From Everywhere, With Love

The sun's warmth cast its gentle rays on Edward's face, slowly rousing him from the endless sea of unconsciousness. His eyes fluttered open, and he groaned and clutched his head. It stung. Badly. He sat up and glanced around him.

"Where...?" he mumbled.

He was sprawled in an open field. A few feet away was a bridge that hopped over a slow-running creek and not too far away from it was a small village.

Straw roofing and wooden frames. Must be in the Dark Ages, he thought. But this place looks nothing like Europe.

Then, Edward felt something heavy slide down his chest. Looking down, he saw that a stone tablet was resting there, and he was clutching it with white knuckles. He didn't know why, though. He stared at it for a few seconds in confusion, until remembering it was The All-Seeing Eye, his talisman. He smiled as he saw the center embossment glow and the stone tablet rise into the air. Suddenly, an echoing voice shot around the area that said, "Are you quite all right, Edward?

He stood up, the diamond-shaped tablet rising off his chest and hovering in midair. He grabbed his head again. "I've felt worse."

Edward turned to face the small village. Even from the outskirts, he could see small, humanoid shapes darting back and forth, carrying loads on wagons, and some were flying, actually flying high above the ground. Edward turned back to The Eye and nodded. Without hesitation, the engraved eye in the center of the tablet started shining for a few seconds before dying down and blinking once. It faced Edward and said, "That town is known as 'Ponyville.' In it are variations of the species Equus."

Edward looked up at The Eye. "'Variations?'" he repeated.

"Indeed," The Eye continued. "They are specifically ponies. However, I can see three different types: they are referred to as Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus."

Edward continued to stare off at Ponyville. "Hostile?" he asked.

The Eye turned to its master and said, "Of this, I am not certain."

Edward remained cautious, but something deep down inside told him it would be wise to do in the long run. Deja vú? It was hard for him to tell, but something was urging him to go. So that's what Edward did.

Ponyville had seen some weird things running through town (Discord's brief reign of chaos being the finest example), but no sooner had Edward taken one step into the city limits then every head in Ponyville was turned in his direction. The fact that The Eye was floating above his shoulder was not helping. Edward shuddered. "The natives are growing restless," he mumbled.

As he strolled through town, he couldn't help but feel he had been down this path...seen that candy shop before...been in that library that was a giant, freaking tree. The Eye sensed Edward's confusion and asked, "Something troubles you, Edward?"

Edward said nothing. He scratched his chin thoughtfully and slowly sat down on a nearby bench, studying the library.

"It's just...I'm getting the craziest sense of deja vú here...I swear to God I've been here before..." He trailed off, but he laughed after awhile.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say we've been travelling too much. Being almost everywhere in the universe can really take a toll on your head, huh?"

The Eye chuckled, having been accustomed to Edward's quirky sense of humor for years now, and Edward threw his head back and relaxed on the bench. They were both silent for a long time. Finally, The Eye spoke and said, "So you will just sit here, then?"

Edward looked up at his stone companion and said, "Truth be told, I don't remember why I'm here, and I'm totally okay with that."

The Eye was about to talk again when a red, circular object came flying out of nowhere and nailed Edward in the back of the head.

"Ow!"

This action was immediately followed by childish giggling. A few school children that consisted of Snips, Snails, Rumble, and Pipsqueak had taken notice of the stranger and decided to have a little fun with him by beaning him with a bouncy ball. They never knew what hit them next.

Edward picked up the toy that had hit him. He turned back to the mischevious colts with a sly grin. When they saw this, the kids stopped laughing and stared at him curiously. Edward pounded the ball in his hands a couple times as he said, "I see you kids like to play catch. Well..."

Edward wound up like a pro baseball pitcher, and yelled, "GO LONG!"

With one swift move, he let loose a fastball that raised its immediate vicinity by a few degrees ferinheit. It screamed right past the schoolboys and was only slowed by skipping on the water of the surrounding creek. Everyone gasped in awe. Edward folded his arms and kept grinning.

Everyone was in shock. A stranger had popped out of nowhere one day, and was suddenly turning rubber toys into flaming comets of death? Something was wrong. A few Solar Guards had witnessed the whole thing and decided amongst themselves to encircle Edward if he tried anything drastic. The kids, on the other hand, were completely mistified by this newcomer, as well as curious. Rumble, despite the warnings from his peers and the guards, made his way bravely up to Edward and stuttered, "Um...s-sir? I-I'm sorry about the trouble we caused," He shivered. "But if y-you don't mind...mind my asking...how did you do that?"

Everyone there was sure Rumble would get his clock cleaned for partaking in antagonizing a very powerful individual. But Edward just smiled, bent over, put his hand on Rumble's shoulder and said, "Kid, I've spent my whole life training to be faster than a ninja, tougher than a Spartan, and smarter than Einstein, and let me tell you: it takes crazy amounts of courage to piss me off, but it takes balls to come back and apologize to my face." Edward slapped Rumble on the shoulder again and chuckled. Rumble couldn't help but laugh, too.

Applejack was at the Carousel Boutique getting new boots after her old ones had been worn beyond measure. Rarity was trying to take precise measurements, but Applejack kept squirming.

"Now, hold still, dear! This isn't going to go any faster if you keep wiggling your hoof around," Rarity scolded again.

"A-Ah can't help it if Ah'm tic-ticklish!" Applejack had to bite her lip to stop herself from having a giggle-fit.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie kicked the door open. She had an excited look in her eyes.

"Okayokayokay, guess what, girls!?" She was on the verge of hyperventulating.

After recovering from the initial shock of Pinkie nearly busting a hole in the wall, Rarity asked, "My word, what is it, Pinkie?" trying to cover up her surprise.

"You're not gonna believe this, but there's this colt in town square, only he's not a colt, but he sounds like one, and I heard he threw a ball so hard, it almost caught on fire! Can you believe it!?" Pinkie articulated in a hurry.

Rarity turned back to her work and said, "He's just a high level unicorn. Nothing special about that."

Pinkie kept going, "Yeah, but that's the thing, he's not a unicorn!"

Rarity and Applejack whipped around to face Pinkie, believing that this story was too absurd to be true, even for her.

"Then...what is he?" Rarity asked hesitently.

Pinkie thought for a minute. "I dunno. He's, like, a pony, but not a pony." Applejack shook her head.

"That's jus' crazy talk, Pinkie. An' even if it is true, why'd y'all wanna meet him so badly?"

"It is true!" Pinkie wailed. Applejack and Rarity paid her no mind. Pinkie stared at them then stuck her lower lip out in a pouty face.

"Hmph. Alright. I wanna meet him 'cause he's got little doodads that can shoot spells, and I heard he's using them on cider bottles. He sounds like a lot of fun. But if you wanna stay here and miss out, that's fine." She ran back out the door.

"So what would you rate that story?" Rarity asked once Pinkie had left.

"Fer Pinkie? Normal, but I doubt it's true," Applejack replied.

There came a sound that peirced the air for miles around. It was a sharp stinging kind of sound followed by shattering glass. Rarity and Applejack had heard it clear as day. Applejack was in such a hurry to get out, she forgot her boots.

*Bang!*

The remains of a washed out cider bottle came to the ground in a symphony of broken glass.

"Score another one for me, gents," Edward said with a smug look on his face. He had been blasting bottles to pieces for a good long time now. He was willing to do it because the locals found his dual pistols fascinating, and he figured every shot at getting on their good side should be taken (no pun intended).

He had been doing pretty well. Thirty-two glass bottles shattered in under twenty minutes. The only reason it wasn't faster was due to the fact that it took awhile before someone could throw another jug high into the air. Edward didn't mind. He was having fun. He never got to show off his guns, at least, not to passive company. He was just about to decimate another unlucky bottle when he heard a voice in the crowd call out, "Stop!" The glass hit the ground and cracked in several places.

Edward looked over to see a mare with a purple coat push her way out of the crowd. She was a hybrid of unicorn and pegasai. Edward could already tell she was something special. The mare stood facing Edward head on for only a second before she inhaled sharply and began to walk around him and inspect him. She was touching Edward in various places all over his body, all the while gawking and muttering to herself. He couldn't catch all of it, but Edward guessed she was geeking out. Possibly.

At last, Edward said awkwardly, "Uh...can I help you?" The young mare jumped back, startled by his sudden vocal expression, but she relaxed and giggled.

"Yeah, sorry. I heard a commotion coming back from a couple errands I was supposed to run, and when I asked what was going on, someone said there was a stranger in town. I knew I should check who it might be, and when I got a glimpse of you through the crowd, I realized you were a human and kind of..." she trailed off and rubbed her neck in embarrassment. She looked back at Edward. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way."

Edward reached a hand out and smiled. "Edward Philips. Adventurer, bona fide Reality Jumper, and all-around good guy."

Twilight shook firmly with Edward, but she asked, "'Reality Jumper?' What's that?"

"That, my dear, is-"

"Hey, Twilight!"

Edward was cut short by Applejack racing up to see this new face with her own eyes. When she did, she stopped short and walked up to Edward with wide eyes.

"Mother'a Celestia..." she sighed, looking him up and down.

Edward turned to Twilight and said, "Friend of yours?" Twilight nodded, but before any more questions could be asked, Pinkie Pie, being...well, Pinkie Pie, appeared out of nowhere and greeted her new friend with a loud, "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!"

Edward was not prepared for this level of absurdity, and was sent reeling. Pinkie just did what she did best: make friends with even the most unlikely of strangers.

"Oh! Sorry, did I scare you? Because if I did, that wouldn't be very helpful to make friends, and you know me, I gotta make friends! Wait, were you just surprised instead, because that's usually really good! Except bad surprises, nopony likes those," she said. Edward just stared at her for the duration of her monologue and when she was finished, he laughed and hugged her by the waist and picked her up. Pinkie laughed in surprise.

"Well, aren't you just a big bundle of heart-melting adorableness! I like you!"

He held on to her for a few more seconds before gently setting her back down. Edward turned back to Twilight. "Sorry, miss, you were saying something?" he asked.

"Yeah, you were about to explain what a Reality Jumper is?" she answered.

"Ah, so I was," Edward said. "Yes, a Reality Jumper is a nifty little job..." He looked around at the gathered masses and whispered, "But some things about it are on a need-to-know basis."

"So, then...it's top-secret?" Twilight asked.

Edward stared at her. "Hm? Oh, heavens, no. I just feel like I can trust you and your friends more. Tell you what, I'll gladly explain over a quick snack. How's that sound?"

Twilight smiled and said, "Sounds good." She walked over to Applejack and Pinkie Pie and whispered something to them. They nodded and ran off, and Twilight walked back to Edward and told him, "Follow me. We'll talk over some chocolate milkshakes."

Edward was staring after Pinkie. "Where're they going?" he asked Twilight.

"I just told them to go get the other girls," she explained. "I think they'd like to meet you, too."

"You mean you've got other friends, too?" Edward stated in disbelief. He straightened up and said plainly, "I can deal with this."

The Mane Six and Edward had settled down at a café on a small back road. Introductions were exchanged for the ponies who hadn't met Edward yet, and Twilight explained their adventures to their new friend, starting from their earliest fiasco with Nightmare Moon.

"So, let me see if I got this straight," Edward began. "Twilight was forced to come to Ponyville by her mentor, a princess, you all met each other, became buddies, and used this friendship-magic to kick ass when there was a need for it."

"I'd say you just summed it all up," Rainbow Dash said as she took a sip of her drink.

Rarity asked, "And what about you, darling? Surely, you must have some interesting backstory."

"I do, Rarity, I do," Edward confirmed. "See, I've already told you I'm a Reality Jumper, but I've held off on telling you what that is."

He motioned above his shoulder, where The Eye had been floating in silence. "See this?" he asked.

"I was just going to ask you about that," Twilight commented.

"You can call this, 'The All-Seeing Eye.' It...sees everything," he explained. "Before they get sent out, Reality Jumpers are instructed to reach into a dimensional rift and pull out a Talisman. This is the object that will guide the Jumper through their adventures. Throught the history of Reality Jumping, no two Talismans have been alike."

They all stared at The Eye, just hanging in midair. Applejack spoke up and said, "So, what else can yer fancy medallion do?"

"I possess the power to bend the dimensional walls," The Eye's echoing voice called. Everypony nearly fell off their seats from the sudden answer.

"Did I mention The Eye is also sentient?" Edward added on.

Fluttershy peered out cautiously from under the table. "Y-you could've men...mentioned it sooner," she squeaked.

Twilight stared at The Eye in amazement, then looked at Edward. "That...that's amazing!" she said breathlessly. She stood up and slowly approached Edward's Talisman. She stopped and looked at Edward with a small amount of red on her cheeks. "Can I...can I touch it?" she asked with a subtle embarrassment.

Edward grinned. "Sure. He won't bite. He's just a stone eye," he joked.

"You're very funny," The Eye stated as Twilight gingerly plucked out of the air.

Pinkie leaned over the table to get Edward's attention and called, "Hey, hey, Eddie! What does a guy like you do, exactly?"

"That is a question I'm very glad you asked, Pinkie," he replied. "To put in perspective, a Reality Jumper is like..." He thought for a minute. "It's like being a hobo, but with a higher fatality chance," he finished.

The girls were stunned to hear this answer. If being a Jumper was so dangerous, why did Edward do it?

"Why?" Edward repeated when Twilight asked him about his job choice. "Because you get the three coolest pieces if kit in existence when you sign up." He took out the pistols he was showing off before. "One is the Talisman you pick. The other two are custom tooled dual pistols. These babies have the fire rate of a Glock and the raw shredding power of a Deagle, and the best thing is: they never run out of bullets."

"But back on track, my job is pretty simple: I'm tasked with using The Eye to hopping through different dimensions, solving problems and restoring order where I can. That's pretty much the high and low of it."

"That's kinda cool," Dash said. "What do you do when you go home?"

Edward shot his head off to the side to face her. "Beg pardon?"

Rainbow Dash looked back at him questioningly. "Home. You know, where you live? What do you do to unwind?"

Edward wasted no time in saying, "I don't have a home."

Rarity nearly spat her drink out. "You what, darling?"

"Reality Jumpers spend their whole lives leaping through dimensional walls for fun and science. We're usually expected to die before age fifty. If a Jumper does mange to live past fifty, he retires by either living in the dimension he's currently in or being brought back to Earth to rot in an old-folk's home, or worse, an office job," Edward explained.

"Well, that ain't fair," Applejack remarked.

"No, it's not. But such few people have been signing up to be Jumpers that the government had to set up a breeding program to create specialized Jumpers. I'd...rather not talk about that," Edward confessed.

Everyone was silent for a minute until Pinkie Pie got up and hugged Edward. "Well, if your world isn't treating you fairly and being a big meanie, you can stay here," she stated firmly.

Edward forced a smile and tried to weasel out by saying, "That's real nice of you, Pinkie, but I'm a born drifter. I can't stay-"

He looked up at Pinkie and saw her pupils enlarged so much they could be used as mirrors. She was sniffling and probably about to cry. Edward stared at her, mistified by her extreme reaction. Something surfaced inside him again, moving him to pity.

"Oh...all right. I guess I can stay."

Pinkie's demeanor immediately began radiating happiness once again, and she regained the greatest smile in Equestria. The other girls cheered Edward on and the overall tone of their meeting regained a substantial amount of joy once more...

...Until The Eye, who had levitated out of Twilight's hands, spoke with a solid voice, one that commanded authority.

"You have chosen to stay, Edward? Good. Because now, Earth and Equestria are inexplicably intertwined..."

The group had stopped their merriment to listen in awe and fear.

"Destiny coincides with destiny...the threads of reality knit, come together, and weave a tapestry. On this tapestry, I see there is a great evil. Already, it lurks among you, waiting, waiting...waiting for the ideal moment to strike!"

It's last sentence was frought with emphasis, and it had turned to the girls and flashed its center embossment once. It soon faded and settled back down onto the table. Twilight was mortified by its sudden outburst.

"What...what was that?" she stammered.

Edward looked cross. "He has his moments of prophecy...and what he says usually comes true." He paused. "But I've never heard him speak this cryptically before."

"Should we ask it more questions?" Applejack asked. Fluttershy shook her head jerkily.

"Can't. The Eye only sees what there is, was, and can be. It's knowledge is limited, especially if it can't see its subject."

Everyone eyed him curiously. "I mean," Edward elaborated, "that The Eye can only posses substantial knowledge on an entity it has met, or can directly see. For example, it's seen you, so it could probe your minds and tell me everyting about you, if I wanted to know."

Twilight's insides churned and her violet coloration contrasted sharply with the rosy patches on her face. She squeaked involuntarily. She was glad Edward didn't notice.

"Well, that's a terrifying prospect," Rarity sighed.

Edward smiled. "Oh, relax. You're all okay in my book, I wouldn't dream of doing that to any of you."

The sun was lowering in the western sky. The atmosphere was lit up in a variety of yellows, pinks, and reds. Twilight looked out across the veranda they were situated on.

"Celestia's really outdone herself this time," she mused.

Applejack noticed too and exclaimed, "Tarnation! It's almost sundown an' we ain't decided who's gonna take Eddie in!"

Twilight turned to Applejack and said, "Calm down, Applejack. Edward's going to stay with me."

"Awww! But I thought Eddie's was gonna stay with meee!" Pinkie whined.

Not expecting this outburst, Twilight faced Pinkie and said, "Pinkie, Edward has to stay with me. I need to study him. He is a human, you know!"

"But I think he's really cool, and I wanna show him around Ponyville, and teach him how to make cupcakes, and introduce him to Pound and Pumpkin, and..."

"Pinkie, I promise I won't keep him cooped up inside the library all day. He can visit you, you know," Twilight told her calmly.

"Yeah, but...but...I..." Pinkie seemed to be struggling with finding a reason to keep Edward close, even though she couldn't figure out why.

Edward stood up and issued a proposition. "Hey, look girls, I understand both sides of this argument, but maybe, possibly, I could...I dunno...do a time-share? Stay at Twilight's library a couple days, then head over to Sugarcube Corner. How does that sound?"

Twilight thought for a minute, then nodded. "Edward's right. I feel kind of stupid arguing about that," she admitted. Pinkie looked just as ashamed and she nodded without a word as well.

Edward smiled. "Neither of you worry about it. Like I said, it's my job to help sort things out." He looked over at Pinkie and said, "Pinkie, I know this is hard for you, but if Twilight wants to study me for a couple days, I'll have to oblige her. Okay?"

Pinkie's color scheme greyed-out and she frowned. He added, "Oh, don't look so glum. Look at it like this: the faster Twilight gets done with her research, the more time we have to play, and bake treats, and do all that fun stuff!"

The thought of Edward being back soon lit Pinkie back up and she squealed gleefully and bounced away, waving to the others and yelling, "Oh, goodie! I can't wait to tell auntie and uncle all about you, Eddie! And you'll love Pound and Pumpkin! They're really cute and we're gonna have so much fun together...!" She kept calling over her shoulder until she was out of sight.

The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, and the stars were shining in a dark lavender sky. The group had split and gone home, and Edward and Twilight we casually strolling through town square.

Edward cautiously looked around and finaly said, "She's cute."

"Who?" Twilight asked.

"Pinkie Pie. I don't think it's humanly possible for anything in the universe to be that adorable," Edward explained.

Twilight smiled. "Well, she's not human. She's a pony." Edward laughed. "True that," he said.

"You really seem to know how to talk to her," Twilight said again after some time.

"When you've been dimension-hopping as long as I have, you need to learn how to talk to strangers," Edward said.

They arrived at the library not long after. "Well, here we are," Twilight said as she pushed the door open. The library smelled of fresh paper and cinders. Their source was quickly revealed to be a young drake, busying himself rearranging books.

"Hey, Spike, I'm home!" Twilight called to the dragon.

Spike spun around in surprise and ran up to Twilight and cried, "Twilight! Where the heck were you!?"

"Sorry, Spike. I got sidetracked by a new arrival to Equestria. This is Edward," she said, gesturing to the human at the door. Spike looked at him in surprise.

"Woah! A real human!? Aren't they just myths?" Spike exclaimed.

Edward chuckled, "I'm a myth? In my world, you're all nothing but fairytales!"

Twilight explained the whole story to Spike, from the flying death-toys to the story behind the Reality Jumpers. It was dark out now, so Twilight sent Spike to bed and stayed up with Edward, asking him questions, checking the books to reality. Neither of them went to bed until past midnight.