An Explosive Journey

Nova, Home

I awoke to the sound of birds chirping away happily, their tunes carrying a melody that sounded even more cheerful than before, putting me into a slightly good mood. I got up out of the bed and went through the usual routine of cracking everything and making sure my joints still work, then got dressed. I put on a simple black UnderArmor t-shirt, dark blue denim jeans (slim fit), midnight blue converse shoes, and a black baseball cap. Taking a look at it, I felt that there was something missing... I levitated it in front of me, and used some magic to embroider a golden lyre on the front of the cap. I nodded in approval.

'Much better. Now, to deal with Blueballs, before Lyra wakes up.'

I sat down on the bed and crossed my legs, my arms laid on top of my legs and hands splayed out in relaxation; I was going to try and start an out of body experience, so I could make a quick escape if I needed to. I closed my eyes, and brought myself into a state of total relaxation, completely clearing my mind. The next thing I did, was concentrate on visualizing my mind materializing outside of my body, standing in front of me; after a few minutes of this, I felt an odd sensation, like I was being moved, yet I stayed in the same place as well. I opened my eyes, to find that I was staring at myself... well, I was staring at my actual body, which was still sitting on the bed, eyes closed and all.

"Perfect, now all I have to do is get to Canterlot, and find Blueball's room... but first, I gotta test to make sure that I can still do things that apply only in dreams..."

I looked towards the dresser that sat across from the bed, and put my hand against it. The feeling was odd, cause I knew I still had my hands just laying on my legs, yet I was still touching the dresser. I pushed a little on the dresser, and my hand went right through the wood, and all the clothes that resided inside of it. I pulled my hand back, and looked at them in satisfaction.

"Good, now that I know that works, I can pretty much tell that I still have the upper hand on everyone." I closed my eyes, and teleported myself right into one of the main hallways of the castle. Looking around, I could see that there were no guards on patrol, so I figured that they must be either somewhere near the other end of the hall, or going through shift change, the former being more likely. I had to move quickly in order to avoid being caught, using dream powers while inside a world that you know is real takes quite a bit of energy, and I'm going to need all the energy that I can get if I want to pull this off. I ran and hid myself into a corner, and decided that I was just running blind in a place that I was unfamiliar with; with that in mind, I used a sort of 'ping' spell, that would act as a sonar, and serve two purposes: one, it would give me instant knowledge of how the place is laid out, top to bottom, and two, it would alert me to Blueblood's presence, wherever he may be.

I fired up the spell, and the layout came straight into my mind, and then I was given Blueblood's location – apparently, his bedroom was across from Celestia's, and that in itself posed a problem. Not only that, but I could have also alerted every guard inside the castle, which isn't exactly the smartest thing to do, even if I am under protection by the head of state. I worked quickly to devise an invisibility spell, using my knowledge of how light works to create images. It took a few seconds, but I had a good spell to use, and above all, it was a fairly low-powered one, so almost any old unicorn could pull it off.

I fired up the spell, and not a second too soon, as a whole lot of guards closed in on my location, or so they thought. I phased through the floor, and dropped into the kitchen, which was thankfully empty at the time. Since I had skipped breakfast, I decided to raid the fridge before going on my epic journey into Blueblood's room. I looked through the fridge, and found a few good items that I could use for food.

I pulled out the items and placed them on the nearby counter as I listed them off, "Let's see, jalapeno Monterrey Jack cheese, strawberry jam, aaaaaaaaaand peanut butter. Odd, why would you put peanut butter in the fridge? Oh well. Now, where are those bagels? Ah, there they are!"

With all of that on the counter, I toasted the sesame seed bagels, and cut up two slices of cheese, then waited for the bagels to finish toasting. Little did I know that there was a certain alicorn entering the kitchen, about to get her breakfast as well; I was startled by the sudden voice.

"I see that we have a pest in the kitchen, oh wait, it's just Nova."

I jumped at the voice, and slowly turned around, coming face to face with Luna, and all of her bed headed splendor. Heck, her mane wasn't even that flowing ethereal starry sky, it was just a plain old royal blue mane that went down to her knees, and her tail draped on the floor. She wasn't even wearing her regalia. I sighed in relief.

"Luna, you nearly scared me to death."

Luna chuckled lightly, "Well, maybe I should continue then." She then stuck out her tongue at me in jest.

"Oh ha ha, very funny. You want one?" I gestured towards the food stuffs that sat on the island counter in the middle of the kitchen.

"Sure, why not?" Just before she turned towards the food, Luna gave me an odd look, then questioned me. "Nova, you're out of your body, aren't you?"

"Well, yes, but this session was planned. I came here to deal with... personal stuff." Luna gave me an incredulous look.

"Nova, that spell last night, it wasn't done without reason, was it?"

"No, it wasn't... the reason I did that, was because Lyra was near death."

"I know that, but how that happened is what eludes me."

I got a wary look for a second, and Luna picked up on it.

"Nova... what happened? Whatever you tell me shall be taken as a royal secret, so worry not my little nephew." Luna nuzzled my cheek with hers, and laid her head on my left shoulder.

I was hesitant at first, but after a couple minutes, I spilled the beans. "Luna, you may or may not know of a little group of ponies calling themselves the Equestrian Pony Alliance - "

"Yes, I do actually... wait, I'm not going to like where this is going, am I?"

"No, you're not. While most of the group is still out in Manehatten trying to get more members, some stayed behind. While Lyra was at the bar... you know what, first let me explain why she was at the bar in the first place. When Lyra and I were exiting Twilight's library, a foal ran past us, and ended up running head first into a nearby pole, knocking out a couple of his front teeth. That wasn't what was odd about him, but bleeding acid, having neon green eyes, and a mane and tail that was the same color. It was obvious that there was an organization that had been doing biological experiments, and had deep pockets. I healed him up, giving him new teeth, cleaned up the mess, and then I went off to bring him to Fluttershy's place. Lyra, having enough weird for one week, elected to go hang out at the local bar to let all the stuff she's been wanting to complain about off her chest, and drink herself happy."

Luna lifted her head off my shoulder and gave me a worried glance, but let me continue.

"Well, I figured that Lyra would just like to be alone, so after dropping the foal over at Fluttershy's place, I just went home and waited for Lyra to return, fully confident that she could make her way home on her own... I was wrong about that. While on her way home, Lyra got jumped, and a group of stallions attacked her, two of them were off-duty guards," Luna scowled, "Hey, not all of your guards are perfect... some of them are just a little too extreme when it comes to protecting you two."

"Wait, what colors were they?"

"They both had pure white coats, and the same blue mane and tails, they weren't wearing armor."

"Those were Solar Guards, my royal guards are all dark unicorns with golden eyes and bat wings. Care to continue?"

"I would love to. Three of the five stallions that were attacking Lyra were using dark magic along with physical attacks. When I saw that happening, I couldn't control myself, an aura of dark blue and red energy burst out and swirled around me - "

"Did you just say that an aura just suddenly burst forth?"

"Yeah."

"And it was dark blue and red?"

"Yes it was, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Luna looked thoughtful for a second, "So it seems that my fail-safe is still intact then, good. I don't want to take any risks, considering who helped create you."

"You don't really trust Discord, do you?"

"No, not really."

"At least your mistrust is founded. I don't completely trust him either. Now, back to what happened. I walked up behind one of the stallions, and poked him... he saw me and ran off. The others laughed, until they saw me. Another tried throwing a punch at me, but I blocked it with a finger, then went on to tell him to think of what I could do to him if I blocked a full-powered punch from him. They all tried to run away, but I encased them in a bubble, then decided on what I could do to punish them, finally coming to the conclusion that I should just let Elmyra deal with them for a week, and teleported three of the remaining four of them to her universe. The last stallion was given a proposition: tell me who ordered the attack, and he would be set free. He gave me the name of the stallion that heads the EPA. In turn, I promised his freedom."

"You do realize that you just set free someone who is a part of a group that just committed attempted murder, which is a serious crime here."

"Luna, it's a serious crime anywhere."

"Yes, but here in Equestria, it's right up there with trying to overthrow the government by force and treason."

"Aren't those the same thing?"

"More or less, but you get my point."

"Right. Anyway, I walked over to Lyra, and you know of what happened during that. After that, I had a conversation with the stallion, and he seemed like he regretted his decision to be a part of the group. I let him out of the bubble, and he ran off to the train station to meet up with his sister in Manehatten."

"So, you said something about getting the name of the head pony of the EPA?"

"Riiiiiight..."

"Nova, you know you can tell me anything. What is it?"

I sighed heavily, knowing that I couldn't exactly get away with faking the name of the stallion in question. "The one that I talked to told me the name of the head of the group... he told me it was Deuce Ribbon Poll -"

"Which is quite obviously a fake name, it seems more like an ana...gram... no."

I knew exactly why she had just said that, "Yes, Luna. I didn't really want to believe it, but it's true. Here, take my memories of the situation, and then deal with it, because I have no business in royal affairs."

"Technically speaking, you are a prince, though I doubt the other nations would take too kindly to Celestia hiding the fact that she has an uber-powerful son with Discord."

"That still doesn't change the fact that it just isn't my place. If Celestia questions what you are doing with Blueballs, then just show her the memories I gave you." Right after that, I used the memory spell and shared last night's events with Luna, giving her the proof that it was indeed as I said.

"May I make a suggestion Nova?"

"Yeah, sure."

"You might want to eat your food before it gets cold." Luna pointed a hoof towards the two peanut butter jam and cheese bagels. I grabbed one, and Luna levitated the other towards her.

"Nova, I think it would help if you get back to your own body before you eat that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just gonna put it back on the counter and then teleport it to me after I get back."

"Sure, I'll make sure that the kitchen staff don't touch it if they get here before you teleport it to you."

With that, I focused and reentered my body, opening my eyes, and did a once over to check that nothing happened to me while I was out of it. I hadn't noticed that Lyra was sitting on the end of the bed, probably waiting for me to wake up.

"So, you're finally awake."

"Oh, what were you doing there?"

"Nothing, just sitting here, waiting for you to get back to your body, seeing you were meditating, and nothing I did to wake you up got even a subconscious response. I was worried about you."

"Well, I'm here, and all is good. Oh, one second." I concentrated and teleported the bagel from the castle kitchen counter onto a plate. It was still nice and warm, and Lyra was looking at it longingly.

"Oh, I guess it does look good. Here, I'll duplicate it for ya." I surrounded the bagel with my magic and then concentrated on compiling the different materials out of the atoms in the air. It took a few seconds, but once I finished, there was another hot bagel with the same peanut butter, jam and jalapeno Monterrey Jack cheese. Lyra drooled at the delicious looking food, probably because she was extremely hungry.

"You know what, I'm going to up-size that for the both of us, seeing we most likely expended a lot of energy last night." I concentrated my magic on the two bagels, and made them grow to twice their size, which made them look just that more delicious. The two of us dug into our food, scarfing down the delicious bagels in just over two minutes.

"Hey Lyra, you want a drink?"

"Yeah, sure."

I went into my case and pulled out two cans of Coca-Cola, and opened one for Lyra; she thanked me and levitated it towards herself and took a sip.

"So, onto some more important matters, I have uncovered who it was that made the attack happen last night; it's Prince Blueballs himself."

Lyra got an angry look on her face, one that suggested she has heard about some of his behavior towards working-class ponies, and other races that live within the Equestrian Proper. I could have sworn that I smelled smoke for a few seconds, and I could hear that she was grinding her teeth.

"I take it that you've heard about his antics then. Listen, I don't mean to be a smartass, but it would be wise to take your own advice, and not do anything in a rage, or you just might regret it. Calm down Lyra, alright? I don't want to see you upset like this." I put down the can of coke that I was holding, and pulled Lyra into a hug, stroking her soft mane and scratching behind her right ear, making her relax a little. A few minutes later, I felt Lyra relax; I whispered into her ear.

"Feel better?"

"Just a little, but thanks Nova, I really needed that."

"No problem. So, what were you thinking of doing today?"

"Well, I was going to suggest we head back to Twilight's and check up on her and John, just in case."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let's go."

The two of us headed out the door after brushing our teeth and having a shower and drying ourselves off.

John, Twilight's Library

I was brought to the waking world from a pleasant dream that I was having by the sound of foot – no, hoofsteps pattering all around the house on the first floor. I got up and stretched, narrowly missing the ceiling with my hands; I looked around sleepily, as I recounted what happened during my supposed dream.

"Let's see, I hear someone knocking on my door, to find out that it was Jason, just a few days after he disappeared at the airport, and then he takes me to his place, and then to Equestria. We walk from his place in Ponyville, and meet up with Twilight Sparkle, and he shows her all about bronies, then I hold her in a hug for a while as she collected her thoughts on bronies and the show. We sat on the chesterfield in the common area and talked all about ourselves with each other, and then went to bed, due to the two of us not finishing our conversation until around 1 in the morning... wait, if the ceiling is that low, and there's hoofsteps going on downtstairs... then, all that wasn't a dream... I'm actually in Equestria. This is too awesome!"

After I finished that little tangent about realizing that I wasn't dreaming, I walked down the stairs, and greeted Twilight with a smile.

"Good morning Twi."

"Oh, you're awake already, John? I thought you would've slept until around 2 in the afternoon."

I looked behind Twilight, and found various objects floating in the air and flying around the kitchen. It looked like she was making eggs, and was that bacon? I took a whiff of the air, 'Yep, that's bacon alright.'

"Yeah, I heard someone walking around downstairs and so I decided to get up and check it out."

Twilight's ears flopped down, "Oh, sorry I woke you, I could enchant my hooves so they won't make any noise in the mornings."

"No, that's fine, you don't have to do that. So, is that bacon and eggs I smell cooking?"

"Yeah, I'm just making breakfast for me and Spike, I didn't think you'd be awake this early."

"OK, you made eggs, and bacon. I thought ponies were vegetarian." I walked to the table and sat down in the kitchen, while Twilight kept things going with the cooking.

"Right, we're vegetarians for the most part, but we still need some proteins, so we use eggs. There are a lot of things that we cook which require eggs, so it's not something most ponies worry about. The reason why I'm cooking bacon, is because Spike needs the nutrients from eating meat."

"I could've sworn that Spike ate gems most of the time."

"Oh, he does, but if he were to eat nothing but gems, it would be like us eating nothing but apple pie all of the time, we'd get sick from malnutrition; we eat a variety of vegetables and other foods for our source of vitamins and other nutrients; the same applies for dragons, but they eat meat."

"That makes a lot of sense. You see, we humans are omnivores, meaning we not only eat vegetables and fruits, but we also need to eat meat, or else we'd be lacking in nutrients, and eventually get sick."

"Alright then, let me just get some more bacon into the pan, and I'll cook up some eggs for you; how many do you want, and how do you take your eggs?"

"I'll have three, sunny-side up and a piece of toast, as well as some bacon please."

"Sure thing." Twilight then went to work with her magic, and made some eggs and bacon for me.

"Oh, I almost forgot, how do you like your bacon? Spike likes his lightly seared, and I have no idea how other creatures like it."

"I'll have mine extra crispy, if that's alright with you."

"That's perfectly fine, John. I'll be done in a few seconds, so don't go anywhere."

I was about to ask Twilight about how things were recently, when there was a knock at the door.

'Odd, it's still pretty early in the morning, I wonder who could be here.' "Hey Twilight, I'll go get the door for you, alright?"

"Sure John."

I walked out of the kitchen and to the door, not knowing who it was that was there, until I opened it. Lyra and Jason were standing outside. Jason noticed that the door opened first, and offered me a brohoof.

"Hey, what's up John?" Lyra snapped back to reality from Jason's voice and smiled sheepishly.

"Not much actually, I just got up a few minutes ago."

Jason snickered, "That much seems pretty obvious, with how you look right about now."

Twilight called out from the kitchen, "Who's at the door, John?"

"No one important, it's just Nova and Lyra."

Twilight must have stopped everything she was doing, as there was the sound of dishes being hastily dropped onto the table, and Twilight came running to the door, "That's pretty important John, didn't you hear the explosion last night?" I looked at Twilight a little curiously, "Oh don't tell me that you actually didn't hear the explosion of magic last night!"

"Seriously, no, I didn't. I'm a pretty heavy sleeper, Twi."

Twilight turned to Jason and Lyra, "Please, come on in you two, I don't doubt that you'd know of what happened last night." Lyra blushed right then, and Jason looked a little nervous. 'What exactly happened last night? And what does an explosion of magic have anything to do with Jason and Lyra?'

Nova, Twilight's Library

Lyra and I walked into Twilight's library, the both of us being a little nervous about what Twilight wants to ask us concerning last night. Twilight gestured towards the large chesterfield that was against the wall, near the children's section of the library, and then she stood in front of us while levitating a notebook and quill beside her.

"So, Nova, what do you know of the explosion of magic that occurred last night? I'm pretty sure that even the Princesses felt that when it happened, and when I felt it, I could feel all the love that radiated from the wave of magic, which was directed towards Lyra. The only one I know who actually loves her that much would be you, even if you two are a fairly new couple, and of different species entirely."

I looked at Lyra, who just nodded silently, and then I turned my attention back to Twilight, "If you truly want to know what happened, I can't trust myself to explain it orally, so I will do something different... I'll replay the memory with a simulation spell, so you will all see everything as it happened, from both my memories, and Lyra's." Before Lyra could make any comments about her privacy being invaded, I voiced my idea to her.

"Lyra, I'm showing your memories as well so everything makes sense and there's no gaps left anywhere. It's just so there's no need for questions later."

"Oh, alright."

I gathered up the magic, and readied the spell that I was going to use. The spell was simple enough, but it was gathering both of our memories, and organizing them without getting them mixed up with each other. That took a couple minutes, and when everything was done, I started playing back the memories.

"Hey, why are we all the way back to when you just left my house?"

"Because, this is the first of a chain of events that were made unavoidable due to a single decision." That shut Twilight right up for pretty much the duration of the simulation.

I showed the point in time when Lyra and I were standing outside and making a little scene right outside her home, and John was snickering at my antics, "Hah, you haven't changed at all Jason."

Twilight turned to John, "I overheard you calling Nova Jason, would that happen to be his name back where he came from?"

"Yeah, that's his real name."

"You came here, with all those powers and what not, and never even bothered telling us your real name?"

"Hey, I only chose that name because I felt that the name Jason wouldn't exactly fit in with the rest of the population's name structure. It wouldn't make much sense to have a human name within a world that's full of ponies, gryphons, minotaurs, and so on, would it?"

"Well, no, I guess not."

Just as we finished talking, the next scene came up; it was when the little foal ran past us, and right into a pole, knocking out his two front teeth, and bleeding all over the ground.

"Is that his blood?"

"Why is it burning a hole in the ground?"

I didn't say anything, and let the scene play out. Twilight seemed a little shocked at how I managed to deduce where the foal had come from, and the entire situation around him, in a matter of a few seconds; John seemed a little impressed, but that was it.

"That seems a little stereotypical, doesn't it?"

"John, we're in a world where cliche's and stereotypes are abundant all over the place."

"Ah, right."

The memories then switched from my perspective, to Lyra's, and I had elected to fast-forward it just a little bit to where she just got to the door of the bar.

"Ah, so this is where you were for all that time. Wait, Shadow works there?"

"Yep."

"Didn't know that; guess I should go say hi at some point."

Twilight facehoofed at the fact that Lyra was at a bar, about to drink her troubles away, and John laughed at the thought of Lyra drinking gin and apple juice. I shot him a look.

"Well, it's kind of a kid's drink if you think about it. The gin is drowned out by the apple juice, you don't even really taste the alcohol."

"Point taken, I'll remember that the next time I go there."

The drinks escalated from gin and apple juice, to rum and Colta-cola, which didn't really surprise me; what surprised me was when she started drinking straight rum.

"Just how much did you drink Lyra?"

"You'll know in a minute."

The drinks continued, and Lyra seemed to be getting progressively drunk as the night went on. A few hours later, she was completely smashed, and neither Twilight or I were amused. When Lyra had finally tried to leave, I silently thanked Shadow for trying to get Lyra to allow him to walk with her, but then wanted to punch him for not trying harder. Lyra started her walk home, but was distracted by a bit coin.

"Come on, a bit? A single bit? You've got to be kidding me."

"No one is themselves while drunk, you should know that better than anyone else."

"True enough I guess."

When it showed that Lyra was ambushed by a bunch of stallions, Twilight had yet to notice that they were off-duty solar guards, until I pointed it out.

"Hey, you see those two white stallions with no mark, and blue manes? Think back and tell me where you've seen them before."

Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment, "I can't recall really, the only place I've seen stallions like that is in... the castle... wait... no, why would they be there, not doing anything when there's an assault going on? And are the others using dark magic?"

Lyra winced at the memory, but she braved through the ordeal, so that Twilight would know exactly what went on.

"Yes, they are."

At this point, it switched back from Lyra's memories, to mine, though I skipped the part where I ran from home, cause I only wanted to give them the valuable information. Twilight seemed a little shocked when the aura burst out, making it seem like she's either seen something like that before or at least has read about it somewhere. John laughed when I poked the one stallion and he ran off right after seeing me, and laughed some more when I blocked the punch from the other stallion. Everyone was dead silent as I spoke within the memory, telling the stallions some ideas as to what to do with them, and ultimately deciding to send them off to Elmyra. John cringed when her name was mentioned, though Twilight looked a little confused.

"Who's Elmyra?"

"She's a character in another universe who is just horrible with animals, no offense. She's what you would call, over-attentive and clingy. Her hugs are comparable to a gorilla squeezing some other animal that has threatened its family."

Twilight shuddered, probably already getting an idea as to what's become of those poor souls.

"Jason, remind me not to piss you off."

"Dude, it would take a loooooooooooooot before I even got to that level, so don't even worry about that."

As the rest of the scene played out, Twilight seemed to pick up where the spell happened. She started tearing up as she saw me crying over Lyra as she died, but then got a look of curious wonder as some magical force happened right after a tear had landed on Lyra's horn. Her wonder turned into amazement as the two of us were picked up in the swirling magic, and she watched as a piece of my soul broke off and traveled to Lyra, and merged with hers, creating a shockwave of power.

"Hey, that's the explosion that happened!"

"Yes, but it's not finished."

When it showed the point where Lyra opened her eyes, the love she reciprocated towards me was flooded into the field of the spell, creating an even larger shockwave, that cascaded over the entire Equestrian Proper, and beyond. John stood there and looked up in awe, not saying a single word during the whole ordeal. When things calmed down, it showed the point where I had talked to the last stallion that was left, and how we had made a deal. Twilight and John were shocked to find out that it was the EPA that had coordinated the attack on Lyra, but that wasn't the only thing they were going to be shocked about.

"I thought that the group was just a little bizarre, I never expected them to do something so heinous."

"Just wait and watch, that's not all."

It came up to the time where the stallion gave me the name of the supposed leader of the EPA, and the one that ordered the whole thing to take place, which confused Twilight, though for only a second.

"Deuce Ribbon Poll... That name, it sounds a little familiar... wait a second, isn't that an anagram?"

"Yes, it's an anagram," I stopped the memory replay, because I wanted to see if Twilight could figure the name out herself.

"It's an anagram, but for what name? I've gotta work on this right now, the one who did this has to be brought to the Princesses immediately!"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure they already know who it is, but I wonder if you could figure it out."

Twilight ignored my comment and back to the table to get her notebook and quill that she set down when I had started the replay spell; she returned not two seconds later., furiously working out the anagram.

"I think I've almost got it."

"Wow, that was fast," I said, my voice full of sarcasm that fell on deaf ears.

"Wait, that doesn't seem right, it works out to Prince Blueblood... but, he's Celestia's nephew, how could he be the head of the EPA?"

"Easy, he's xenophobic, he hates the lower class ponies, and doesn't trust anything that isn't a pony. Before you ask, Princess Luna already knows, and has probably already told Celestia. My guess is that she's dishing out his punishment as we speak..."