Twilight trailed off.

"That doesn't exactly count for much... Celestia gets the abilities to see into the future and get premonitions about every choice she makes. If she stayed in that castle, then you should've been able to find a dead body." Wanderer explained.

"So... she left when she knew the humans would come and attack?" Twilight asked.

"She would know that either she'd lose against them all, or that staying would endanger you and Luna for staying and possibly fighting." Wanderer scratched his chin, "Whatever happened down the alternate timelines is beyond me, but that's what she did... she left, then called me. Because she knew that she couldn't handle this paradox by herself."

Twilight looked down and remained silent. Wanderer patted her on the shoulder, "What's that for?"

"Good luck, I'm told that I was lucky when I used to be... normal..." he trailed off, "Maybe some of my unknown luck will rub onto you."

"Um... thanks." Twilight didn't know exactly what to say after that speech about how he came here.

"Anyways... can we get into Cantorlot please?" he asked out of nowhere.

"Why? The royal guards haven't gotten back in the gates yet..."

"That's exactly why I'm asking." Wanderer's face grew serious, "If I'm still here, then there's still a paradox to fix."

"But... the humans aren't a problem anymore." Twilight objected, "No more paradox now."

"And what if I brought one with me? That sometimes happens... get your guards to work faster please." Wanderer replied with new found annoyance.

Twilight looked shocked by his anger, but said nothing to him. He furiously walked out the door without another word.
Carousal Boutique.

Wanderer was writing some notes down in his journal as he walked towards Rarity's home. He finished the sentence he was writing before opening the door, "Rarity... are you in here?" he called out to the seemingly empty store, no answer was given though.

Several moments of silence passed before two ponies stepped out into the open on the second floor and looked directly at Wanderer. They were unidentifiable because of the darkness, but one seemed to be a unicorn, "Rarity... what's going on?" Wanderer asked reluctantly.

The unicorn didn't answer, but looked towards his/her partner... it looked like they were whispering to each other, but Wanderer couldn't catch what they were saying. Wanderer was about to leave when...

"HELP! D-Don't leave me here!" it was Rarity's voice that had come from upstairs where the ponies were. One of them went back into the room and the unicorn walked up to Wanderer.

"Oh hell no!" Wanderer exclaimed before slamming into the unicorn. Because the unicorn was so close to him, Wanderer could see that it was a mare. She tried to pull out a dagger from her saddle bags, but Wanderer was too smart to let the dagger pierce his skin. He dodged and knocked the unicorn out with a blow to the back of the head.

After the unicorn fell motionless, Wanderer ran upstairs and kicked open the door that the other pony went in. The sight was less than gratifying; Rarity was tied to the bed with many cuts on her body, while the mysterious pony was above her creating more while she tried to scream through the gag around her mouth.

"Dude, that is messed up..." Wanderer said out loud, however the pony ignored him and kept cutting. Wanderer grabbed the knife after throwing the pony off the bed and cut the ropes, "Rarity, stay with me! I'm getting you out of here!" the pony that had been cutting Rarity was not unconscious, but he didn't try to stop Wanderer from helping Rarity.

Rarity in tow, Wanderer ran towards the hospital to get her healed. Wanderer decided not to stay to hear the results though, he went back to the Carousal Boutique to hear what the ponies had to say.

He started with the one that wasn't unconscious, "Alright, who are you, and why did you attack Rarity?" he asked in a polite tone.

"What...? Who are you...? Where am I?" the pony rubbed his head, "Why does my head hurt?"

"You mean you don't remember anything?" Wanderer pressed.

"Not before this morning..." he looked at the bed, then at Wanderer, "Did I have ale and look drunk?"

"Erm..." Wanderer grimaced, "You were cutting a mare marshmallow to ribbons!"

"Wh-What!? I would never! I'm just a citizen of the Crystal Kingdom!" he objected.

"No... it can't be..." Wanderer mumbled to himself, "Go home you drunk, you're in Ponyville." he said coldly. The pony shrugged and left, leaving only the unconscious unicorn left to interrogate. He went down to the unicorn and tried waking them her up.

After a minute of shaking her, her eyes fluttered open, "Wh-Where am I?"

"Do you remember anything that happened today?" Wanderer asked clearly.

"I... I don't..."

"Where are you from?"

"The Crystal Kingdom..."

"I suggest you take the train, because you're far away from home ma'am. In Ponyville, in fact." Wanderer explained. She left after a brief pause to look at Wanderer. Wanderer went back to the stairs and sat on the second one up, holding his head between his hands.

He stared at the ground thinking about what happened, It seems they were brainwashed... they were under the control of someone, but who would do such a thing? he thought to himself about this for a long time; it seemed like days were going by minutes while he tried to think about it. However much he thought about it though, no one seemed to come to mind... except for him... the one Chrysalis thought was the main villain.

"Of course... it could only be him!" Wanderer said out loud without realizing it. He looked around to make sure that no one heard him and rushed to the train station.

The culprit behind the torture of Rarity... the one who could've been the one who burnt Chrysalis's parents... the truth was becoming clear! The one who did all this was...
The Cliffhanging save! I've been making you save so that I could go back and change history!!!

Yes pickers: WHAT!?

&

No pickers: I KNEW IT!

Author's Note

Just kidding... my save system wouldn't do that... or would it later? Hmmm.......................

Chapter 12: Man's Best....... Bird?

Continuing story in the Crystal Kingdom.

Wanderer stepped off the train and rubbed the back of his neck, "Why did I have to fall asleep on the hard seat?" he complained. He looked across the empty street, "Am I going to have another run-in with this problem? Goodness..."

He proceeded down the street while stealing glances towards the buildings to see if ponies were watching him. There's nothing creepier than walking down the empty streets of a usually lively town.

He had finally reached the palace of the Kingdom and had enough of the silence, "Ugh... Rysuke! Are you there, you falcon?" a bird came out of nowhere as if in response, "Rysuke, did you find anything about Celestia's whereabouts?" he asked after pulling out his notebook.

"KAAH! KAAH!? (I didn't find anything! How come you haven't seen her either!?)" Rysuke seemed to ask through his own language.

"You don't know anything!? Dang... how are we supposed to find her now?" Wanderer pondered to himself for a moment. He looked Rysuke over several times before grabbing the falcon and looking him over closer, "Y-You got hurt!? Who did this to you?"

"KAAH! KAAH, KAAH! (You are what happened to me! If I didn't go looking for that Celestia in the first place, I wouldn't be hurt at all!)" Rysuke exclaimed

"I-I'm sorry Rysuke..." Wanderer apologized empathetically, "Let me wrap that leg up at least. Stop squirming so that I can apply it!"

"KAAH... (Sorry...)" Rysuke replied.

"Well now you'll be okay." Wanderer finished tying the knot on the bandaging, "Hey, do you hear anything now?"

"KAH... KAAH." Rysuke replied in a sad tone. Translation: "No... It's like this town is dead."

"I was afraid of that..." Wanderer said grimly. "Where do you think they would go?"

"KAAH... KAAH. (If I've followed up so far... they should be at the Cantorlot encampment.)" Rysuke responded. He looked towards one of the buildings. "KAH KAAH. (I think they were last in there when they left.)"

Wanderer walked into said building with Rysuke on his shoulder, and saw the amount of empty space that could befit an entire army's worth of weapons. He found a table near the back that had plenty of papers and dagger stabbed into a map. The dagger was stabbed into Cantorlot and the papers next to the map had plans on breaking into Cantorlot with a magic amplifier.

"Rysuke, do you know what that is?" Wanderer asked the falcon perched on his shoulder. The falcon paused before flapping his wings and flying to a tarp covering something.

"KAAH! (Look under here!)" he tried to lift it, but wasn't able to get all of it.

Wanderer walked over and checked under it, "What the...?" he simply asked after looking at it. The magic amplifier was a cannon-like construction. "If I have this right... it should work like this..."

Three to five unicorns combine their magic on it, and focus on using a specific spell. For instance, if they wanted to make a big fireball, then they all have to concentrate on making a fireball. If they used that on the gate to Cantorlot, they could break down the door, but they could also launch fiery splinters at everyponies houses.

The falcon looked directly at the plans and gave an affirmative screech. Wanderer smiled briefly before continuing down his line of thought, "If they could generate enough power... they could destroy the entire city in one shot."

"K-KAH!? KAAH! (Wh-What!? That's not good!)" Rysuke screeched surprised by Wanderer's sudden accusation. "KAAAH! KAAH! (You should treat these ponies with more respect! They wouldn't do that kind of thing!)"

"Really? Do you know King Sombra? He's quite the sorcerer." Wanderer commented, "I do believe his ability to lead would be impeccable too. He took this Kingdom over and in turn, took an army to destroy Cantorlot!"

"KAAH! KAAH!? (That'd be too obvious! Don't you remember your motto as the Wanderer of universes!?)" Rysuke accused Wanderer of not following his code of honor! It's super effective!!!

Wanderer grunted, and remained silent... it did not last long before he broke the silence again, "If I'm right though, there should be a single witness to this atrocity! The princess, Cadence!"

"KAH... KAAH. (Fine... if you really want to chase down this empty lead.)" Rysuke replied.

They went into the abandoned spire that adorned the city square, and found little to comment about while they went towards the dungeon. They could've commented on how there isn't anything to comment about, but that would be more work than they were doing.

Finally after several flights of stairs, they make it down into the dungeon filled with... lovely swirls of color. "What the... I think our captive someone is a bit insane to be here. Quick, let's save them from the prettiness!"

"KAAH? (Do you even know who you're talking about?)" Rysuke asked somewhat confused by the colors.

"Umm... probably not, I thought we'd immediately find Cadence and then leave." Wanderer admitted in a laidback manner, "Maybe she isn't here and I came here for naught but a colorful dungeon, I thought this place would be dark too!"

"KAH? (You done?)" Rysuke asked annoyed.

"I think so..." Wanderer pondered one moment more, "Yeah, I'm out of complaints now."

The falcon let out a sigh of relief and flew in between the cells, seeing nothing but either corpses adorning the walls or emptiness filling the cells. At the end of the narrow hall of cells, Cadence's cell was occupied by who else... yet there was something off about her. She faced the wall opposite of them.

"Yo, my name is..." Wanderer paused to see if she was listening... she wasn't, "I SAID, YO, MY NAME IS..." another pause, another ignore, "She's not listening to me Rysuke, help!" Wanderer exclaimed.

"KAH... KAAH. (Okay... this is kinda creepy.)" Rysuke replied, "KAAH...? (Do you think she could understand me...?)"

"I understand you very well my little bird." Cadence seemed to speak with a quiet voice. She turned and faced Wanderer with an understanding smile, "I understand you as well."

"So... was this Kingdom taken by Sombra?" Wanderer asked ignoring her statement.

"Yes, it was... however, he's not of his own mind." Cadence answered.

"I think you may be a little stupid to believe that." Wanderer nonchalantly challenged.

"KAAH! (Be polite to the princess!)" Rysuke exclaimed.

"She should know better though, Sombra is an evil unicorn bent on destruction... I just realized he's a stereotype." Wanderer shrugged, "Fine... whatever gets the story moving forward I guess. Where did he go?"

Cadence looked confused, but answered with a simple statement, "Where do you think he'd go?"

"I hope she's actually talking to me..." Wanderer thought for a moment, "At Cantorlot?"

"Yes, that's correct!" Cadence exclaimed.

"KAH? (Doing what?)" Rysuke asked.

Cadence remained silent for a couple seconds... then responded with a simple "I have absolutely no idea..." with a grief-filled frown.

"Well then... I guess as the protagonist I have to see if whatever he's doing is evil... or I could just try to sneak into Cantorlot the easy way. Rysuke..." Wanderer tore a page out of his notebook and wrote a letter with it, "Take this to the ponies trying to break into that fair city." Rysuke flew off with the paper clutched in his talons.

"And what about me?" Cadence asked before Wanderer left.

"I don't know how your story works. Oh wait... you mean the lock." Wanderer kicked the door in almost immediately and ran off without saying anything to the now free princess.

Now let's go into Rysuke's POV!

The air felt very cold/dark on the way to the Cantorlot encampment. Rysuke felt his feather's ruffle with anticipation as he sailed down towards the mane six and two humans of each gender gathered around a roundtable like the one used in court.

"Once we cut through the gate, we should keep an eye out for any survivors that didn't get out." Twilight was in the middle of giving her speech about the plan right then and there.

"Sure... my teams will look for the humans," the human male suggested, "We don't trust you with our kind." this was obviously a non-brony.

"It's for the best..." the female human suggested, "He'll most likely want to find them first over whatever you give him for a job."

"Alright sugarcube. You and him can lead the search for any remaining humans in Cantorlot. We'll try to find the remaining ponies and whoever kicked us out of the city." Applejack spoke in agreement.

Rarity raised a hoof, "Um... may I ask what that falcon is doing in the tent?" she pointed near the tent entrance. Rysuke was in mid-air still holding the letter from Wanderer.

"KAH, KAAH? (Hey, can one of you understand me?)" Rysuke asked in his screeches, "KAAH. (Wanderer gave me a letter for you.)"

"Umm... his letter is from Wanderer..." Fluttershy meekly translated.

Twilight took the letter from Rysuke using her magic and read it loud and clear.

Dear... whomever this reaches first,
I am currently on my way to Cantorlot to infiltrate its depths. So if you could hold your plans to go in back for a bit that would be lovely.
Sincerely yours and mine,
Wanderer of universes

"His handwriting is finer than I imagined." Rarity analyzed. Everyone in the room stared at her for a couple seconds...

"How did he know about the plan?" Rainbow asked.

"I dunno, but maybe we should be nice and go along with his request." Pinkie ecstatically conversed.

"No... I'm not going to listen to him this time." Twilight replied, "He seems to know everything without an explanation, why should we believe that whatever he's doing is to help us?"

"KAH... KAAAH!? KAAH! (Whoa... why do you suspect him of lying!? He really is doing what he's saying!)" Rysuke bit back. Fluttershy translated for him again.

"Because he never seems to give us a good reason to give him our trust. He only told us that he was supposed to save our world, but what if he's lying?" Twilight explained. Rysuke knew he couldn't change her mind... so he went to warn Wanderer.

So... it comes down to this... Wanderer is now suspected of being a liar. Now with the mane six on his tail getting to Cantorlot, how will the situation change? We'll only know in the next epicsode of Wanderer's Journey!

Time for a save state!

Cool, Rom-hack reference.

OR

I hate save states!

Author's Note

Please tell me how I did with Rysuke's dialogue boxes... for I have no idea how to speak falcon.
"FALCON PUNCH!!!" is all I know.

Chapter 13: LOOOOooooOOOOOOOnnnngggggeeeeeerrrr chapter!

Author's warning:
If you haven't heard of the many-worlds interpretation made by Bryce Seligman Dewitt, then you may get confused by what Wanderer does in this chapter...
Also... you'll only see the horizontal rules with light chapter formatting.

Wanderer was sprinting at full speed towards the city in the distance. He stopped in a slide as he reaches the ravine and now faces the wall blocking him from the buildings of Cantorlot. He stared at the wall with a sense of mostly fear... the odds were stacked against him, the ponies were most likely coming with destruction in mind, and he lost his lucky penny from an earlier chapter.

"Enough dramatics Author! Wait..." he checked his pockets quickly, "Oh you son of a-"

He examined the wall for any places that he could climb up, but saw none. He examined the ravine for any sewer grates, but got the same effect. There was no way in except through the front gate... he kept looking in vain, but kept finding nothing.

Then he thought about his first run-in with the Doctor, "OH CRAP! I forgot to give him the flower!" Wanderer made a sound that was between a sigh and a grunt, "Oh well... but what about that... I think I'll try it without training wheels this time!"

Rysuke was flying at top speed towards Cantorlot, so that he could warn Wanderer of the ponies coming soon. However, when he got there... Wanderer was not there. Rysuke tried to look for him, but saw nothing that could give him a clue as to where his friend had gone.

Not long after reaching this conclusion, Rysuke heard a set of wheels screech to a halt behind him. His reluctance to turn around was manifested by his overall fear of the ponies that might be behind him. When he finally turned around he was surprised to see Wanderer holding the rope to a wagon containing his solution to the front gate! The magic amplifier!

"KAAH!? (Did you seriously pull that all the way from the Crystal Kingdom!?)" Rysuke asked in a surprised screech. Wanderer nodded, so Rysuke continued angrily, "K-KAAHH!!! (D-Don't scare me like that ever again!!!)"

"Scare you like what? You only stood there like a buffoon, or... floated there like a bubble..." Wanderer 'thoughtfully' commented, "I just went back to the Kingdom for a spell, even thought about some things that happened in this past month."

"KAH! KAAH! (Whatever! Your letter didn't stop the ponies!)" Rysuke screamed.

"Is that what was going on a few miles back? I didn't notice." Wanderer grinned, "It's almost as if we could have gone here together and not have an effect on the story."

"KAAH? (Do you always have to talk like that when I'm around?)" Rysuke asked unhappily.

"No, but I always choose to." Wanderer commented sourly, "Anyway, you might want to get away from here, I'm about to do something you've never seen me do before!"

Rysuke flew back a little as Wanderer picked up one of the cables attached to the machine. Wanderer held his palm out and took a few minutes of silence...

......

............

........................

Something's wrong here...

"Okay... now!" Wanderer shouted as he shot his hand forward. Nothing happened again. "Um... abracadabra!" he yelled unsure of himself... it still didn't work.

"KAH... KAH, KAAH! (Wow... you're right, I've never seen you do that before!)" Rysuke made a sound that could be interpreted as laughter for a falcon.

"Can it, stupid bird!" Wanderer tried again and nothing happened. He threw his hands in the air and yelled, "Alright universes! Give me a way in!" he threw his hands forward one last time and let loose a spell, "TAKE THAT!"

The gate erupted in bright light and turned pure white in reaction to Wanderer's spell.

"K-KAAH! (O-Okay I really haven't seen you do that before!)" Rysuke screeched in surprise.

"Yeahah! I did it!" Wanderer exclaimed in victory........ "Wait... what did I do?" he laughed at himself for a couple seconds. After that short amount of laughter, he tried to open the gate. His hand went through the gate instead of onto the handle though.

"KAH... KAH! (Well... jump in!)" Rysuke screeched in an obvious tone.

"Oh, great idea! I have no idea what's on the other side though, so I'll stay here..." Wanderer replied letting a scared grin paint his thoughts.

"What do you think you're doing over there?" A voice suddenly called out. On the other side of the ravine was none other than the ponies hoping to get into Cantorlot. They obviously expected Wanderer to be here without a plan.

"Oh well, I'm just-HYAH!!!" Wanderer quickly sprinted into the gate with slightly stunned ponies following him.

On the other side of the gate... four figures fly through the gate and land hard on the ground. Three of them get up faster than the other figure and jump on top of him and yell in unison "You traitor!"

"No, I haven't done anything yet... you are the traitors." Wanderer simply replied to the figures.

"We aren't going to be cutie mark crusader traitors!" the flightless pegasus yelled at Wanderer. "You were trying to destroy-!"

"Hey, could you get off me for a bit? You're causing a scene." Wanderer looked around to as if his eyes were pointers. The cutie mark crusaders get off and look around and see the city actually looked like it did before the incident with the humans. But all the ponies are staring in their direction this time.

Wanderer quickly grabbed the three of them and ran into an alley, "I have a couple questions... why did you follow me? And how did you get in here with me?" he asked expectantly.

They looked at each other and excitedly exclaimed the simplest sentence in reply: "We were hanging on the ledge while you were trying to do that spell!" Wanderer face-palmed at this.

Sweetie Belle took the reins of the answering by exclaiming, "We thought you were going to destroy Cantorlot for sure! But it doesn't look like you did that at all, you repaired it from bottom up!"

"Yeah... about that..." Wanderer began slowly, "I was making a portal to another universe. So what you see here is different in the universe we came in from. Basically, I haven't done jack-squat to the real Cantorlot." he paused to see if they would accept his explanation.

They stared at each other for a minute before almost literally screaming "AWESOME!!!"

"Do you guys have to be so loud!?" Wanderer exclaimed in an annoyed tone. He pulled out a card, "Alright... I guess I'll have some more ponies here than I thought, oh well..." the card glowed and suddenly disappeared.

"What was that supposed to do?" Scootaloo asked in confusion. She looked around to see what effect it did, but saw nothing happen.

"Hang on..." Wanderer said impatiently. He suddenly gets engulfed in a bright light starts changing into something else. His transformation took about a minute and the light dispersed, showing what he had turned into.

"Whoa... can your cards do everything!?" Applebloom exclaimed in surprise as she held out her hoof in expectancy for a hoof bump.

"Unfortunately no..." Wanderer replied as he hit her hoof with his own, "I want one that can summon food on the fly, but that's just how the multiverse works."

Let's see here... oh... he turned into a stallion, a male pegasus at that. He didn't stumble or anything when he hoof bumped Applebloom... he might already have the hang of this!

"Now let's get moving!" he triumphantly shouted as he moved to leave the alley, but tripped over his hooves. Spoke too soon...

With Wanderer pretty much in tow... the Cutie Mark Crusaders made their way towards the majestic palace in the distance. Wanderer kept falling over into several things for a couple minutes until he finally got used to it. The guards seemed to stare at Wanderer with curiosity as they entered the palace garden gates.

The next step was to get Celestia to speak to him, and that seemed to be easier done than said. "Can we please speak to Celestia?" Sweetie Belle asked the guard next to the door into the palace.

"Sure, she isn't busy." the guard replied before opening the front door. Easy enough...

The noise of the several servents echoed through the halls as they walked towards the throne room. The hustle and bustle had lost some of its effect as they walked into the throne room, it being longer than most of the halls.

The cutie mark crusaders bowed as soon as they got within three long meters away from the throne, but Wanderer hanged back a little and didn't bow. Celestia excused Luna from their game of chess, which Celestia was winning.

"Hello, Princess Celestia. We would like you to meet... um... Beck!" Sweetie Belle turned to Wanderer and motioned for him to come closer.

"Y-Your majesty, I-I..." Wanderer began while shaking in anxiousness, "You see... I... don't know how to get back to my universe."

"Hmm?" Celestia tilted her head to one side and continued, "What are you going on about? Unless... that voice!" her horn emanated with magic as Wanderer was turned back to normal. Surprise overtook her as she reeled back in her throne.

"Don't act so surprised! This is your other universe's fault!" Wanderer exclaimed in anger. He clenched his fist and continued yelling, "If you were smart in the other one, then I wouldn't be here! Now send me back in this exact spot!"

"Calm down! You had orders not to enter the other worlds." Celestia replied.

"You had orders to protect this multiverse! But you screwed up!" Wanderer bit back. He was sending an aura of bad vibe through the room, dude!

"...Hmph... I'll let you go after that, but you should be more careful in the future, and by the way..." she turned to the crusaders, "Don't bring anyone with you next time Wanderer." her horn emanated one last time before the area whited out for our star-crossed heroes.

The now dusty ruins of the throne room appeared in front of them soon after the white out disappeared from their sight. Wanderer simply let out a heavy breath while the crusaders made a fuss over by the window.

"AAHH! That's blood!" Sweetie Belle screamed, she stepped back towards Wanderer in fright. The others seemed equally frightened, but wouldn't move away in curiosity.

"That's not blood... it's strawberry jam from someone's toast." Wanderer argued against their fear.

"I-It is blood... it's thick and... and..." Scootaloo began. Wanderer stopped her by swiping his finger on it and licking it, "A-AAHH!!! What are you doing!?"

"Yeah... it's jam... though it's probably best not to taste it, full of germs most likely." Wanderer nonchalantly replied to her scream.

"Y-You jerk! Don't scare us like that!" Applebloom exclaimed in pained anger, "We coulda thought you were a vampire!"

"Well... while we're on the topic of the jam..." Sweetie Belle began shyly, "How did you know it was just jam? Anyone who looked at that would usually tell you it's blood."

"Unless they're an android that can scan!" Scootaloo put up in Wanderer's defense.

"Scoots... I'm not an android, but Belle's right. How could I have sensed it was just jam? Hmm..." Wanderer scratched his jaw in thought. He didn't know how he got that ability suddenly. Could it be... that he was having premonitions like Celestia?

"Well, a-anyways..." Applebloom began shakily, "We need a plan or else we might be twiddlin' or thumbs for a bit."

"I've already got one. Follow me... and please, try to stay quiet!" Wanderer told them in annoyance before walking over to the door that connected to the hallway. The crusaders followed reluctantly as Wanderer opened the door and started acting as if they were some guerilla special operations group; slipping beween each piece of cover before pouncing on enemies together.

Meanwhile... back at the gate, the ponies are analyzing it to figure out what kind of magic Wanderer used. Rysuke was watching like... a hawk while he sat on top of the ruined magic amplifier that Wanderer used.

Fluttershy reluctantly walked up to Rysuke and asks, "Um... how does Wanderer understand you?"

"KAH? KAAH? (Huh? What do you mean?)" Rysuke turned to look down at her and scratched his perch.

"Well... it's just that... he never had you around when he was around us, so how could he train a falcon to deliver letters on the spot?" she asked in a curiosity filled voice.

"KAH... KAAH. (Hmm... I don't think I know enough to answer)" Rysuke responded in a confused screech. He rubbed his wing against the bottom of his beak like it was a hand stroking a chin thoughtfully.

"Oh... well, if you find anything else out, could you please tell me?" after getting an affirmative nod, Fluttershy turned and walking back to the mane six huddled together.

Derpy approached next with worry clouding her eyes, "Where did Wanderer go?" she asked no one in particular.

"KAH! (He's in there!)" Rysuke screeched and pointed his wing at the gate. Derpy reeled back a moment before looking at what Rysuke was pointing at. She nodded at Rysuke before walking away towards the gate and flew over... problem here? She hit a magic barrier and tumbled in mid-air backwards.

"What the?" she grunted as she got her balance back. Past the ruined buildings, she could see Wanderer speaking to someone, or at least he was moving his arms and nodding his head back and forth.

In the middle of the park... a verbal fight has ensued, "Listen... I like the fire you guys put into your hunt for the cutie mark, but you can't just go off alone! In a guerilla spec ops group, you need to stay with your group, not run off on your own!" Wanderer scolded in an angry tone.

"I'm sorry mister... don't blame them, blame me!" Applebloom replied.

"You kids are impossible to work with! If they follow your orders, then you should've told them to follow me and not run off on a suicide mission!" Wanderer yelled angrily. He grabbed his bow and unstrung it from his shoulder, "I'm going to go look for them, stay here and be quiet!" he ran off in the direction of the royal district passing by the enemies he had killed on his way to the middle of the park. He pulled an arrow out of the neck of a pony mid-run and strung it onto his bow.

He stopped in front of a building and focused his senses, "...Nope, not here." he calmly concluded after a moment passed. Before he ran to check any other buildings he looked around and saw a tuft of purple hair on the ground. He picked it up and looked towards the building nearest to the hair's location.

He opened the door slowly and pressed himself against the wall next to the door gingerly to avoid making any sound. He slowly moved in and saw the architectural detail put into making the house. It looked fancy until the humans came in and made a camp out of it. Wanderer slowly approached a door into the living room and saw a slightly off-putting sight; Pinkamena Diane Pie was slicing up human carcasses.

She immediately turned around and lifted her knife when Wanderer turned the corner, "I thought I told you kids to..." she turned her head in confusion, then simply smiled devilishly "Oh heeeeey Wanderer!"

"Kids? You meant Scoots and Belle right?" Wanderer asked with urgency starting to edge on his voice.

"Really? You don't want to... ask me about my day or anything?" Pinkamena replied disappointedly. She sighed with the knife still in her hoof, "How ungentlemanly!"

"Fine, I'll ask something... how are you holding that knife?" Wanderer asked in earnest.

"There we go! I don't know actually... *blah, blah, blah* it's really confusing really." Pinkamena scowled immediately after the statement(s), "Hey, are you even listening?"

"...I'm sorry, what?" Wanderer was staring with the teenage look that said 'I don't care that much'.

Pinkamena sighed and looked away angrily and stayed silent. She continued cutting the human carcasses in dejected silence.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you needed attention. So... why do you do that? Not the attention grabbing, but that cutting." Wanderer asked in a curious tone.

She sighed and simply answered, "I dunno... For some reason, I always like to cut something with this cleaver." she held up her knife, "It's so... mesmerizing......... I'm sorry, what were we talking about?"

Wanderer sighed, "Where are Belle and Scoots?" he asked seizing the opportunity.

"Oh, I know where they are! But you have to let me be in your party first!" Pinkamena demanded.

Am I going to regret this?

Pinkamena Diane Pie the psychotic cupcakes murderer has joined your party!

"Alright, follow me my good man!" Pinkamena walked to the kitchen. She grabbed some cooking utensils and dropped them onto the counter, "There! Now we can make some cupcakes!"

"Diane, I hope you realize what we're supposed to be doing, right?" Wanderer asked in annoyance.

"Oohoohoo! You already gave me a pet name! This is going to be fun! Alright, they're this way!" she shoved the backdoor open and walked out happily. Wanderer followed cautiously, looking around before continuing to follow her down the street.

"When is he comin' back?" Applebloom was sitting against a tree and impatiently tapping her hoof against the ground. She looked around and saw nothing but ruined buildings... and dead people/ponies.

She stood up and balled up her hoof, "Aright, that's it! This is taking too long! I'm gonna go find Wanderer!" she shouted before running in the direction that Wanderer ran. A few minutes later... she found him, or he found her.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were bravely fighting against several human bandits. It was a lost cause, but they needed to survive! They could see no way away from the situation making even more dire. On top of that, they are starting to get tired and the humans are getting closer every second to catching them in a slip up.

"Sweetie Belle, if we don't make it out of this... I just want you to know..." Scootaloo began in a dramatically exhausted tone.

"No! We have to survive! For Wanderer... for Applebloom... for our friends back at school!" she said before kicking into an approaching human and tumbling back onto her hooves.

Scootaloo panted and replied slowly, "Yeah... you're right... we can't leave Applebloom alone, you and I know how she is..." she dodged to one side as a human brandished a spear in her direction, then jumped up to his head to give a heavy kick. The human fell back with a loud thud, but there were more collecting on the hill, "Dang, I wish we could win already..." Scootaloo started hyperventilating.

Sweetie Belle looked around for a way out of there, but saw that they were trapped in a corner. She panted heavily with a fearful look on her face. Many humans came running all at once, too many to fight with only two dedicated fillies. Sweetie Belle closed her as eyes and screamed as the humans jumped in her direction...
........

.............

.................!? The humans were lying on the ground breathless!

"Wh-What?" she gasped at the figure. The figure seemed to be a male unicorn, had a red mane and black coat, and two crossbows attached to his saddle. The stallion stood courageously against the oncoming threat with a long katana in his mouth.

He stabbed the sword into the ground and turned towards her, then arrogantly asked in a deep voice, "What? Didn't expect anyone to show up?" he asked before pulling his sword out of the ground and cutting through the approaching horde of humans like butter.

With their spirits revitalized, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle ran in and jumped onto a human approaching on the stallion's left flank and bucked him sore. The human ran away after throwing them off.

"You two can fight? Good, but minimize any risk of damage you get before rushing the enemy." the stallion instructed before entering a combat pose. The two crusaders made grunts of confirmation before entering their own battle stances.

The oncoming horde shouted to each other in a foreign language before running away in fear.

"HAH! COWARDS!" Scootaloo screamed at the now dispersed horde of enemies.

The stallion looked at her disappointed, "Don't give them a reason to come back and you'll survive longer." he said gently.

"Thank you, Mr...?" Sweetie Belle asked in a polite tone.

"My name is Dark Gambit and you two are not supposed to be trapped in here. However did you get in?" he asked worriedly.

"We... we followed a guy called the Wanderer of universes. Stupid name right?" Scootaloo replied after catching the rest of the breath she was missing.

"Well... you can't blame him for having a bad name." Gambit reasoned, his blood-red eyes flickering in the dark suggested he knew something about Wanderer.

"Do you know him?" Sweetie Belle pressed.

"No... at least not directly. He came up in the news I received before this city came down in ruins. You feel that magic current flowing through the air?" he asked Sweetie Belle directly.

"Yeah... I thought it was weird too, but I haven't seen any live unicorns using magic in this city." she replied.

"Exactly... there's something going on inside of the palace. Yet, it is nigh impossible to get into. Now why would it be so heavily guarded if there's no use for it?" he concluded. He continued immediately, "This city is surrounded by a force field fit to stop any army from entering."

"My brother is in the palace, that's why this city is under unnecessarily heavy guard." Wanderer had approached unexpectedly holding his bow and Applebloom over his left shoulder, "Never walk away from the group, or else I shall make sure that Pinkamena will be in charge of you lot." his right eye flashed red with anger for a split-second.

"Ah, you must be Wanderer! So these children are in your possession?" Gambit asked.

"In my possession........ are you a sick perv!?" Wanderer dropped Applebloom on accident while shouting at the stallion, "They followed me here when I got through the gate with diverse parlor tricks! However, according to you, there's no way for us to get an army in here and stop him." Wanderer concluded further.

"Very well done... everyone knew it before you though." Scootaloo initiated a slow-clap.

"Just making sure we're all up to speed." Wanderer explained. He clapped his hands together and looked at Gambit, "Alright, I want you to tell me where the exit to the city is."

"Haven't you listened? There is no way out of here... except death." he replied coldly.

Wanderer grunted and looked at the fillies, "I don't want to take them with... they're just kids!"

Pinkamena laughed, "You think they're just kids? Look at all those dead corpses! I don't think that Dark Gambit was the only one who killed here. You can do nearly impossible things when in a crisis!"

Wanderer sighed in an annoyed tone and looked away to the left. The view he was looking at wasn't pleasant, being made of corpses and broken buildings... He stayed silent for several moments with a twitching eye showing his thoughts on this decision.

After the silence that cut through the air better than Gambit's sword was over, Wanderer turns back toward the group and simply stated in a serious tone, "Alright, you fillies can come with me, but you have to be careful, or else you can find the way out on your own."

"Alright! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER WORLD SAVERS!" they all screamed in unison.

Derpy paced back and forth frustratingly next to the magic amplifier, Rysuke was flying in circles above her head, and the mane six were still huddled together arguing over what to do.

"We need to get in there!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed, "There are probably some ponies who are trapped in there!"

"But... Rainbow..." Fluttershy weakly began, "There could be something dangerous in there!"

"Honestly, ah agree with RD..." Applejack replied next, "Fluttershy, if that's true, then we'd have no choice but to help 'em out."

"But hang on... Wanderer went in there, darlings," Rarity pointed out, "And wherever he goes, he brings plenty of trouble, we already know what happened back at Ponyville; he came before then!"

"But hang on!" Twilight objected, "That only gives more reason to go in! We have to save the Cantorlot ponies from whatever danger that Wanderer has brought..." she paused to hear Pinkie, but realized she wasn't there...

"Could I help?" Derpy had walked up unexpectedly, "If we can't send an army in, then send in a single pony!" this won't end well...

"What!? No way!" Rainbow cried out, "We can't let you in there! You'll screw up along the way and get yourself killed!"

"Exactly..." Derpy started reasoning confidently, "If an army goes in and messes up, then you'd lose an army. Have only one pony go in and slip up, then you'd only lose one pony."

"Which is exactly why we can't let you go with this sweetie," Rarity soothed persuasively, "We can't just throw anypony in there, especially you. You have friends back in Ponyville."

"I don't care... Wanderer's in trouble in that place, I can... feel it in my gut." Derpy admitted, "Even you get that feeling Rainbow."

"Yeah, but I don't do it willy-nilly!" Rainbow cried out in protest, "Gut-feelings don't keep you alive!"

"Sugarcube, you can't just decide that you're going in there alone." Applejack put in for Rainbow, "If we send just one pony in, then the death chance goes up by a considerable rate!"

"Then give me Fluttershy and Wanderer's bird." Derpy concluded. Everypony's jaw dropped to the ground at the notion.

Fluttershy was the first to object, "N-No! I don't want to go in there!"

"Whoa, hold on a second partner!" Applejack pressed, "Why do you want to take them?"

"Wanderer will recognize his bird, and his bird in turn will be able to guide us to him. Fluttershy needs to come along so that we can understand the bird when it finds him." Derpy stated with only confidence edging her voice.

"How can you be so sure of that!?" Rarity yelled, "You don't know what will happen if he sees you again! You don't know what he'll do!"

Rainbow and Twilight remained silent, thinking about what they should do... what path was right. Send their friend into the possible depths of hell? Or keep her here and find another way?

"Rainbow, ah think we need your opinion on this matter... she's been closest to you." Applejack reminded Rainbow in a serious tone.

"You too, Twilight!" Rarity demanded, "You're princess! Whatever your decision is, they'll have to follow it! Make a decision, now!"

"Rainbow!"

"Twilight!"

"Guys..."

"KAAH! (Make a choice already!)"

Everypony was calling out their names as they didn't say anything in confusion. It was like trying to call out to someone in a torrent of thoughts; very ineffective and very disheartening. In any case... the choice for them was simple, but at the same time... very difficult to go through.

Until... that one fateful event occurred in the span of nearly ten seconds, "I'm his partner!" Derpy cried out. Everypony stopped yelling at Rainbow and Twilight and looked at her.

Derpy looked very solemn while explaining,"He isn't going to be able to survive in there alone. If someone doesn't try to help him, then he may die before his job is done!"

Nopony said anything... the silence was unbearably heavy all around the group. Derpy looked away solemnly as she continued, "All I feel is guilt, that he is going to die and I won't be there to help!"

"Listen Derpy..." Twilight had finally found her voice, no matter how dull it sounded, "We care about you and Fluttershy... that's why we're so reluctant to let you go and find Wanderer."

"What would Wanderer say right now?" Fluttershy asked out of the blue, "...I think he would he would go... 'If she's so confident in her ability to do something, then we should let her do her thing!' or something like that..."

Everypony stared at Fluttershy in total confusion, but remained silent.

"KAAH... KAAH. (Just let her do it... she might insist until you get serious and make her no longer part of Equestria.)" Rysuke coldly followed up. He landed on Fluttershy's head and found purchase in her hair while she translated.

Nopony spoke up... and how could they? This choice was made even harder, Derpy needed to go, but Fluttershy was put at risk when they'd go in. It was a long... awkward silence that would fill their memories for all eternity...

Finally one pony spoke up in a low, grave tone, "Fluttershy... are you okay with this?" Rainbow had begun crying a little.

"I think... if Wanderer wants to succeed, then he'll need Derpy's help." Fluttershy confirmed, "If I can help towards that goal, I'll feel like this universe has a higher chance of surviving." she was smiling, but it was very evident that it was to hide the endless terror that she felt about leaving her best friends behind to go on a suicide mission.

"Listen to her! She's spouting dribble just like Wanderer did!" Rarity declared.

"No... she's right." Twilight objected heavily, "We need to help Wanderer... why would he want to send us a letter about infiltrating the gates? Why would he tell us such madness? Why would he know about everything ahead of time? It's because he really was telling the truth every time he said anything." her eyes shot wide open with realization, "Honesty..." she looked at Applejack.

Applejack continued this chain of logic, "He also seemed to care for other ponies safety before doin' somethin' stupid. Generosity..." Applejack looked at Rarity.

Rarity was next, "Never striding away from his main goal whenever he could've been killed on the spot... Loyalty..." she looked at Rainbow with surprise painting her face.

Rainbow continued the chain, "Caring for a simple, yet diverse task from a pony in need... Kindness..." she looked at Fluttershy with wide eyes.

Fluttershy spoke last, "And using his own powers of cards to save everyone from imminent destruction... Magic..." she smiled and looked at Twilight who had finally realized what had happened.

Twilight was the most surprised out of all of them, "Wh-What? He knew about the elements of harmony?"

"Even bigger... he constructed his path to follow the guidelines of each element!" Rarity pondered for a moment, "No one saw our elements of harmony... or could devise a plan to get this to come up some day."

"Well... it looks like he did do exactly both of those things" Applejack pointed out, "Somehow he knew without being told anythin' about our history..."

Everypony's faces were in complete shock over this. However, Fluttershy, Derpy, and Rainbow Dash seemed to be able to process it without the need for any new emotion to be set into their faces.

"So will you let me go in now?" Derpy asked hurriedly.

".....No." Twilight answered in a dark tone. Her eyes suddenly seemed... familiar...

"Hey, Twi... I think it'd be for the best if they did go in too." Rainbow Dash responded.

"No, and that's final! No one goes in there!" Twilight exclaimed.

"What's gotten into you Twilight? That's not very nice to-" Applejack tried to reason, but her words only seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"SHUT UP! I've had enough of this!" Twilight screamed with wild eyes, "You two will go nowhere as long as I live to protect Cantorlot!"

"What are you talking about!? It's in danger now!" Rainbow shouted, "You can't protect something under attack, Twi! Stop being blind as a bat!"

"No... you all want to destroy it so that this will all not matter one bit!" she forced a giant laser-like whip to materialize and prepared to attack, "LEAVE AND NEVER RETURN!!!" she yelled before swinging it across the ravine to strike everyone away. Everypony went flying as soon as the giant whip struck them and sent them towards Ponyville.

"Ahh! Team Equestria is blasting off again!" one of the unicorns screamed as he went flying faster than the others and as he was lost in the sky, you could see his glasses twinkling in the distance... wait... he wasn't wearing glasses...

Wanderer stood in a black room, unlike the white room you see him in most of the time, it was essentially a room that was only illuminated by the peeking slit in the door. It was to be their headquarters until everyone was fully rested.

No one was awake in the room with Wanderer, making him think that either they're asleep, or are in separate rooms adjacent to the one he was in. The latter seemed more true since he kept hearing a noise down one of the halls, most likely the crusaders.

He looked around the room a couple times pitifully, but saw nothing that could help him. "I'm going to either starve or be killed off in time for the end of all pony kind." he leaned against the wall in exhaustion and lifted his shoulders and told the empty room, "I'll face this, but I'm screwed... for the first time, I can admit I won't be able to face this even with backup." he muttered to himself.

He looked at the door expectantly, as if there was going to be some miracle that make it easier for him to get into the palace, but he knew nothing would come in... but still he hoped for his assumptions to be wrong for about two hours.

Discord was sitting next to a pond sunbathing with a punch glass sitting in a cup holder of his beach chair, and seemed to be enjoying himself. Let's interrupt that, shall we?

The screams of many ponies can be heard in the distance, when Discord looked back, he was greeted to a forceful slam from multiple ponies at once. They all thankfully landed in the pond, which was enlarged by Discord.

"What are all of you doing here!? My resting spot!" Discord seethed with anger, "You even broke my beach chair!" he rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming.

"We're awfully sorry Discord... Twilight shot us here from Cantorlot and in turn made us break your chair." Fluttershy apologized.

"Wh-Wha-Why!?" Discord asked in great pain.

"That don't matter right now!" Applejack exclaimed, "Twilight just did something that she normally wouldn't do, so we gotta do something about it!"

"Is she under some kind of spell?" Rainbow asked.

"I 'ave no idea..." Applejack admitted.

"I'm pretty sure she is," Derpy proclaimed, "Why would she hit us away like some unknown villains if she was thinking ordinarily?"

"It does seem kind of... strange when you put it like that." Fluttershy replied.

HOLD ON JUST ONE SECOND!!!

Reality seemed to shatter all at once as Rarity raised an objection. She glowered at Derpy and started shouting, "It's all this mare's fault! She poisoned our friend with some potion!"

"Wh-What are you talking about!?" Derpy shouted back.

"I'm saying you did something to her to make her this furious!" Rarity declared.

"Hang on! You don't have any proof that I did it! I'd never try to poison Twilight!" Derpy exclaimed.

"Oh yes you would! And I do have proof! You obviously snuck to where you could slip the poison into her drink! That's how you did it!" Rarity exclaimed wildly.

"THAT'S NOT RIGHT AT ALL!!!" Derpy's shout engulfed Rarity's argument in anger-filled flames, "There's no way that's right, Rarity! You saw me talking to her about going into Cantorlot!"

"Really? Well, you wouldn't know would you?" Rarity seethed, "Rysuke would be able to tell you though!"

Speaking of whom, he went flying--literally--into Discord's face.

Rarity pointed at him, "Rysuke knows that stress weakens a unicorn's mental barriers! He's spent enough time with Wanderer to learn about it!"

"KAH? (Did I miss something?)" Rysuke screeched confused.

"Oh, you haven't missed a thing..." Discord angrily seethed. Rysuke flew away in case Discord was hungry for falcon stew.

"He told you to make Twilight face that difficult decision so that she would break under pressure and the poison would finally affect her thoughts!" Rarity declared in a rather dramatic tone.

"Ya know Rarity, it sounds like the same thing happened to you!" Applejack angrily replied.

"Wh-How dare you! I am nothing like that brute!" Rarity shouted.

"What? Who is the brute?" Fluttershy asked.

"That Twilight of course!" Rarity yelled.

"Hold on a second here!" Rainbow Dash objected, "How can you call your own friend a brute when she got hit with some strange spell? Also, why would you go for Derpy's throat first? It could've been one of us, or even you!"

Rarity flinched at the accusation, "H-How dare you! I wouldn't do anything like that!"

"But, you look like you would've done it." Derpy accused, when everyone looked at her with suspicion glazing over their eyes, she explained like this: "You eyes are darker, why is that Rarity? You pride yourself on fashion!"

"Ah! I-It's just this time we're in right now!" Rarity worriedly replied.

"Also, you're not complaining about the rest of yourself. Usually you'd complain about how your mane was 'ruined!' if anything happened." Derpy continued.

"Ah-Um... for buck's sake... where is my comb?" Rarity tried to get them to back off. It was very ineffective...

"Rarity, you didn't bring a comb on the trip," Applejack pointed out, "You said it would be a hindrance to the rest of what you were packing."

Rarity looked scared, but at the same time... unsurprised...

"So... you did it didn't you?" Derpy asked angrily.

"Ah-Ah... You don't want to do this... please! He'll... he'll..." Rarity looked pale(r) as if she had seen a ghost.

"Who's he? What's he gonna do!?" Applejack demanded in hot fury.

"His name... I couldn't get that, but..." she paused and looked around as if 'he' was nearby, "He'll kill me if I tell anyone what I was supposed to be doing! Please, don't ask anymore questions!"

"B-But..." Applejack was quite fazed by this point.

"No, if we ask anymore questions, he'll kill her!" Fluttershy begged.

"But... F-Fine... but you're going to go back to the Carousal Boutique!" Applejack declared.

"Alright, thank you!" Rarity hugged Applejack and ran towards the Carousal Boutique.

"I'll follow her and make sure she doesn't go somewhere else accidentally." Rainbow called out after she started flying after Rarity.

"So, now that we've dealt with Rarity, what do we do about Twilight?" Derpy asked.

No one spoke up, just stood there in confusion, but Rysuke was just floating in confusion.

Eventually Rysuke shallowly screeched with Fluttershy translating, " KAH, KAAH. (If Wanderer were here, then he could just use his mind to fix her, but he's in Cantorlot, so...)"

"Is there anyone else?" Applejack asked intrigued.

"KAH... KAH, KAAH. (Well... I don't know who, the ones who could've been able to are either dead or just too evil.)" Rysuke pointed out.

"What do we do then?" Derpy asked with hopeless eyes.

"We could divert her attacks and get someone in..." Applejack replied.

"That's too dangerous! What if she turns around while the ones trying to get in are next to the door?" Fluttershy objected.

"Well, we gotta do somethin' Fluttershy! I don't like taking risks as much as you, but we have to do something to get in and help Wanderer!" Applejack responded angrily.

"Maybe we could persuade her?" Fluttershy randomly replied, "If she knew we meant no harm, then we could get in, right?" she was looking around at everyone's despair filled eyes.

"That could work if we knew what to do... how would we get her to think we're not hostile?" Derpy asked. Everyone looked at Derpy and smiled... "...What is it?"

Wanderer was standing outside the gate of the palace garden and held his bow firmly, the rest of the group was hiding out of plain sight while he went to open the door. The door slowly groaned as it swung open, then... the strangest thing happened.

There was no one to greet them... no sound came through the garden as if it was the ghost town's center. Wanderer looked around and signaled for the group to come out of hiding.

"Hey, where's the baddies? I thought we would be greeted by smiling faces covered in blood!" Pinkamena exclaimed. She looked around disappointed and kicked a pebble, "This place is more dead than the rest of Cantorlot."

"Congratulations should be in order! There aren't any opponents to fight!" Dark Gambit excitedly replied, "Looks like we don't need to fight now! Okay, let's go home."

"Something is wrong here!" Scootaloo objected.

"Besides we haven't even checked the inside of the palace yet!" Sweetie Belle added.

"If they're gone as Dark Gambit says, then we may have to investigate just in case. We'll need to know where they are." Wanderer replied. Before giving the order to go in, he spoke to the crusaders, "You seem to be handling those crossbows I gave you very well. Have you gotten some sort of training?"

"Ah got some tips from my big sister. And ah shared it with the others." Applebloom responded. The other crusaders nodded in agreement.

"Are you four done? Cause we got to get moving." Dark Gambit simply responded.

"Yeah, yeah... we're coming!" Wanderer exclaimed aloofly.

The throne room was completely trashed, but the throne still stood with plenty of dead bodies in front of it. "So.... looks like a dictator was in here." Wanderer observed.

"Idiot..." Dark Gambit muttered. Before anyone could say anything against him, he continued the observations: "This place looks recently used... I can even sense the magic that still lingers in the air. And the throne has... fresh blood on it."

Scootaloo gagged, "I can smell it from here..." she admitted. She looked towards the throne with overgrowing curiosity, and started unconsciously walking towards it.

"Scoots, what do you think you're doing!?" Wanderer shouted at her, waking her from her unconscious walk, "Before checking things out, get an adult! We don't know if that is booby-trapped!"

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Scootaloo sadly replied.

"Don't worry, it looks safe..." Wanderer walked up to the throne and before he got halfway to it, a pillar of flame shoots up from the floor. He jumps back in fear and trips on the carpet, then cries out to the group after a long pause: "Okay... the throne is off limits!"

"Seems like it's for the best." Dark Gambit agreed.

Pinkamena walks up to Wanderer and offers a hoof, "Get up." after pulling him up to his knees, she continues with a question, "What do we do now?"

"We have to find out where our opponents went..." Wanderer replied. He stood up and cried out orders, "Alright everypony, we'll have to split up to find some clues to where the people that were here are. Crusaders, you'll stay here and yell if anyone comes through that door. Gambit, I want you check the hallway rooms. Pinkamena, you'll come with me to the princess's chambers. Anypony have an objection?"

No one said anything, so everyone went to their jobs. Wanderer carefully walked with Pinkamena towards what he hoped was the chambers that the princess's shared. Eventually he found a set of stairs and climbed the steps. What he found might not surprise you... or will it?

To be continued... save your progress now!!!

O-okay... why are you so angry?

OR

Don't take that tone with me, boy!

Author's Note

Please tell me any grammer, spelling, or whatever errors I made this time, you know the drill. Oh, and merry Christmas! Be good, Wanderer knows Santa!

Chapter 14: The investigation in Cantorlot place!

Ever got the feeling that everything could crumble under the weight of stress you felt? That's exactly what Wanderer felt when he found the top of the stairs and saw the state of the princess's room. It was complete ruin, with curtains ripped showing only fragments of the outside afternoon sun, the sheets on the bed were thrown off frantically by whomever was in here last, and drawers from the dresser were pulled completely out of their places.

Wanderer looked around the room disappointed, "Look's like she isn't here..." he solemnly stated. He walked over to the balcony and looked over the handrail.

"You were hoping for that audience with one of the princesses? Dude, I don't think she would have much to tell you anyway." Pinkamena replied from the room.

"Yeah... sure..." Wanderer kept looking over the rail without turning to speak to her.

"What's up with you? You're so... quiet..." Pinkamena asked without a second thought.

Wanderer remained silent, as if to annoy her a lot more. After an annoyed pause from Pinkamena, he finally spoke his troubles: "I'm worried about too many ponies, that's all..."

"What does that mean?" Pinkamena reluctantly asked.

"It means what it says on the tin," Wanderer held his hand off to the side as if presenting the tin, "I'm worried about Derpy, whom may or may not be in trouble. I'm worried about Katherine, if she's still alive..." he let a long breath before continuing, "And I'm a little worried for the crusaders."

"Because they're children, alright, we get it!" Pinkamena sighed with great annoyance.

"I hope you're not seriously going to bring that up," Wanderer sighed, "I'm not worried for that reason, it's just... that Dark Gambit. He didn't tell us anything about himself on the way here."

"He's a survivor, haven't you read things like The Trotting Dead?" Pinkamena pointed out, "Those ponies don't tell much about their past."

"He's suspicious, that's all I'm saying." Wanderer ended the conversation, "Now, let's start looking around this room for clues."

He turned around and headed towards the dressers and examined the drawers, "Looks like these were pulled out by a unicorn... you can see by the lack of scratches on the sides."

"How does that prove anything? I could probably pull one out myself!" Pinkamena retorted.

"One... one you could pull out..." Wanderer repeated her words, "If that's true though, why would someone need to pull every single drawer out? And out of the dresser to be precise..."

"Probably because they were hurriedly looking for something." Pinkamena admitted.

"If they were, then they didn't exactly want to drop these on the ground... that would make it obvious that someone messed with the dresser." Wanderer pointed out.

"Maybe one of the princesses found them while they were trying to find whatever they were trying to find." Pinkamena added to the thought chain.

"Correct, Diane... but let's try to find evidence suggesting that's entirely possible before making that a solid conclusion." Wanderer looked around, "Any clocks?"

Pinkamena dug through a pile of junk next to the door and pulled out a clock, "This is broken... it might have stopped on the time when our culprit was in here."

"Good job..." Wanderer took the clock and examined the hands, which pointed as follows: 3 (small hand) & halfway between 5 and 6 (small hand). "When did the hotel building collapse, Diane?"

"Huh? That seems irrelevant, but..." she thought a moment, "I think it was like... 3:30!"

"So... the princesses found the culprit a little before the building collapsed! Nice find, Diane!" Wanderer praised. Pinkamena just smiled excitedly in response, "Hey, you're still Pinkamena... how come you aren't changing back to Pinkie?"

She looked away and answered in somber tone, "You know how I came along to help? Well, I knew a little that you were going to attack this palace, or at least I hoped you would, and you did. This one human cursed me and now all I can do is be Pinkamena, I don't have any control anymore."

Wanderer checked his deck of cards, "Burn cure, Poison cure, Vex cure..." he put down the cards and apologetically stared at her, "Sorry, I can't reverse it... I don't have the right cards..."

"It's alright, I bet Twilight can cure it!" she ecstatically replied.

"That's the spirit! Can't wait to have the old you back, but let's keep searching." Wanderer responded happily.

"I'll check out that balcony you were looking over, while you check..." she scratched her chin, "Um, somewhere else!" she added.

Wanderer nodded his head and began towards one of the closets, "Wow, they have closets! I wonder what they put in there?" he pulled it wide open and closed it immediately, "Okay, that's not something the world can ever know about..." he stated while holding his arms across his chest and shivering in fear of whatever skeletons were in that closet.

Pinkamena looked back at him confused, but didn't ask anything about the closet. Wanderer quickly moved away from the closet and to the corner that held the beds. He pulled the covers off of Celestia's bed and saw nothing more than a bed.

"Wow, they sure mark their beds a good bit..." Wanderer remarked about the beds. Celestia and Luna's beds were marked by moons, suns, stars... anything that would remind someone that it's their bed. Wanderer scratched the back of his head in frustration and muttered, "Come on, when am I going to find her?"

Pinkamena was pacing infuriatingly next to the balcony door, "*grumble, grumble* When am I going to sate this taste for death?"

Wanderer for the most part ignored what she said and turned towards her, "I don't think there's much else for us to do here. We'd better go see what the others are up to."

"Yeah, we might as well..." Pinkamena agreed. She and Wanderer headed down the stairs and walked into the throne room, the pillar of flames seemed to never disappeared, but the crusaders managed to find a way to.

"Hey, Scoots! Belle! Bloom!" Wanderer called out, "I know you're there, so please come out!"

No movement was seen in the giant area, it was all silent...

"Hey, Crusaders! Come out or I'll--" Wanderer was about to say 'find you myself' before getting tackled by the crusaders.

"Hah! We've got you! Score: 1 for the cutie mark crusaders, and nothing for Wanderer!" Scootaloo victoriously roared.

"Uh, Diane, help!" Wanderer pretended to shout in a scared tone.

"Sorry, you got yourself into this!" Pinkamena replied while devilishly smiling.

Wanderer grunted with effort, lifting the crusaders off his back, "Please... don't do that... again." he stated through pretend pained gasps of breath.

"You're here early, Dark Gambit doesn't seem to be done yet." Applebloom pointed out.

"Oh, great... looks like we have to wait." Wanderer sighed in a exhausted tone.

"While he's off doing whatever, what do you want to do?" Scootaloo asked impatiently.

"I'd love to hear a story! Please tell us one, Wanderer!" Sweetie Belle begged.

"Uh... sorry I don't have one." Wanderer responded shakily.

"Hang on, didn't you have any previous adventures? You should tell us one of those!" Pinkamena responded bluntly.

"These kids wouldn't like them, I sure didn't like them either... and I was only a little older than them." Wanderer answered.

"Ooh! An action story!" Scootaloo squealed. "Come on, come on, come on, come ooooonnnn! Tell us!"

"I said something earlier, maybe we should look back on that... it was something similar to an answer of 'no!' to your demands." Wanderer jokingly refused.

"Please...?" Sweetie Belle was putting on the best sad-eyes impression for Wanderer. Yet he looked back with annoyed disdain in his eyes, "Come on, just like... one story."

Wanderer looked around disdainfully before letting out a long breath and replying: "Just... no... you get no more than that, alright? The stories aren't for little kids like you, Pinkamena can definitely take them, but not you."

"Nah, I bet they could hear it, tell us one thing from your past!" Pinkamena pressed.

"For the love of your gods-" he threw his hands into the air, "Fine! I'm not a hero, I'm a monster; a murderer!" he yelled at them. They remained silent in response to his scream, so he continued "Every time I come to save a universe, I have to commit murder... I have to kill a single person that thought it was okay to destroy the universe. Sometimes they don't even know that they are going to destroy it!"

Scootaloo approached and asked in a confused tone, "But how come you have to kill them? Can't you just tell them not to do it?"

"Because a mind cannot be changed in the few seconds of me finding them, I've killed some many others before them most of the time, so they'll act defensively." Wanderer looks down in shame, "Others will try to reason with me, saying that they're going to be the hero of the story, but I can always see that if I don't intervene, they'll destroy the universe... so I always kill them."

"Can't you try to destroy whatever's going to destroy the universe?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Or try to reason with them?"

"The former I have to do after the kill to ensure it won't happen, and I'm never able to reason with them." Wanderer pointed out, "Once your mind is set, it's hard to let go of that goal." he looks away, suddenly bothered, "Sorry bro... I may have to kill you too..."

"Who's that?" Pinkamena pried.

"Another part of my life that you won't get concerned with, understand? I'm tired of my history, so how about somebody else talk!?" Wanderer avoided the question. He looked around at the group and tried to simmer himself down by taking a few short breathes.

"Um, maybe you could give us tips about stuff?" Scootaloo asked, "Like... how do you usually deal with bullies?"

"I don't remember ever running into any... who are they?" Wanderer responded.

"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, they keep making fun of us for not having cutie marks!" Applebloom replied.

"Cutie marks?" Wanderer replied, but after looking over Pinkamena, he answered himself, "Oh that thing on your a--*ahem* flanks? Never really occurred to me that having it was cool..." he looked off to the side.

"See why she bullies us now?" Sweetie Belle pointed out. She explained to Wanderer what a cutie mark was after he gave a confused stare.

"Really? It just appears when you find out the special talent you have?" Wanderer places his hand on his forehead with disappointment clouding his eyes, "I'll be honest... that's kinda stupid..."

"Wh-What!? But it..." Sweetie Belle began, but was interrupted by an annoyed glare from Wanderer.

"Diamond Tiara's statement of it being cool is false! So what, just the mere mention means the end of a fantastic journey (hopefully) looking for something your good at!" Wanderer pointed out, "I bet there are many ponies who got theirs and would reminisce about the crazy times they had looking for it. Some would even want those back."

"Wow... I never thought of it that way!" Pinkie exclaimed. It seemed mid-explanation, she turned back into her regular self, "Yeah, you're right! The way I got my cutie mark was by giving my parents a surprise party, they were confused at first, but I think they really liked it!"

"My point exactly! She won't get the kick she felt from that party from any other party." Wanderer pointed out.

"Hey, that reminds me! I haven't thrown you a party! When all of this is over, let's give you a party to remember!" Pinkie replied in exclamation.

"What's with the noise down here!? Is there an intruder?" Dark Gambit called from a hallway off to the left.

"No, we were just waiting for you, my dear prince!" Wanderer called in his lady-like voice.

Dark Gambit didn't respond as soon as he got into the entrance hall, he just looked at Wanderer with annoyance.

"What? Can't I have fun with the one guy I know nothing about?" Wanderer joked, "So, did you find anything that could tell us something about what happened?"

"No, I didn't... unfortunately, all the rooms are in tatters." Dark Gambit replied, then bit his lip, "Wait... no, there was one place we haven't checked yet."

"Another tower I'm guessing?" Wanderer asked.

"Y-Yes, how did you...?" Dark Gambit began surprised.

"Doesn't matter at present time. Let's go!" Wanderer pressed.

"Now hold on a minute! Answer my question!" Dark Gambit responded.

"Tell us about yourself first, maybe I'll answer than!" Wanderer avoided.

"......Touché..." Dark Gambit answered, "Very well, I won't press further."

He's hiding something... I know it! Confronting him without solid evidence wouldn't be a good idea though.

The rest of the group was skeptical, but stayed behind on Wanderer's request. Dark Gambit and Wanderer carefully climbed up the stairs of an outside tower and opened the large door.

"Who's tall enough to fit in here?" Wanderer commented on the large spacing in the tower. It was filled with mannequins of ponies dressed in regal finery. Wanderer looked around the room and noticed that, besides the mannequins and clothing design supplies, the room looked normal.

"Nobody seems to have been in here." Dark Gambit pointed out.

"But darling..." Wanderer imitated Rarity's voice, "Only the finest silk come out these doors! That in itself makes this place an obvious hiding spot!"

"And how would you know that?" Dark Gambit replied nonchalantly.

"Here's a better question: Would you look for me in here? Or would you look inside the castle?" Wanderer asked in response.

"Ah, I see what you mean... Well, I'll keep an eye on the door while you go have a look." Dark Gambit replied.

Wanderer walked into the middle of the room and looked around confused, "Now where would you hide in here?"

First... the closets were an obvious place, but it's best to be thorough. Wanderer cautiously opened each one, and found large amounts of either clothing or supplies, but nothing else of note. He turned towards his next area to check, the mannequins.

Though the mannequins weren't the best witnesses, Wanderer still tried to pry the truth from them. He crashed into each and every one of them.

"Hey! What are you, daft!?" Dark Gambit yelled from the entrance, "No one is powerful enough to cast a transformation spell on themselves!"

"Except Twilight and the Princesses, yeah I get it!" Wanderer responded before knocking one last mannequin down. Dark Gambit just grunted in annoyance.

Wanderer walked over to Dark Gambit, "Yo, how are you doing?"

"Not very well... *cough, cough*" Dark Gambit responded.

"Got a cold or something?" Wanderer asked curiously.

"No... ahem, I don't." Dark Gambit answered sorely.

"Well, you have something in your throat. It's not something dangerous, is it?" Wanderer asked jokingly.

"It's, uh... nothing, let's move on!" Dark Gambit answered.

Now he's giving more than no answer, I think I'm getting somewhere in making him trust me!

"What's with the stupid grin?" Dark Gambit asked in a confused tone.

"Ahem! Nothing... so, any uh... hints? I think I've looked mostly everywhere." Wanderer recovered.

Dark Gambit cocked an eyebrow in response, "You can do this on your own. I believe that."

"I don't believe in you, yet I trust that you won't attack." Wanderer responded.

"What do you want me to say then? What can I say to get you to trust me?" Dark Gambit asked angrily.

"Tell us at least one thing about your past and I'll let you stay longer!" Wanderer pleaded.

"How will you know it's not a lie?"

Alright... it's time for a gambler to call a bluff!

"Because I've played with the best poker players in another universe, that's how I gambled my way here, so that I could question you." Wanderer explained, "I've seen better poker faces than yours, and I know... what you did!"

"Wh-What!? You're bluffing!" Dark Gambit tried to laugh him off.

"How do you know? I bet I could get it right, then tell the others, what will you do then?" Wanderer pressed, "Will you fight us? I know you have a soft spot for the fillies. Perhaps...?"

"No, I wouldn't do that!" Dark Gambit objected, "You have no proof of that!"

"Why would you save them? If you knew I was there, then you would've let me handle it!" Wanderer accused.

"You're basing everything on thin air! How would I know you were going to be there!?" Dark Gambit exclaimed.

"Because you're no ordinary upper-class pony! You have a job in making criminals disappear, don't you?" Wanderer explained solemnly.

Dark Gambit paused and stared with confusion, "Y-You knew that?"

"I told you, I faced better gamblers than you." Wanderer responded rather quickly, "Now as to why you're still here..."

"What, you can deduce that too? You, again, don't have any evidence to say I was planning to save the two of them." Dark Gambit explained.

"True, but what if I got testimony from somepony?" Wanderer asked curiously.

"Who would you call to the stand?" Dark Gambit asked as if this was court, "No one could tell you I didn't stay here of my own free will."

"Oh, there is..." Wanderer concluded, "Even though they are separate personas, Pinkamena Diane Pie and Pinkie Pie, one would be able to tell me where you were."

I have to be careful in my deduction, or he'll ignore my claims!

Dark Gambit scoffed, "I'm sorry, I don't see the possibility being very high."

"But if the possibility is there, then it's something that needs to be checked!" Wanderer responded exclamatorily, "We can leave right now and see if she says 'yes'! If she does, then I'll have to exile you from the group, in case you're a spy for the enemy!"

"E-Excuse me!? I am not a spy! I'm sure that she'll say no!" Dark Gambit defended.

"I'm doubting you and I haven't even spoken to her yet! If you don't calm down now, I'll have to ask you leave! Before I tell the others about this suspicious behavior!" Wanderer shouted angrily.

Dark Gambit grunted angrily, and continued after a short pause, "I'm not accepting her word! If she says no, then how do we know it's not biased!? Pinkamena seems to like you the most!"

"Bingo! It's all clear to me now!" Wanderer replied exclamatorily. He paused to summon his strength to accuse Dark Gambit, "The statement you just uttered shouldn't be known! Around the others, she made no smiles when closest to me. Now I ask you, how did you know we were close?"

This time I got you!

"Wh-What!? It-It was obvious wasn't it? You took her along to search the princesses dorms didn't you?" Dark Gambit responded, "It would show that you had some feeling towards her!"

"Objection! It would show that I felt she was the best to have around if there was an enemy." Wanderer responded, "You can't make simple judgments on two people you just met two hours ago! You had to know them for a longer time, which means that you are in fact... a stalker!"

"Wh-You don't have p-proof!" Dark Gambit weakly objected.

"That look on your face tells me otherwise!" Wanderer objected, "Now... it's time to tell the truth about your actual motive for being here, before I make you leave!"

"I-I-I-I..." Dark Gambit began, "GRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! YOU'RE RIGHT, I'M A STALKER! I'M GUILTY-GUILTY-GUILTY-GUILTY-GUILTY!!!!!!!" he screamed before falling over in exhaustion, "I-I'm a stalker... for a client, she paid me to find you and... and... make sure you didn't screw up!"

Wanderer looked down at Dark Gambit emotionlessly, "She, as in Celestia, right!?"

"Y-Yes! She got a martial arts master to train me in less than a week before all this started and told me to stay in Cantorlot after the explosion at the hotel, she said that if I did, I would earn a hundred thousand bits!" he confessed, "I needed the money for my dying parents, please... let me keep going! I can't let my Mom and Dad die!"

Wanderer looked at him with surprise, "Tha-That's... just like me... does she think this is some kind of joke to play on me!?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about! Please!" he kept begging. He fell on his knees and began to sob quietly.

She got someone in the same situation as me to help? Desperation is contagious, especially when I'm around, huh?

Wanderer paused for several minutes and finally answered, "Fine, you may come along, but this will not be talked about to the others! They'll start doubting themselves and then we'll never beat our opponents."

"Alright... thank you! I hope we can... be friends from here on out?" Dark Gambit held out a hoof expecting an answer.

"Of course..." Wanderer bumped his fist against Dark Gambit's hoof and looked back at the palace, "This is bad though... we haven't got any evidence of where the enemies went... we'll have to wait for reinforcements after all."

"Reinforcements? But, the field is impenetrable..."

"Talk like that gets you nowhere!" Wanderer objected, "Humans have a saying in the land they call America, 'There's a first time for everything,' I bet your pony friends are working on getting through the field right now, whatever is in their way!"

Wanderer has finally understood why Dark Gambit followed his group! Yay, but he doesn't to have a plan until reinforcements come through... I wonder what'll happen in the next chapter of Wanderer's Journey? Until then, we'll have to see how his faith in the ponies holds.

A true gambler knows when to save, and that time is now!

Ok! I'll save now!

OR

I don't need to save now! I don't need to right now!

Chapter 15: Maybe this time we'll get the culprit! Or maybe not...

"So... how do we save the universe, Mr. Wanderer?" Applebloom had walked up to Wanderer on the balcony, as he stared into the endless void that is now Cantorlot.

"We're supposed to defeat the villain behind it, but..." Wanderer hopelessly started, "I haven't seen the guy or gal who wants to do it, err... rather... I haven't figured it out..."

"Do you need help investigating it?" Applebloom asked politely, "Ah know ah've already tried to get my investigator cutie mark, but if you need help with something, just tell somepony."

"Hmm... now that you've offered, I'm almost inclined to give you something to do..." Wanderer pondered a moment. He looked Applebloom over and looked out across the city in a sightless gaze.

The rest of the crusaders came in a second later, carrying news, "Um... Twilight came today." Sweetie Belle sighed.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Wanderer asked.

"She came up to the door and asked for you to come immediately, or else we'd get hurt." Scootaloo continued for Sweetie Belle.

"Alright, then let's honor her demand! Stay inside kiddies!" Wanderer simply responded with no concern for safety on his face.

"W-What!? But..." Scootaloo tried to object, "Twilight had this menacing look in her eyes! It was nuts, I thought we were dead on the spot!"

"There are moments when answering a parley is best for your health. Besides, she shouldn't even have a thought going through her mind at the moment, so I'll be fine!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Sweetie Belle pointed out angrily.

"You're just kids, of course it doesn't make sense!" Wanderer chided, "Just stay here and be quiet... Safer that way."

The CMC didn't make any further attempt to stop Wanderer. So he walked downstairs from the balcony and went towards the front gate. He stopped and saw not the lavender princess everypony knew as the best magic-user, but as the annoying obsess-over-details mare, with wings.

"You look tired... and a little messy, could I help you?" Wanderer asked nonchalantly.

"No... keep your grubby fingers off me!" Twilight angrily exclaimed, "You know how to reverse curses don't you? Then reverse the one on me!"

"Hmm........." Wanderer toyed with her and made his pause very long, then got serious again when she growled, "Okay, I'll tell you right now... you're infected with a curse that enhances one trait that you try to suppress-"

"So what!? You can still fix me, right?" Twilight demanded, "C'mon hurry up and lay the card on me!"

"Can't." Wanderer mischievously replied, "You did something bad, it's not in my interest to balance the universe. In fact, I bet you were a bad, bad princess!" he poked her nose mischievously and walked away smiling, "Good day to you, ma'am!"

"Stop! You will help me!" Twilight screamed, "It's your job to!"

"Begging won't help!" Wanderer declared as he climbed the stairs back to the balcony room. As he enters the room, he puts a finger to his lips and motions for the CMC to hide under the bed he dragged up there.

As soon as he gets to the balcony, Twilight comes up out of nowhere and yells directly into his face, "The Wanderer is supposed to save the world not leave everyone to die!"

Her eyes were radiating with violent energy, or just glowing white in god mode. She looked prepared to lay a smack down!

Wanderer looked deep into her eyes and saw what he was up against, "Good... you passed your test!"

HUH!?

"What!? What are you talking about!?" Twilight responded, "What test!?"

"Don't you love pop quizzes?" Wanderer asked maliciously, "Especially the ones that are by complete surprise?"

"I-I don't understand..." Twilight commented.

"Well... let me explain how I got you to cure yourself." Wanderer smiled with the results, "I suppose that since you're an alicorn, you can sense presences... but when you came to me, you didn't leave a trail of bodies, so I assumed you knew what was going on, and I was right! You knew what was going on, but some of the curse still radiated inside you, so I had to do one thing... get you to stand/fly near other ponies."

"S-So... you told the CMC to hide under the bed to try and avoid my attention." Twilight concluded, "Clever... but what if you were wrong about me?"

"It's a gamble I could take... I was going to purify you either way." Wanderer pointed out, "I just wanted to cut the whole 'this is a dream and you're cursed!' shtick, because... honestly that's boring!"

"Do you have any consideration for others!?" Twilight yelled into Wanderer face, "If you were wrong, I would have killed the three crusaders!"

"Do you realize what I have to do every time your goddess screws up protecting her world!?" Wanderer rebutted, "I have lost count of how many people I've killed at around 50, in this universe at least..."

"What?" Twilight's rage turned immediately to confusion, "You've killed that many humans?"

"That many, and more..." Wanderer stared sternly, "What do you think I do every time this happens? Get a cup o' tea, sit down with the universe destroyer and tell not to pull the trigger? They always fight back, and I don't have a way to persuade them otherwise!"

"So you're saying this is Celestia's fault?" Twilight considered her answer for a moment, "Because she let something in that wasn't supposed to come in?"

"You figured that out, so why aren't you the one in her place?" Wanderer confirmed her answer subtly.

"Because I don't have any experience in that kind of thing! Anyways..." Twilight paused as the CMC climbed out from under the bed, "Do you know who's doing this?"

"Of course... it's my brother, Dekari..." Wanderer answered gloomily, "Let me handle him, alright?"

"But..." Twilight attempted to persuade Wanderer into allowing her to help, "I can fix his curse... that's what he has isn't it?"

"One: you're not powerful enough, besides this is personal..." Wanderer pointed out, "Only Celestia could do this, and she's long gone. And two: How did you know about the curse?"

"Huh!? Um... well..." Twilight sweated a little, "I don't know, um... it seems obvious by his actions!"

Wanderer looked doubtful, but didn't continue to press, "Look he's coming tonight, so don't get in the way... I need to do this... alone." he tapped on his chest with his finger, "I'll be connected by heart, so I have the perfect plan for when he comes."

Twilight looked at him doubtful this time, and chose to press, "How do you think this will work?"

"Look at who's still alive right now..." Wanderer pointed at the CMC, "They'd be dead like you said, but they're going to stay around after all this is over. That's my gambling ability at work, so trust me, alright?"

Twilight still looked doubtful, but gave up trying to talk sense into him.

Wanderer smiled and closed his eyes coyly, "This'll all be over soon, cheer up!"

Twilight and the CMC looked at each other confused, but didn't ask anything else.

"Oh, and I need one favor of you Twilight..." Wanderer scratched behind his head, "Err... scratch that, I need two favors... maybe you could think of them as three favors. Get the CMC back home, tell the humans to come into here, and give these to the ponies that need them."

Wanderer pulls out Fluttershy's notebook and the changeling flower, then forces them into Twilight's saddle bags.

"What? I-I haven't agreed to anything yet!" Twilight objected to the favors.

"Alright... alright, fine." Wanderer looked away shyly, "I'll tell you one thing about myself if you just deliver that stuff to Fluttershy and the Doctor, and do the other things..."

"Finally!" Twilight sighed in relief, "Alright, I want to know about your original world!"

"Panama's dead!" Wanderer exclaimed angrily, then exhaled curtly, "My world is gone so ask something else!"

"Alright then," Twilight pondered for a moment what her next question would be, then decided on: "Do you remember anything about yourself?"

"I might've been a thief," Wanderer muttered, "However bad at the job I was. Okay, now I want you to do one more thing before you storm this place with your army..."

Back at the Ponyville City Hall.

The hall is filled with both angry humans and agitated ponies, none of them were stopping in their vocal angry mob pattern towards Mayor Mare.

"Hey! What's going on!?"

"We're supposed to go into that city, but something's delaying you idiot ponies!?"

"We didn't ask to have a force field thrown around the castle!"

Though Mayor Mare wasn't really arguing with them... she kept banging her gavel trying to get order, but kept making noise that fell upon deaf ears.

Derpy walks through the front door reluctantly with the remainder of the mane six leading her. "Why's everybody fighting? It just seems like the humans want a fight!"

"Unfortunately, they may force us to give them what they want..." Applejack replied pitifully, then she raised her voice to the humans and ponies, "Hey! All of ya'll stop fighting for a second!"

They all pay her no mind as they kept bickering at a nonstop rate.

"See? They don't listen to a single word you say." Applejack continued, "I really wish we could help get to Wanderer, I do... but none of these gosh darn humans want to stop bickering for a second to listen to us."

"Isn't there a way to get them to see the force field?" Derpy asked.

"I'd love to get them to see it, but I don't think they'll stop arguing for a stroll to Cantorlot just to see the force field..." Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"Wait... that's perfect!" Derpy gestured at the humans, "If we could get them to the gates of Cantorlot, then we could prove to them that we aren't lying!"

"Like I said, they're not stopping for a while." Rainbow Dash repeated her point, "How are you going to get them to stop arguing?"

"Um... name-calling and a few insults." Fluttershy responded. When everypony turned to look at her she continued, "Why not? They catch our attention with those tactics."

"Yeah, but..." Applejack began, "I guess we could do those things... but I just don't see anypony here doing those things."

Suddenly the front door to the main hall slams open to show Twilight and the CMC standing there. Everyone quieted down as Twilight walked between the groups and took Mayor Mare's place.

"So I bet you're here to tell us to stop fighting because of some bull crap excuse that your precious city is in a force field." one of the humans cried out angrily.

"Actually I came to do three things," Twilight replied, "First, to tell you all how dumb you sound arguing... do you really think the attempt to get back in is going to come faster if you yell at the ponies who want your help in the first place? Second, surprisingly... the force field will be breakable in by at least tomorrow. Get ready by then..."

The angry humans walked away being sated of their appetite for knowledge. Some stop to give angry glances Twilight's way... then leave after a single grunt.

"Three," Twilight continued, "From Wanderer, a changeling plant for the Doctor and a notebook for Fluttershy."

"Well... I guess something stopped him for a while." the Doctor muttered to himself, "Perhaps I can still do what he could do now with the plant."

"Y-Yayy!" Fluttershy cheered.

"Alright, everypony... let's get prepared for tomorrow morning! It's going to be a long journey like last time!" Twilight cried across the masses of ponies and what remaining humans there were.

Everypony cheered with hope filling the air... they all felt the same way... they could do this!

................

However... maybe they couldn't... could they really end the war? Or are they just blindly following a foolish command from the ever-so-foolish Wanderer of universes? Did they even think about how they were going to fight against the void filled humans?

Oh well, I guess we'll figure it out later... for now, they should rest up for the task set before them.

The next day!

The ponies are marching off toward the city of Cantorlot prouder than ever, obviously feeling able to set upon the task ahead of them. Everypony and human strode towards the city with a passion that could overthrow tyrants for years!

After setting up the magic amplifier, the unicorns and Twilight quickly charge up the magic for a huge fireball. Everypony stood ready to fight the horde of humans possibly on the other side of the gate.

However... there was nothing on the streets as they marched through the gates.

"Where is everyone?" Rainbow Dash looked around frantically, "I hope there isn't an ambush..."

"I don't think there are anymore humans here..." Twilight realized.

OUTTA MY WAY!!!

Wanderer's shout cut clean through the air like an arrow to its target. He sped down the street towards Ponyville's army, while holding his bow.

Everypony prepared to attack him as soon as he got into range, but couldn't hit him as he jumped over the entire crowd off one pony's shield. Even the pegasi leading air-defense were too stunned to hit him.

He fell down onto the ground with a thud and kept running towards Ponyville.

"What's he doing?" Twilight asked confused, "I thought we were all fighting together..." her eyes darted towards the palace.

"Maybe he forgot something at Ponyville..." Fluttershy reasoned, "He was waiting until the gate was open to run over to Ponyville."

"I don't know... something seems... off..." Applejack echoed Twilight's thoughts, "You want to go give chase to Wanderer, Twi?"

"Of course not, Fluttershy's probably right..." Twilight shrugged it off, "Let's head towards the palace!"

Everypony marched on through the Celestia-forsaken city that used to be Cantorlot.

.............

"Hmph..." a voice echoed annoyed, "He's still an idiot..."

"Alright... there it is!" Twilight exclaimed at arriving at the palace gates, "Alight everypony, I want a large percentage of you to stay out here, girls follow me, the rest of you can follow us."

About six ponies and one female human of the large group followed the mane si-...five in through the large front doors.

The main hall was completely abandoned except for the things that made it a main hall, those being the doorways into empty, messy rooms.

Regretting ever coming here, Twilight kept on the move slowly approaching the throne room door.

She reluctantly opened the door and got surprised by probably the scariest thing ever...

"This is your singing telegram, I hope it finds you well!" Pinkie started singing, "Wanderer's away, but I can tell you're early! Now come on in and enjoy... the... PARTY!"

Everypony was somewhat... disappointed to see that that's what was there to greet them.

Behind Pinkie, Dark Gambit was uncomfortably standing next to a table of snacks...... yeah, I know, this is strange.

"Pinkie, what's going on?" Twilight asked still uncomfortable.

"Well, we just defeated Dekari, got him to help put up decorations, and Wanderer's gone off to do something crazy again!" Pinkie summed it all up in one breath. She pulls out a cupcake, "Cupcake?"

"No thanks..." Twilight declined, "What do you mean by you've got Dekari helping you put up decorations?"

"Oh... wait, no!" Pinkie suddenly changed her mind, "I got him to shoot off some fireworks!" she eyed the clock impatiently, "*sigh* He's doing a bad job at it..." she sulked.

Twilight, with a grimacing smile asked: "Well... maybe I should go upstairs and help-"

*Bang!* *Screech!*

"Oh, he figured it out!" Pinkie suddenly brightened up, "I guess you don't need to help him out after all Twilight!"

"I still need to talk to him, though..." Twilight responded, "Could I please excuse myself?"

"Well, sure you can! Don't irritate him though, he literally punches holes through walls!" Pinkie warned, "You should see the one in the garden..."

"Yeah... I think I get it..." Twilight replied tiredly, "I'll be back in a second."

Twilight quickly galloped up the stairs to the princess's dorm, and found not only Dekari, but also Rysuke... doing some pecking thing to Dekari...

Rysuke screeched in surprise.

"So your name's Twilight?" Dekari spoke in a drearily tired voice, and looked at Rysuke confused, "I don't know what I'm doing here either... could you tell me if you know something about me?"

"Um... I think he was talking about me..." Twilight pointed out.

"Oh... you're Twilight?" Dekari slowly caught up, "I was just asking birdbrain here what his name was, you must have surprised him."

"So... do you remember anything?" Twilight asked confused, "I heard you were the one who set this city in a force field..."

"I did what now?" Dekari replied confused, "Sorry, I only seem to remember what happened this morning... I ate breakfast with the nice ponies here, then started setting some fireworks up."

"Really? You only remember that much?" Twilight asked confused, "But... you were spotted by a certain group..."

"I must have been someone bad until I lost my memories then..." Dekari looked downtrodden.

Rysuke flapped his wings and screeched angrily at Dekari.

"I'm not sure the mind of a hawk is trustworthy, do you?" Dekari asked Twilight out of nowhere.

"Huh!? Well..." Twilight tried to regain her composure, "My friend can speak to animals too, and has gotten a lot of good advice."

"Really...?" Dekari looked at Rysuke for a quick minute, then got on his feet and started walking towards the exit to the room, "I'll start by finding Wanderer then... I'll see you later feathery friend!" he then dashes out of the room.

Rysuke, looking downtrodden, coos sadly.

"I... think I feel the same way, Rysuke..." Twilight tried to interpret Rysuke's coo, and she probably got it wrong.

It seems that Dekari has forgotten what had happened just a few short days ago... but how did he forget something so unforgettable? Perhaps there's something we're missing in this equation...

And what's going on with Wanderer? He seems to be gambling more than the last few chapters... now he's running away from the very place that he had gone to in the first place for his brother? What's going on... maybe we'll figure out in the next chapter...

Would you like to-

NOW HANG ON A MINUTE!

Wanderer objected strongly to Mr. saver!

"No saves! We're going all barred this time! I do not want to save!" he yelled angrily.

But this is my job... it's not like I get the special treatment being the main character!

"Yeah, well tough crumb cakes!" Wanderer yelled, "I tell you over and over that I don't want this game to be saved and you do it anyway! Why!? Why do you do this the protagonist!?"

Well... I... Fine...

Wanderer sighs with relief, "Good... I see we can finally see eye to-"

Progress now saved! Thank you for saving!

"Oh, you son of a-"

Author's Note

Yep, it's been a while hasn't it? And it will be again since I have drama class and bout three weeks from now, I'll be putting on the persona of an inspector. Which means I gotta practice... the culprit could also have been... YOU!

Since this will be seen probably after then, I'll tell you right now, "Man, I sucked up there! I hope you have a wonderful life!"

But seriously... I hope that I'll do well, and that you have a great day even if parasprites still exist... ugh... I suck at this kind of thing...

Chapter 3: That was... expected... by the author... and probably some others for a different reason.

Wanderer was on top of a house twirling an arrow, "Man..." He had been searching for a guide, but hadn't found any that were able to help. The guide he needs is one that can get him to Cantorlot, he grunted in thought before saying, "I wonder what Rarity has to say..." He got up and moved towards a building that looked like a carousal and entered.

He walks past Fluttershy and looks at Rarity, "Do you have some suicide mission I can accomplish?"

Rarity looks in a book and says, "Bored are you? Well, then I'd like to-" She immediately stops and cringes, "That quiver looks terrible, darling! Did you get that from the scrap heap? Your weapons are also in terrible condition! They look like they went through-"

Wanderer interrupts her, "I get it! I don't need a full critique about my equipment!" He looked very annoyed by her, and right then she used her magic to take all the weapons Wanderer had, "Hey! Those aren't yours to take!"

She ignored him and started working on the quiver, "You go find something else to do sweetie! I have no jobs for you today." She worked on expanding the quiver without making it too bulky, "Don't worry about your stuff! I just want to upgrade them."

Fluttershy tapped Wanderer's shoulder and said, "She'll be doing that for a while... would you like to go my place?" She seemed to adopt a begging face to coax Wanderer into going.

Wanderer looked back at Rarity and then back at Fluttershy, "Seeing as how I don't have anything else to do... sure, why not?" Fluttershy smiled and lead him to her house.

Near Fluttershy's house

How many animals does she have!? I haven't gone 2 feet without seeing so much as a rabbit!

Wanderer thought to himself on the way towards her house. "So... I'm guessing your job has to do with animals?"

Fluttershy answered happily, "Of course! Next to being second-in-command here, I take care of all the little critters!"

Wanderer scratched his chin, "How can you possibly hold that many responsibilities? It's not like you can be in two places at once..."

Fluttershy suddenly stops, "You don't question my ability anymore, okay?" She looked a bit beefed.

Wanderer held up his hands, "Alright, alright, I won't do it! Mostly because I think you'd have an animal army on me in an instant!" He was obviously PET-peeved. BA-DUMP-TSSH!

Fluttershy opened the door and called, "Angel, where are you?" A bunny comes out from upstairs and fires its crossbow at Wanderer, but he jumps out of the way of the bolt, "Angel! Have manners when we have a guest with us!" His nose twitched.

Wanderer stands back up and admits: "So... there's a reason I'm here, right?"

Suddenly Fluttershy's personality does a 180 when she grabs Wanderer's arm and pulls him toward the couch, "I want to learn more about your race, in case we ever let them stay. I want to release a book on the studies of them!"

This caught Wanderer by surprise, but he sat on the couch and began, "Okay... um, let's see..." Wanderer scratched his chin in thought, "Well... we can't seem to stop fighting each other. We've had two world wars and a lot more small wars."

Fluttershy looked surprised, "Gosh, I didn't think they fought so often!" She writes this into a journal using the most ironic thing for her to use, a feather pen, "Why did they fight a lot?"

Wanderer tried to make up an excuse, "We're just idiots, I tell you," however Fluttershy glared at this answer, "O-Okay, okay! We... American humans didn't like to share until the second world war."

Fluttershy looked surprised, "T-There's more types of humans than just you? I didn't know!" (Please don't kill me for most definitely insulting the other races!) She looked down and to the side, "I'm not very comfortable around lots of people, so I may not be able to make this book." She looked at the book and dropped it, then made weak sobs.

Wanderer looked at the book on the floor and tried to calm her down, "Did you know that researchers in my world sent some spies into colonies of Native American tribes to gain info on them? It's a very useful way to get info quickly." He sat back and waited for Fluttershy to say something.

She looked at him and said, "I don't know anypony who could have a good time interacting with humans though..." She quickly darted her eyes between the book and Wanderer.

Wanderer sighed, "How about I do it for you?" He picked up the book, "I can get that info!"

Fluttershy suddenly hugs Wanderer, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The words came out at rapid-fire, but still somehow quiet. Wanderer decided to go out for an adventure in town after saying goodbye to Fluttershy.

In front of Apple Farm

How... fruitful! Ba-dump-tsh! Wanderer joked to himself, as he was walking towards the farm, "Looks like this place thrives on the sale of apples and cider..." he suddenly snaps, "I can't stand being in a one-piece to sale kind of area!" He immediately calms down before anyone could see him freaking out about an apple farm.

Suddenly something fast comes out of the bush, "Intruder! Let's get him!" two other somethings came out of the tree. They're all dashing in for an all-out attack!

Wanderer suddenly pulls out an ace of hearts and throws it onto the ground, but unlike any card thrown onto the ground, this one created a barrier around Wanderer! All the "somethings" crash into the barrier and land near the fence.

"OUCH!"

"How did he do that!?"

"Who cares! He's gonna get us!"

The ones talking are fillies, but seem to be wearing the same cape on their backs, "Fillies? That's the group I used a barrier enchantment to stop? Man... that was my only one to use!" Wanderer looked both glad the fillies weren't hostile, but still peeved that they wasted his ace up the sleeve!

"NOW!"

"You're gonna wish that you hadn't come here!"

"I really like your hair!" the small white one yelled as they all attacked at the same time.

Time for a random encounter!!!

On one side of the field was the trio of fillies and the other side had a lonesome Wanderer, "What are you doing attacking me?"

They answer at the same time, "We're going to defend the farm!"

They don't want to listen to reason! Wanderer thought to himself, Looks like I'll have to make them go away! Hopefully the person controlling me knows how to work a turn-based battle! Begin!

The trio attack together and manage to lower Wanderer's health by 100! Wanderer runs into the group and and attacks them separately, but they don't go down! Perhaps I need to defeat them at the same time...

Suddenly somepony runs to Wanderer's side, "Hello, darling! Mommy finished your equipment!" She notices the scrap that he's in, "Here let me help you! Do you know how team strikes work?"

Wanderer looked at them, "They used one on me earlier..."

Rarity looked excited for this, "Then you should do as I darling!" She prepares a magic spell. Wanderer pulls back an arrow on his upgraded bow, then Rarity cast the spell on the arrow, "Fire! Crystal Spear!" Wanderer lets the shot loose into the ground beneath the fillies and it explodes leaving crystals in its wake.

The fillies are defeated! Rarity trash-talks the fillies in the victory screen, "There was never a chance of you winning, darlings!"

Wanderer answers in the screen, "But there was... a small chance. A Rarity!" Rarity disappointedly sighed at the terrible pun.

End random encounter!

Rarity scolded the fillies, "Why did you attack a human inside the town? You know the ones inside the town are not evil!"

The orange Pegasus answered, "But... you also said they have to have an insignia on their weapon or clothing!"

The earth filly added, "And besides... he has wacky powers!"

Wanderer looked at Rarity and at the same time they laughed, "Nice try kids, but I didn't do anything. You must have really been lost in that battle!"

Rarity suddenly pulled out a paper tag and stuck it to Wanderer's bow. It was a human standing next to a pony in a fighting stance, "That will make ponies and fillies, able to ignore your racial difference! You're welcome!"

The fillies jumped up and yelled at the same time, "Hey! How come he gets that after fighting with us!?"

Wanderer smiled smugly at them, "Because you attacked me first!" The four of them were developing a rivalry! This is either a bad thing or a good thing in the story!

The orange Pegasus angrily replied, "We're the cutie mark crusaders!" She pointed at herself "Scootaloo!" She points at the young white unicorn, "Sweetie Belle!" Lastly she points at the earth filly, "And Applebloom! You can't beat us alone!"

"Which is your weakness!" Wanderer pointed out, "If you're separated or take on multiple enemies at a time, then you have no strength!" His words struck true, but harsh.

"Well... you'll see! We'll be stronger than you!" Scootaloo claimed out loud for the world to hear. The world probably didn't care... but they ran off towards the apple trees.

Wanderer looked after them as they ran, "Will they be alright? I'm not sure training without an instructor is a good idea..."

Rarity waved her hoof, "They always do that these days... it makes no sense, but-" Suddenly a tremor came about, "Great... another earthquake. The corrupt humans are unbalancing the Equestrian universe, so we have to deal with slight tremors everyday!"

Wanderer got scared, "So... what your saying is... if they don't leave then these earthquakes will continue?"

Rarity looked confused, "Yes... so what?"

Wanderer explained vaguely, "Well... if something that's not supposed to be here becomes a hostile force, then the universe will disappear!"

Rarity looked even more confused, "Darling? Are you okay? You aren't making any sense..."

Wanderer replies, "I know, but... I know a lot about universes. We need those humans to be peaceful soon! When did they start fighting the ponies?"

Rarity still looks confused, "Umm... about two days ago... you're acting strange, so speak up and tell me what is going on!"

Wanderer looked calm when she said when the beginning of the fighting was, "Oh... good, I still have about two months then..." He looked at her apologetically, "I'm not of this world, I am the Wanderer of universes. I come to universes in danger sometimes and cleanse the paradox gone wild. I only have two months before the universe becomes nothing more then a little pebble on the map of universes."

Rarity looked surprised by his answer, "That is too well put together! I've seen nearly every human in Equestria except you, and you say that you are some person able to save us from a paradox destruction?" She scratches her chin, "Fascinating! That's why you never shared anything with us about your past!"

Wanderer scratches the back of his head, "Yeah... it doesn't do me any good to have everypony thinking I'm the nut of humankind... I wouldn't be able to get anything done!"

Rarity nodded, "Seems that way, but-" Suddenly explosions are heard coming from town, "What was that!? I'll go rally the troops, you go make sure the fillies are safe!"

Wanderer nodded, then sprinted to where he guessed the fillies were, "Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo! Applebloom! Where are the cutie mark crusaders?" He yelled as he ran through the forest. He found a tree house after a long run. He decided to go inside.

The cutie mark crusaders were unconscious beneath a group of hostile humans. They were heavily armed and had muscles as large as the fillies heads. They turned around and noticed Wanderer, "Oh, look! A pipsqueak joined the fun!" He was right... Wanderer had no big muscles or large artillery, he could only run and fire arrows, but he realized that he was surrounded when he looked back towards the door. This wasn't a good plan- GAH! He thought as he went down from a strike against the back of his head. He lay there motionless, but breathing still.

Cliff hanger! Will Wanderer ever get out of this long narrow path of failure? Tune in next time to find out!

"Would you um... like to save your... progress?" Fluttershy's voice echoed...

Yay!

OR

LOUDER!