Dropping In: Trans-Universal Recovery Team

Chapters

Previously...
Part I: Chapter One: Universe-Hop (Fallout)
Chapter Two: Universe Hop Times Two
Chapter Three: Familiar Friends, Familiar Foes
Chapter Four: New Plan
Chapter Six: The March
Chapter Seven: The Master
Part II: Chapter Eight: Spare Time (Part I Summary)
Chapter Nine: Where To Go (Daring Do)
Chapter Ten: Similar Worlds
Chapter Eleven: Dare to Do With Daring Do
Chapter Twelve: Unsafe Delve
Chapter Thirteen: Challenges
Chapter Fourteen: Back To The Buisness At Hand
Part III: Chapter Fifteen: Monsters In Pockets (Pokémon) (Part II Summary)
Chapter Sixteen: I've Never Heard Of Yes Town
Chapter Seventeen: The Meddlers Three
Chapter Eighteen: Task
Chapter Nineteen: Petty Foes And Eggs
Chapter Twenty: Battle For The League
Chapter Twenty-Two: Overthrow
Chapter Twenty-Five: One Step Ahead
Chapter Twenty-Six: Chaos Theory
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Laying The Plan
Epilogue: Trans-Universal Crisis Team
Chapter Five: Joining The Children
Part IV: Chapter Twenty-One: A Purpose Fulfilled (Equestria) (Part III Summary)
Chapter Twenty-Three: Elemental Issues
Chapter Twenty-Four: Chaos, In All Of Its Forms

Previously...

The following is a summary of Dropping In, the story upon which this is based, and also written by me. If you want a better summary, go read it. This summary doesn't do either story justice, though I do urge you to read on. If you've read Dropping In beforehand, go to chapter one. This story's a multple crossover, just to let you know. Each part after the first starts with a synopsis of the last one, so if you don't enjoy a particular crossover, the basic events of that part of the story are summarized for you, the reader, so you can skip it. Though, again, if you want a better summary, read this story in its entirety. It'd be much appreciated if you'd leave any thoughts about this story, especially the negatives; I need more negative feedback.

Previously...

I'm Zach, and a brony, and a high school student. Mostly normal stuff, I'm nothing special. There's something I'll tell you. I'll also say that I have been to Equestria. In fact, I can go there whenever I want. I can go anywhere I want. No, that'd be inaccurate. It'd be more accurate to say that I can move from universe to universe. I don't like using this power very much, afraid of what might happen to me if I use it too much, or end up in the wrong place, or at the wrong time. So I only use it sparingly for going and coming back from Equestria. How did I get this power? Why am I, of all people, in possession of an Element of Harmony or... something? I'll tell you all about it. Well, briefly.

I fell. It was a fall, a drop. I landed on Sweet Apple Acres. What had I been doing? Walking home from school, of all things. Luck of the draw, I supposed. It hurt, as one can well imagine. I'd dismissed it as a dream, and slept under an apple tree for a while... until Applejack asked me to leave the property, as could only be expected of her--it was rude to sleep on someone else's property, after all. From there, my first--and apparently not final--adventure began. It was a big one, and definitely not one of the mundane things that would usually happen to someone like me. Again, luck of the draw. So I met all of the Mane Six, and Twilight volunteered to help me get home. I was introduced to Ponyville, as it was, in all of its fictional glory. Then I went back to Twilight's house.

The entire issue was far larger than just me being stuck in another universe, as we found. I was merely one of the billions at risk. What Twilight had found was a text on magical barriers, specifically, the ones keeping my universe and that of Equestria. What was in that book were details of a great tragedy, the destruction of entire universes--mine or theirs--unless I could stop it. Before Celestia and Luna could banish him the first time, Discord used his powers to disrupt the magical barrier, and it was starting to fail now. What did I have to do? I had to be heroic, that's all I had to be to fix it. There lay the problem. I wasn't a hero, I was a fourteen-year-old brony with not a marketable skill to speak of. So, the Mane Six became my allies. This was in part because they were already heroes, and that I'd need help--a lot of it--and another part that was more obvious; if we failed, everything would be gone. We travelled to Canterlot the next day so we could present the dangers to Celestia in person.

Canterlot, to our surprise, had already had a human visitor. Not a very friendly one, though, not at all. His first interaction with the citizens of Equestria was shooting a pony. Celestia heard our case, and Luna took us to see the poor human, who was clearly insane. He thought he was dreaming, and escaped into Canterlot Castle's gardens, and decided to make things worse, climbing onto Discord's statue. Despite attempts at magical intervention, he jumped off the statue, the ensuing chaos enough to free the very embodiment of it; Discord was free again. He resurrected the dead man, and sent him to another universe. He flew off without causing further trouble, promising to help us fix his mistakes. I spent the night at Canterlot Castle, daunted by the task I had to fulfill. I had no heroics to perform, and if I didn't do any soon, the entire universe could be destroyed. An opportunity would present itself, however, the next day.

Princess Celestia entrusted me with the man's weapon; a semi-automatic pistol, with six rounds in it, just in case. I didn't know at the time how much I needed that gun at the time, as I would soon learn. We returned to Ponyville by noon, and the Mane Six split off to do their work, resume their lives until a call to assist in this world-saving endeavor was given. I stayed with Twilight, and we found out that three local ponies had gone missing; Trixie, Derpy, and Time Piece. I had to assume that they had fallen into my world like I had into theirs. Twilight and I returned to the library, only to be ambushed by Discord. He revealed that all of the humans lost in this universe were gone, that I was the last one, and that his game could not begin until all of the missing pieces were returned. I managed to fire at the beast, but he hurled us through one of his portals, this one into my world, our efforts to resist fruitless. He'd instructed us to round up the lost ponies.

And so we did. These three ponies had made their mark on human society already, and bronies were going to converge on my hometown in droves. We wasted no time in getting them into our group. We took the same way I got into Equestria the first time to get back--a universal rift caused by the damage. It was decided that we'd head to Canterlot, to stand vigil in case Discord began his games, which we soon found to be already in progress. We didn't know the Lord of Chaos' motives, however, as we ventured to and through Canterlot with the assistance of Time Piece, Trixie, and Derpy as well as Spike and the Mane Six.

We found that we had no way to get to the regular objects bearing the Elements to stop Discord, so we ventured to the Canterlot Archives, and located a spell to enchant an item with all six Elements. The only item that was usable was my gun, and so we used it to channel the Elements.

As we left the Archives, we were knocked out by a mysterious airborne agent, and subjected to a dream by Discord. He let me escape my own dream, for unfathomable reasons, and allowed me to release Spike, Derpy, Time Piece, and Trixie before we awoke. The three ponies and a dragon that I'd freed and I woke to find the Mane Six to be missing. We went into Canterlot Castle, and found them in Celestia's empty throne room. Something was wrong, though.

The Mane Six had been subverted by Discord's magic, and were now conditioned to consider me their mortal enemy. And so, with Time Piece and Trixie at my side, we engaged the Elements of Harmony in combat. It was a near-loss, and in the end I was wounded fairly badly by Twilight, and the gun was lost, but the Mane Six were back to normal. Without any object through which to channel the Elements of Harmony, I volunteered to be imbued with the Elements myself. They possessed my body for a short while, procuring replacement objects for each of the Mane Six, and granting me the Element of Order for some reason. Though I might be an ordered individual, I believe its purpose to be different, separate from the others. With these superweapons at our disposal, we freed the Princesses Luna and Celestia from Discord's grasp, and uncovered the true nature of the draconequus' actions.

Discord had been helping us the whole time. The entire attack on Equestria was a ruse, something for us to stop, to give us something heroic to do. He granted me the power to travel between universes at will, and revealed one thing that would be the cause of many more adventures yet: the humans he removed from Equestria were not on my Earth, they were scattered throughout the multiverse. Princess Luna volunteered to search the universes with her magic in hopes of finding those lost. The universal barrier was restored, but was weak enough to send letters with dragonfire through. So Twilight gave me a bottle of dragonfire, and l left Equestria to return to my life as a normal fourteen-year-old. I frequently communicated by letter with the denizens of Equestria, telling them about my world and its differences. Three weeks passed, and I've recieved a letter from Twilight instructing me to come to Equestria again, as Luna has located one of the lost humans. The following are my adventures, the adventures of the Trans-Universal Recovery Team. For me, fiction was about to become real. Repeatedly, and not for the first time.

Part I: Chapter One: Universe-Hop (Fallout)

Part I: Chapter One: Universe-Hop

Having a way to move between universes was something that, I had just now learned, came with responsibility. I was being called upon to save humans from other universes, two of them, I presumed. This sounded really dangerous to me, and the chances of my finding these people were probably pretty slim; it had been three weeks since Discord stranded them wherever they now are, and left them there as some kind of... scavenger hunt, I guess. Without a doubt, this adventure would be difficult, and I'd probably be facing it alone, unless, of course, some of the ponies wanted to come. They might, they do like adventure, especially when there's a cause involved.

I set about filling my backpack with whatever I thought I might need. I crammed about a dozen granola bars, a few water bottles, my crown representing the Element of Order- just in case-, a flashlight, a book, my bottle of letter-sending dragonfire- the one Twilight Sparkle had given me before I left Equestria-, and a lighter, in case I needed fire. It was Friday, just after five in the afternoon when I left my house, leaving a note:

"Gone to Equestria to help the universe again, I'll try to be home on Sunday."

It felt silly writing that, but after all that had happened to me, it wouldn't surprise anyone at home. I wasn't entirely sure if two days would be enough time to find this lost person, but at this point, I wasn't entirely sure of anything except that Twilight wanted me to go to Equestria, and that I was to find a lost human in a universe I'd never been to. If was lucky, then it's a universe I already know of. I thought about all of the universes I knew anything in-depth about. There were a lot of em', and considering the types of fiction I read, played, and saw, not many of them were pretty. I reached a point in an ATV trail near my home that, if I recalled correctly, was a corresponding spot in this universe to Twilight Sparkle's library. I zipped open my universal portal, using the ability granted to me by Discord, and stepped in.

I appeared in the middle of the library. Twilight was standing at a small desk, writing something. She hadn't noticed my appearance.

"Hey, Twilight."

Twilight was startled, let out a gasp of surprise, and turned around.

"Zach? You're here already? How did you get in here?" she asked, still surprised.

"What's the matter, Twilight? Why are you so on-edge?" I asked.

She sighed, "Princess Luna's coming to visit soon, to await your arrival. She wanted to tell you what was going on in person. I was just... surprised when you came in here first, without knocking."

"Sorry, Twilight. I didn't mean to, I should have written you a letter. What do you know?"

"No more than you do, I'm afraid."

Spike entered the room we were in at this point, carrying a stack of large books that partially obscured his vision.

"Hey, Twilight, where do I put these? Is Zach here yet?" he asked, struggling slightly with his balance.

"Right there is fine, Spike."

The small dragon set down the books on Twilight's desk, and noticed me then.

"Oh, hi, Zach." I was much taller than Spike, and even though he knew I was harmless and a friend, he was slightly intimidated by my bulk.

"When do you suppose Luna will get here?" I asked.

"A few hours, I think, when the sun goes down." Twilight answered. I wondered why Luna wished to tell me in person what was going on. It wasn't like Twilight was incapable of relaying a message.

"Well, what should we do between now and then? Talk to your friends?" I suggested. I had a hard time considering the ponies my friends. After all, our only previous interactions, apart from letters I'd sent, had been in pursuit of a common goal: saving the universe. Besides that, being friends with beings you'd only known as characters several weeks prior was a difficult concept to realize.

"Well, Applejack is out of town, visiting family, Pinkie Pie is preparing a party somewhere, a big one, Rarity's busy creating some sort of new line of clothing that's 'bound to be fabulous', Fluttershy's caring for Angel, who's sick with a cold or something... as I see it, only Rainbow Dash, Spike and I are available."

"Then let's go see Rainbow," I suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea. Come on, Spike."

Spike assumed his position on Twilight's back, and we left the tree-library-house in search of the fast pegasid. We looked into the sky, which was clear, as usual, and the sun was beginning to retreat toward the horizon. I recieved a significant amount of recognition from the denizens of Ponyville. Celestia had held a parade celebrating our success in repairing the universal barrier between Equestria and Earth, and now almost every pony in Equestria knew who I was, by appearance if not name. The Mane Six were treated in a similar fashion, but were not as recognizable, being ponies like everypony else. I wasn't a pony, I was a human, only three of which have ever been here. The identity of the other two humans was never discovered, and the man that released Discord was the only one known to have caused any problems.

"Where could she be?" I asked. We were having no success in finding Rainbow, and I was thinking of places other than the sky that we could look for her in. An idea came to me quickly. "Sweet Apple Acres. She's probably taking a nap there."

"That makes sense, actually," Twilight agreed, and we headed in the direction of the apple orchard.

Searching the place would take time, and, fortunately, Rainbow found us first. We saw her flying, a few meters above the ground, weaving between the trees in some sort of agility exercise. She slowed and landed when she noticed us, and trotted over.

"Hey. What're you doing here, Zach?" she asked, curiously.

"I'm here to rescue another human from another universe," I replied.

"That's cool. Is anypony going with you?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Can I come with you?"

"Rainbow, he doesn't even know where he's going, or whether or not he'll need any help," Twilight interjected.

"I'll probably need help. Not every universe is as pleasant as this one or mine, I'd bet on it. But we should still find out where we'd be going."

"Luna is due to arrive soon, we should head back to the library," Twilight said.

"Luna's coming here? Why?" Rainbow asked.

"She's going to tell us what we need to know," I answered, "hopefully."

The four of us returned to the library. It had been about two hours, and the sun was slipping below the horizon when we arrived. We were surprised to find Luna already inside.

"Greetings," she said, cordially. She was sitting on the far side of the room, reading a book. She closed it when we entered. We all hastily kneeled.

"Oh, I'm so sorry we kept you waiting, Princess," Twilight apologized.

"It is nothing, Twilight Sparkle. Zach, you arrived safely, I presume?"

We all stood again. "Yes, Princess. I've been told that you know what's going on. Can you tell us?"

"With pleasure. The magicians of Canterlot and I have determined with certainty where one of your missing fellow humans is. They describe this universe as being 'dark, gray, with poisonous water and air. Giant animals, frenzied machines, and hideous monsters prowling the scarred land'. I don't know what this means, but I believe you might. Do you?"

There were only one thing I could think of when the Princess described this universe; Fallout. The human is trapped in the Fallout universe. The video game series I had poured hours into, killing monsters and people alike, seeking valuable bottle caps and coveted items. Now I had to go there.

"I think I do. It's called Fallout in my world. It's fiction, in the form of a game, not unlike this universe. Unlike this universe, however, the Fallout universe isn't safe, not in the slightest. It's about as bad as you've described it. It's similar to mine, but a great catastrophe has made the world really inhospitable and dangerous." I explained.

"As I've predicted, you will probably need some help with this. Twilight Sparkle, you've travelled to other universes with Zach before. I want you to go with him."

"Me, Princess? Are you sure? I'm not very good at fighting or anything..."

"Yes you are, Twilight. Your magic is really-super-amazing!" Rainbow joined the conversation, "What about me, Princess. Can I come too?"

"Are you certain that you wish to partake in this quest with Twilight and Zach?" Luna asked.

"Positive! They don't call me the Element of Loyalty for nothing." Rainbow was unfazed by my explanation of a dark, inhospitable world. She craved adventure, and she would have it.

"What about me?" Spike asked.

"You are a valuable assistant to Twilight, Spike. You should go with them as well."

"But Luna, it's far too dangerous to take him with us," Twilight said. I shared the sentiment.

"Twilight, Spike is a valuable asset to have in this quest. If I believed that you were at any significant risk of failure, I wouldn't have even told you about this in the first place." Luna had great faith in our abilities as a group, it seemed. The others in it had always gone over the hurdles, succeeded in all of their trials, and came through together. She held us all in high esteem, especially Twilight.

"Come on, Twilight! I'll be good, I won't cause any trouble or anything," Spike urged.

"Very well, Princess. We'll go with Zach," Twilight said after a few moments of thought.

"You may depart tomorrow, I bid you good luck." Luna exited the library, and we were left to pack, plan, and prepare.

Chapter Two: Universe Hop Times Two

"So you're saying that there are mutants and raiders and all sorts of nasty stuff in this universe? And that this all somehow exists as a game series in your universe?" Twilight asked.

"Right," I replied, "it's just like how your universe is manifest in mine as a TV show."

"I guess so, but why did Discord send this human somewhere so dangerous?" Spike asked. Most of the whole 'preparing' aspect of our expedition so far had been Q&A. Tiresome, but useful Q&A; the two ponies- and Spike- had to be fully aware of what we could expect in the Fallout universe, something I knew about.

"I have no idea, maybe he was trying to put them where I could find them. It was part of his 'game', it seems."

"That guy needs a better definition of 'game'. It isn't fun to be stuck in a wasteland full of human-eating monsters, right?" Rainbow was still excited to go, despite the distasteful environment we were destined to enter the next day.

"What are the Fallout games like?" Spike asked. He would be one to enjoy video games, and had learned some about them from my letters to Twilight.

"Well, as terrible as it sounds, they're really quite enjoyable. You have no responsibilities in the games, so you can do what you want in what is known as an 'open-world', meaning you can go through a large area, doing all sorts of things. The main focus of the game is combat, though, and many, many hostile creatures and people attack you, and killing them for reward and survival is one of the main points," I explained, "but since this is a real situation we're heading into, this has little chance of being as simple or fun as the games." As I said this, it solidified the notion in me that these games were quite terrible. The group had this notion from the start, and I could see it in their faces that they all thought it was psychotic to enjoy such things, but they couldn't understand. Well, I couldn't really understand either. It just seems to be the way we are.

"I don't think there'll be very many monsters or raiders, though. Realistically, the way the games portray them as numerous and frequent don't make a whole lot of sense. Hopefully, we won't have to fight anything."

The group just listened intently on what I had to say. Like the time Twilight was sent to Earth with me, I knew everything and they knew nothing. My actual skills and experience on the matter, however, were likely going to be useless, for the most part. Knowing that I could just join the Brotherhood of Steel by doing one or two favors for them wasn't realistic, for example.

"I think that's enough brainstorming for today, we should all get some sleep, we're going to need it." Twilight's command ended the question session, Rainbow went home, and I assumed a position on a heap of pillows and blankets in the middle of the floor. It was going to be an interesting adventure, to be sure.

*****

I awoke to a loud pounding on the door. It wasn't quite morning yet, was it? I checked my watch. 6:12 AM. Really, really early for me, especially for a Saturday. It must have been Rainbow Dash, she seemed like the early-riser type. My assumptions were confirmed almost immediately.

"Hey! Twilight! Get up! Hellooo!" Rainbow must have been waking the whole neighborhood. I remained motionless until Twilight came down the stairs, groggy and grumbling, Rainbow still yelling through the door.

"Zach, get up," she said.

I got to my feet, having no excuse to be in bed anymore. Twilight opened the door to reveal a surprisingly excited Rainbow Dash, a small pack over her back, obviously specially designed to not be a hinderance while flying. She came in.

"Have you any idea how early it is?" Twilight grumbled.

"Early? It's six o'clock, I always get up at six," Rainbow reasoned.

"Well, that must be why you take so many naps," I said, snarkily. Rainbow's yelling had woken me up pretty quickly, and I was already sharp. Well, sharp as I could be at such an hour.

"I do not! I take naps to... uh... relax, yeah, that's it. Let's get some breakfast and go."

I chuckled a bit at her evasion. Twilight headed into the kitchen of the library-house hybrid, and came back a few moments later with several apples on a plate. I took a granola bar from my bag, as well as one of the offered apples. After eating our impromptu meal, Twilight woke Spike, who was even less cheery about getting up than any one of us. After all had settled, all of us had eaten, and everyone was awake, we began our final preparations.

"Where do you think we'll end up, in the other universe?" Twilight asked me.

"I couldn't have less of a clue. We'll just have to find out ourselves."

"Are you sure I should come with you guys? This sounds dangerous." Spike was beginning to see Twilight's reasoning.

"We'll protect you, Spike. If anyone dies or gets hurt, it's my fault. So I promise you all that we'll get the human back, and we'll all come back in one piece." This promise was one I thought I could not fulfill, but only for a moment. We had the Elements of Loyalty and Magic on our side, and mine, Order, for what that's worth. What's to worry about?

"Yeah, that's right, don't worry!" Rainbow would probably take a similar view to the situation, being the most loyal being in all of Equestria, she'd take it pretty hard if anything happened to any one of us, even me, who she hardly knew as a person. How well did they know me? Twilight knew more about me more than any other pony, and even she didn't really know me. I wasn't a highly social person and it was easy to figure out that on the outside, what with my unimposing physique, mild manners, and normally quiet nature, I was a boring person. That's my exterior, though, and if one gets to my interior, I'm pretty different. I'm still usually quite boring, serious and quiet, but I'm more open about my opinions and the like, and more relaxed. I wasn't at near that point of friendship with any one of them except for Twilight.

Twilight had said once that she considered me a friend, but who wouldn't consider the guy that was trying to save your universe a friend? Our relationship was an odd one. I knew almost everything there was to know about Twilight Sparkle. She's really good at magic, Celestia's her mentor, she has five really good friends, she's somewhat of a control freak, she's really smart, and a host of other things. What did she know about me? My letters to her had revealed almost nothing about myself, while hers were more personalized, telling me tidbits of what had happened in her day-to-day interactions with the other denizens of Equestria, sometimes saying that I should come visit, and she had thanked me several times for saving the universe, and said that all of Equestria was indebted to me. She was trying to be my friend, but I wasn't really reciprocating her efforts. It was still a silly concept to think of.

Almost any brony on Earth would jump at the chance to be one of the ponies' friends, but actually doing so was thought by all to be something pretty much only known to self-insertion fan-fiction, something that this whole thing was looking very much like. With the short visit of three background characters from the show on Earth, and for a shorter time, Twilight as well, the fandom became just that much weirder and larger. More and more 'true stories' of how humans entered Equestria and lived to tell the tale showed up. These were peculiar to me- universe travelling was serious buisness- not an author device like it once was. However, they'd have their fun with it. The fandom's evolution had begun to take on a more cult-like aspect, some even claiming that it was destined for humanity to go to Equestria, as though it were some new 'Holy Land', or salvation, a solution to the energy crisis, or whatever. Again, even weirder. My thought wanderings were interrupted.

"Right, Zach?" Twilight asked.

"What was that? I didn't catch it."

"We should bring some food with us."

"Yes, yes, we should."

"Will there be any gems there?" Spike asked.

"Nope, gems are really, really rare in my world, and this one too. You can eat rocks and other stuff, too, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Spike said, slightly disappointed.

Twilight was packing her saddlebags, and had prepared a checklist of required items with uncanny speed, and was magically checking off items as she put them in.

"Apples, check. Quill, ink and paper, check. More apples, check..."

This went on for a while, before she finally said,

"Looks like that's everything. Everyone ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied, and began to focus my portal spell.

"Sure," Spike answered, nervously.

"Always!" Rainbow acknowledged.

The portal opened before us, and we entered.

The wasteland had touches of green in it, meaning this area hadn't been hit so badly by the bombs. This was good, there wouldn't be so much radiation. I looked around, and saw not a single living thing throughout the entire landscape. It was eerily quiet, except for a soft whistle of the wind. We were standing on a road, and a billboard was clearly visible. One sign on it simply read in faded letters, 'Drink Nuka-Cola', and, more interestingly, the second one read 'Vault 46, next exit. Reserve your spot today!'. A Vault! How fortunate for us.

"Wow," Spike said, in awe of the drastically different environment, "it's so gray here."

"It really is. Zach, is it always this gray?" Rainbow asked.

"Actually, this place is comparatively good in terms of healthy color. See, there are a few green plants around, meaning that the nuclear bombs didn't hit this area too hard," I replied.

"So, where do we go now?" Twilight asked. It was always the questions, questions, and more questions with her.

"Well, I think our best bet is to go this way. You know those 'Vaults' I mentioned? One of them is supposedly nearby."

"But... didn't you say that some of the Vaults failed?" Spike recalled my explanation.

"I did, but it's a place to start, if anything."

The group began to move along the road. None of us knew what could be in that Vault. Was it raided, picked clean, its inhabitants slaughtered? Or was it a civilized Vault, with help to give, or a Vault that allowed no entry? We'd have to wait to find out.

Chapter Three: Familiar Friends, Familiar Foes

The cracked, decayed road still had several cars on it, nuclear cars. How much fun I'd have with those in Fallout 3. There wasn't time to waste blowing up cars, and unfortunately, this wasn't Fallout 3, it was real life. Another universe, yes, though still reality in every way. What wasn't reality anymore? I thought about that often after my first trans-universal adventure, and this second journey brought back these thoughts. Was every concievable fictional universe actually real? It made my head spin. All the characters, all the places, all of it fiction- until Discord gave me this power, allowing me to fully appreciate the sheer scale of the multiverse that had only begun to manifest itself in the minds of humans. It may not be real in my universe, but now I knew that in some universe, somewhere, the stories I played games of, the stories I read in books, it was all real, and I was in one of those very stories at this very moment.

"I wonder if all the other universes I've read stories about are real," I said, trying to start a conversation on the matter.

"I've wondered that too, Zach. Since, well, you knew about us before you even came to Equestria the first time, and you told us that you actually watched stories about us using machines. It's really quite interesting to think about, isn't it?" Twilight said.

"Woah!" Rainbow Dash had just had a startling realization, and was quick to share. "Daring Do might actually be real?"

"Well, you're real and you only appeared in stories before I actually met any of you, so I suppose so."

"Can you take me to that universe sometime?"

"Rainbow, there are no jungles with ancient ruins or anything like that anywhere near Ponyville. You'd never be able to find her," Spike said, visibly shattering Rainbow's hopes.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right..."

"Maybe we can later, after we're done," I assured her. It'd be a small favor to perform, but I'd have to go with her, to bring her back. Rainbow smiled in response.

We came upon a fork in the road, and a sign that was still stuck in the ground after two hundred years advertising Vault 46's limited, precious slots and pointing in the direction of one of the roads. We turned onto the road, and after a short while longer, we came across a large cave opening, obviously the entrance. I began walking in.

"It's dark in there..." Spike said, nervously. It then occurred to me that Spike would draw much more attention than my equine companions if the Vault was inhabited. They'd probably think he was some sort of gecko and react... accordingly.

"Spike, maybe you could wait out here. If anything scary happens or any other humans show up, don't panic, just come into the cave," I suggested, and no one objected.

Spike dismounted Twilight, visibly reducing her load, which had seemed to bother her somewhat. I began to wonder what in the world she had brought in those saddlebags of hers, quite heavily laden as they were. I hadn't been listening very closely when she was checking things off of her checklist. Spike sat down on a rock not far from the cave mouth, and began idly throwing stones.

The cave was quiet, bathed in a purplish glow from Twilight's horn. The cave was eerie and quite narrow, winding slightly. Eventually we came upon the great, gear-esque door, bearing the number '46'. This section of the cavern was brightly lit. I keyed the door panel, finding it unlocked. The three of us stood in front of the door, waiting patiently for it to do its thing, which took an awfully long time. Though it was an awfully heavy door, designed to keep out atomic weapon blasts as well as radiation. The entrance chamber was brightly lit with the cool-white lights of a functioning Vault. There was, however, nobody in sight. The three of us entered, and the door began to close by itself.

"I don't like this." Twilight took the words right out of my mouth.

"I don't either. This place is giving me the creeps already," Rainbow commented.

A loud bang was heard, and a concussive shockwave blew us all off our feet, the peculiar ordinance knocking the wind out of me, and, evidently, the ponies as well. A hiss was heard, and we were breathless, helpless, as some sort of gas caused me to lose consciousness.

*****

"He's waking up," a woman's voice said. I opened my eyes to see a bright white light. I tried to move my arm to shield my eyes, but they were both bound to what seemed like some sort of surgical table. I looked around. I was clearly in the Vault's clinic, the woman was close-by, dressed in a familiar red robe with a familiar emblem on it. I couldn't quite place it, but it was very familiar.

"Who are you?" I asked her.

"A scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel," she replied.

"The Brotherhood of Steel? What are you doing in this Vault?"

"You are the one who will be answering the questions, not asking them," an older-sounding male voice said, from beyond my line of sight. He came into view then. He was clad in power armor, not wearing a helmet, revealing an middle-aged man's face.

"Young man, why have you come here?" He wasn't hostile in his manners, but wasn

"I'm looking for someone," I answered. What had happened to Twilight and Rainbow? I couldn't see them from where I was.

"Is that so? Who?"

"A person that may have passed here about three weeks ago, they might have seemed delirious, maybe saying he wasn't from this world, or something like that. Have you seen them?"

"No questions from you," he re-iterated his previous statement, "what are those creatures that entered the Vault with you?"

I debated with myself about whether or not to reveal the truth about them. The Brotherhood of Steel were not bad people, but they sought knowledge, not to help some kid on a quest. I decided that if I were to have an ally in this quest, it may as well be them. However, I didn't know this particular contingent's strength or policies, however. This was a gamble.

"They're travellers from another universe. They're my allies," I answered.

"Another universe, you say? Next question-"

"Where are they? I need to see them."

"Again, I'd like to remind you, I'm the one asking the questions. How did they get here?"

"I don't know, exactly," I lied. If they knew that I could travel between universes at will, I'd probably become something to be studied, and I didn't have time for that.

"We found nothing on your person that was unorthodox. However, how did your 'colleague' have fresh fruit in her bags? How was said fruit aquired?"

"She's from another universe, she brought the apples with her to provision us."

"Very well. You may ask questions now."

"How long was I out for?"

"Four hours." Four hours?! Spike's still out there!

"Did anything else try to enter the Vault?" A hint of panic snuck its way into my voice.

"No."

"Why did you not just dump me outside?"

"We found your group to be of interest, so we took you inside for examination."

"Where are my companions?"

"They are still unconscious, in the corner of this room." I couldn't see them, but I trusted him, for some reason.

"I assure you, I'm of no threat to you... Paladin? Could I be allowed to stand?" I guessed at his rank, and his surprised expression proved me right.

"I suppose so, but don't try anything stupid, I'll warn you now." He released my bindings, and I stood up, stiff from hours in inactivity. Sure enough, the two ponies were in the corner of the room, sleeping quietly. Twilight's saddlebags had obviously been examined then repacked, and my own backpack sat nearby. I walked over and put it on.

"Now, I am curious. What do you know about the Brotherhood of Steel?" The Paladin asked.

"Quite a bit, actually. You've got a lot of different chapters throughout the Wasteland, your hierarchy is divided between the scribes, knights and paladins of the Brotherhood, and your ultimate goal is preserving technology in all of its forms."

"How does one as young as you know so much about us?"

"Let's just say that I've played this game before."

"Hmm."

Twilight began to stir in the corner, and all present turned to look. She got up, and looked around.

"Where are we?" she asked me.

"These things can speak English!?"

"Uh, you can speak Equestrian?"

"Doesn't matter. Twilight Sparkle, meet Paladin... uh..."

"Stross." The man was clearly very confused.

"Paladin Stross," I finished.

"A pleasure meeting you, mister Stross." She extended her hoof as a greeting, and he hesitated slightly before shaking it.

"A pleasure indeed. Now, what can you tell me about-"

Stross was interrupted by Rainbow's getting up as well.

"Where the hay are we?" She asked nobody in particular.

"The Vault's clinic. It's a Brotherhood of Steel base, they're friendly," I explained, "Stross, this is Rainbow Dash."

"And I thought the other one's name was rediculous..." Stross muttered.

"Hey!" Rainbow took offense to that.

Possibly not realizing what she was showing by doing so, Twilight magically lifted her saddlebags onto her back. Stross' reaction was priceless.

"What the hell did you just do?!"

"Uh, it's magic. All unicorns have it," Twilight replied, nervously.

"They're from a different universe, their world works... differently." I explained.

"That doesn't make any sense... anyway, I'm sure the elder would like to have a word with you three. Follow me, don't touch anything." We followed Stross out into the corridor. We passed several scribes and severall knights in the halls, each regarding us with caution. They didn't know us to be friend or foe yet. The elder sat where the Overseer usually would sit in a Vault, at a desk.

"Our guests," Stross introduced us, then proceeded to stand by the door.

"I understand you three are not from around here." The elder said, "are you possibly related somehow to another man, who passed by this area several weeks ago? He described in detail creatures like these to us before we let him go."

"Yes, we're here to get him back, to bring him home, and these two 'creatures' are Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. They're just as intelligent as us."

"Again, just as this man described. You're here to rescue him, are you? I'm afraid that will be very, very difficult indeed. You see, before we let him leave, we planted a device within him that records his whereabouts and the sounds he hears and sends them to us. We have determined that he is currently being held by an immensely powerful being known as 'The Master'."

The Master!? The Master was killed at the end of Fallout 1, and there wasn't any 'Vault 46' in that game. That meant that we were far away from there, and that he'd somehow survived. Was it to fall to Spike, Twilight, Rainbow, and myself to stop him, this time?

"The Master?! The Vault Dweller killed him! He can't be alive-"

"But he is, he's somehow escaped death at the hands of the Vault Dweller, your knowledge of whom surprises me, and now resides around twenty kilometers to the north of here, in an abandoned military base. This chapter of the Brotherhood is under-strength at the moment, as the Master has begun creating an army of mutants to terrorize the wastes again. This man you seek was abducted by The Master, and, as far as we can tell, is a captive until he tells them how to move between universes. That brings me to a question: how did you get here?"

"I'm not sure, really," I lied, Twilight giving me a puzzled look. "I just know that we've got to save this guy."

"But Zach, I thought you said you could go to any universe you wanted." Rainbow just had to say that, didn't she?

"Yes, it was a lie when I said I didn't know how we got here. I can travel between universes at will," I admitted.

"How can you do this? Can you share this technology with us?" The elder was greatly interested, and not angered by my temporary deception.

"It's magic, I don't really know how it works, exactly, but I do know that it's magic, something I can control."

"Interesting. Such a powerful ability you have. Can you demonstrate it?"

"Not right here, if I used it here I'd probably end up inside the ground on the other end."

"Very well. So, if I understand correctly, you plan on going to the Master's stronghold and freeing this man?"

"Yes, if that's what it takes. If we can take out the Master while we're at it, bonus."

"Zach, are you sure that's a good idea? You described mutants before, I don't think we can fight an army of those," Twilight spoke up. She had a point. We'd need some skills and a big pile of huge guns to take on a super mutant army. But I was one person, a kid, at that. Twilight's magic and Rainbow's flight would be of use, but what about Spike and I? Dead meat.

"You three won't be able to perform this act without weapons. I will give you access to some of our armory stores, and we will assist you whenever we can, as it seems our interests are very similar to yours." The elder seemed like a reasonable, decent man. We'd made an ally out of him rather easily, but now our problems had gotten a lot worse; we'd have to fight through a small army to get through the Master's new Cathedral of the Unity.

"Thank you for your assistance, I won't forget it."

Stross led us to the Vault's armory, and I selected my armaments carefully. Twilight and Rainbow refused any weapons; they knew what guns were, and how they weren't the most humane means of dealing with foes, not to mention Rainbow's lack of any means to use said guns. The laser rifle I chose was the one that looked best, and had an adjustable power setting, which included overcharge. A nice weapon. I donned a suit of combat armor, the twenty-pound suit was heavy, but bearably so. We said farewell to the elder, and left the Vault, finding Spike at the door, napping.

"Spike, wake up," Twilight said, "Spiiiiike, wake up!"

The snoozing dragon awoke, stood, then yawned. "I waited like, two hours for you guys, then fell asleep. What took you so long?"

"We got side-tracked. We know where to find the human we're looking for, now, but it's not going to be easy," I said.

"I love challenging things! I'd like to see a super mutant get hit by supersonic pony and walk away from it!" Rainbow said, pridefully. That had actually happened to me once, and it really hurt, and she hadn't even been at full speed.

The group proceeded toward the surface, and we found it was already noon by the time we were there. If this incredible fortune kept up, we'd be done here soon, hopefully with all four of us in one piece. Still worrisome was the prospect of facing hordes of super mutants. We did have a master of pony martial arts, a unicorn with very, very powerful abilities, Spike, and myself. This would test our mettle, to be certain, but we were not without confidence: Twilight was strong and capable as an individual, and a skilled user of combat, defensive, and teleportation magic, Rainbow Dash was fast and hard-hitting, a super mutant would have a hard time hitting her. Spike was without any special abilities, and my universal portal could probably be used to avoid detection, escape dangerous situations, and such things. We were diverse, and this diversity gave us versatility, and that would probably serve us well. We began our hike northward, it would be quite a long journey, and I definitely knew that I wasn't going to be home by Sunday.

Chapter Four: New Plan

The Master's army was almost invariably armed with heavy weapons in the first and second Fallout game. I figured these mutants would be similarly armed. This wasn't an entertaining prospect; we didn't have hit points to our knowledge, we'd take wounds if we got hit. After all, you can't spam stimpaks while pausing time in real life, could you? Even if we did have some sort of derived statistic line, the damage system could be that of any one of the games. If it were as it was in the Fallout 1 engine games, we'd be in huge trouble if outgunned. On the other hand, the games built on the Gamebryo engine gave some characters enormous sums of health. In neither of the two varieties was there any concept of bleeding or open wounds. However, none of us had a Pip-Boy or anything like that to give us information on the subject.

Regardless of the health system the actual Fallout world used, we'd need a better plan than the Vault Dweller's. As I saw it, we were grossly outnumbered, grossly outgunned, without marketable skills, and not cut out for this kind of work.

"We're going to need a plan, if we just waltz in there, we'll get killed, easily." I said, breaking the air of silence that shrouded us.

"I was thinking the same thing. Do you have any ideas?" Twilight's mindset was quite similar to mine, as it had become evident. I'd always liked Twilight as a character, ever since before I even started watching the show regularly she'd been one of my favorite ponies. She was smart and fairly logical, like me, but unlike me, she was interesting, hard-working, socially capable, studious, selfless, and, well, awesome. I was a bit envious of her.

"Well... the Master holds an ideology, called the 'Unity', that he claims can unite the human race as one- actually quite literally having them all combine into one being. Understandably, we don't like the idea. The humans that don't become super mutants that support this ideology are called the 'Children of the Cathedral'. If the Master has recreated this organization as well as his army, we may have a chance of infiltrating it." This plan wasn't going to be easy to execute, but going in guns blazing would be significantly harder.

"Don't we kind of stand out here? I mean, we couldn't just walk in and ask to join em', right?" Rainbow Dash was, indeed, correct.

"I don't think so. The Children have churches of sorts in major settlements, if I recall correctly. I think we should search for one."

An unknown voice came, seemingly out of nowhere, startling us all.

"Zach, you and your companions have a terrific plan. We can assist you in this. There is a city nearby, aptly called New Metropolis. It's around five kilometers away from your current location, to the east." It was Stross' voice, somewhat muffled, coming from somewhere in my left arm.

"So you put one of your tracking devices in me, too?"

"We did, for the same reason that we're tracking the other man. You are a person of interest, Zach. I advise that you head to that location now."

"Roger that, I guess. Thanks, Stross."

"Good luck." His voice cut off. Well, that was unsettling, the Brotherhood could talk to me through my arm. Useful, but unsettling.

"Who's Stross?" Spike asked, in confusion.

"A friend of ours, we met him in the Vault. The Brotherhood of Steel were in there, those guys I told you about that collect technology and sometimes help the people of the wasteland."

"Oh, those guys! So, we're going to sneak into some sort of secret cult?"

"Yeah, basically. It might be easy or it might be hard, that remains to be seen."

"What do we do when we get in?" Twilight asked.

"Well, I know the Master's weakness from reading guides to the game: electromagnetic pulses. Can you create those, Twilight?"

"What's that?" Oh yeah, Equestria was still industrializing, very slowly. They didn't know very much about such things, as they'd never developed nuclear weapons, and probably had no way to observe the phenomenon, what with the lack of electronics in large number. Even Twilight, smart, educated Twilight, had little idea of what that was, and certainly couldn't create it.

"Uh... nevermind. We're going to need some pulse grenades."

"How are we going to get those? They sound kind of rare." Spike said. He was right, we had no real way of getting pulse grenades; we had no bottle caps. My arm started talking again.

"Meet with a Brotherhood patrol outside of the city, we'll re-route them to intercept you, they have two such items in their possession, and will hand them over. Their method of manufacture is difficult, so use them wisely."

"Thanks again, Stross." The Brotherhood was making this a lot easier for us. We changed direction to eastward, and began our trek. The aspects of the plan were still falling into place, but, fortunately, we had plenty of time to plan as we went along, at least until we got to the church.

Minutes turned into half an hour, and we saw what looked like a very large- by post-apocalyse standards- city on the horizon. Another thing caught my eye. In the distance, a trio of dark-clothed figures could be seen, one clearly wielding a polearm of some sort, probably a spear. One thought occurred to me at that point: raiders. I pointed at them.

"What is it, Zach? Who are they?" Twilight asked. Everyone's attention turned to the point in the distance.

"I don't know, could be harmless traders, mercenaries, or just plain raiders. There's no way to know from this distance." I replied. I'd told them all about how raiders were a semi-common appearance in the wasteland. They were dumb and insane, but they were deadly nonetheless. I noticed that they were intercepting us at a jogging pace.

"I don't think they're friendly." Spike said, and his statement was confirmed almost immediately as one of the figures extended an arm toward us, then I saw muzzle flashes and heard bullets zipping over my head. Twilight did what I told her she should do: put up a shield. I pulled out my laser rifle.

"They want to do this the hard way." I said. Rainbow nodded, and went to do what I told her she should in an outdoor battle: the 'sonic rain-nuke', I'd called it, and she knew what that meant. She sped off into the air. Bullets bounced off the shield harmlessly as the raiders approached. The third one, whose armament I could not discern, threw an object on our direction. A grenade. The grenade exploded in a cloud of dust, and I heard Twilight's barrier shatter. Before the dust cleared, however, I felt a tremor in the earth. Sure enough, Rainbow had knocked all of the raiders off their feet, a small, multi-colored mushroom cloud was left where they had stood, and while they were all breathing, they were in no shape to fight anymore.

"Nice one, Rainbow." I said, and moved to loot the incapacitated raiders. I took a rusty submachine gun and a spare magazine off of one of them and a pair of fragmentation grenades from another. I broke the spear, and took any knives I found on them.

"Without weapons, they won't be able to hurt anyone." The three others nodded in agreement, and we left the battered raiders where they lay. Some of them were obviously quite seriously injured, but none of them would die, I figured. Maybe that'll teach them a lesson.

With New Metropolis growing larger in the rapidly diminishing distance, I was impressed with the ponies' combat abilities. They reacted promptly and managed not to kill anyone. It was convenient not to have the weight of ending lives on my conscience, though I knew that I was inevitably going to kill something, somewhere, somehow. This included the Master, but I didn't think I'd feel remorse when I succeeded, that is, if we did. If we didn't, chances are we'd be dead. It's them or us, I thought, unsettled by the notions as we proceeded onward.

Chapter Six: The March

"Dear Princess Luna, we have moved back to this universe for the night. Zach has successfully located the human we're trying to rescue. Unfortunately, an evil entity known as 'The Master' has taken him prisoner. Zach has arranged for us to enter The Master's lair to rescue the human. We have also discovered that The Master is building an army of terrible creatures to try to take over that world. We will try our best to stop him and save the human. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle. Did you get that, Spike?"

"Yep." The dragon sealed and sent the letter.

The night was quiet and pleasant, and we had crossed universes to find ourselves in a meadow. As Twilight had Spike write and send the letter, I began to think about the difficulties we'd have in executing my plan. We were going to bypass a small army of super mutants, destroy The Master, free the trapped human, and leave alive. At least, if everything went well. While Twilight and Rainbow were both capable fighters, we would still be horribly outgunned and outnumbered. I wasn't a fighter, though, hardly at all. I avoided conflict when it was preferable to do so, and my low speed, endurance and strength- just walking around all day made me extremely tired- were ill-suited to a combat role, not to mention my human mortality. The thought of my mortality had been churning about in my mind for hours; I could die. I wasn't planning to, of course, but just a single bullet wound, a single hit, could kill me, easily. The ponies and dragon that I'd brought with me had a better chance of survival, I thought. Twilight had magic, Spike had his 'thick scales', and Rainbow had her speed. I had nothing.

"We should get some sleep. Did any of you bring any sort of tent or anything?" Everyone looked at each other for a moment. I sighed, "guess not."

I set my backpack down on the ground, laid down, and put my head on it. It was going to be a long night. I gave my sweater to Spike to use as a blanket, Rainbow slept on a fluffy cloud overhead, and Twilight quickly fashioned a bed out of the long grass of the meadow, something she'd 'learned in a book'. The adorkable mare and her friends fell asleep quickly. After an hour, despite how tired I was, I was still wide awake, laying there in the grass, my head on my backpack, wearing U.S. Army-issue combat armor. I was thinking about the specifics of my plan, mulling it over. Thinking about how I'd get the team back, each of its members in one piece. I could not rest as long as I had any reason to fear for the lives of those I'd promised to protect, and who had selflessly promised to help me retrieve my fellow humans. I finally involuntarily drifted off at around four AM.

*****

My sleep didn't last very long, and I awoke to see Celestia's stunning sunrise. Soon after, I saw Rainbow leave her roost and do several spirals and loops before coming to the ground. She was surprised to see that I was awake.

"I thought I'd have to get you all up again today, but it looks like that won't be needed in your case." Rainbow laughed. "Come on, Twilight, come on, Spike, get up!"

Twilight rolled over, and mumbled something incomprehensible. Spike didn't move.

"Come on!"

Twilight responded almost immediately this time.

"Rainbow, why do you always have to do that?" Twilight groaned, rising from her bed of grass and stretching.

"A good schedule is part of being awesome, of course."

Spike stirred in the interior of my fleece sweater. "Just a... few more minutes..."

I swiped up the sweater, and shook it off, the dragon falling face-first to the ground.

"Sorry," I said flatly, and placed the sweater in my backpack.

"What was that for?" the dragon snapped, angrily, suddenly awake.

"Had to get you up somehow. Come on, we've got about six hours to get to the caravan meeting. You can sleep on the way there."

"Six hours is a lot of time. Maybe we should look around New Metropolis some more, get into contact with Stross again," Twilight suggested.

"Good idea, we haven't talked to him in a while, but I'm sure he knows our plan."

Spike got into my backpack, I opened the portal, and we went in.

The early morning here was not nearly so wonderful as it was in Equestria. I immediately tried to contact the Brotherhood.

"Stross, are you there? Stross?"

"Zach, you've come back into this universe, I see." Stross chuckled, "we've been reviewing your plan, and we do believe we can assist you. When you need assistance, say 'ring of fire' and we'll send in a diversionary force. From what we've gathered from pre-war schematics of the base, The Master is likely to be on the third floor, and the captive you are looking for on the first. I will have no contact with you until after our locator indicates that you've left the base. Good luck, and send The Master my regards."

"Thanks, Stross, but... how will your diversion get to the base fast?"

There was no answer.

"Come on, let's get moving again. We should be early to the church."

*****

The ponies' routine was flawless as the caravan was set to depart. A pair of brahmin laden with supplies of various, probably sinister purpose, twenty cultists-, probably to be 'dipped'-, the lead cultist, the ponies, and myself made up the caravan. This was it, we were going to be marching straight into The Master's abode to strike him down. I had placed my two pulse grenades in my pockets, just in case I needed them in a hurry, and managed to hide my laser rifle by carefully taking it apart and stowing it in a compartment of my bag that Spike did not occupy. The caravan was underway quickly, and was making good time. I lagged behind a little, and caught a glimpse of a figure in gray armor observing us with binoculars. I gave a subtle wave, which the figure returned, and caught up with the group. Now, I thought, we just keep walking.

Chapter Seven: The Master

The base's walls, fixtures, and almost everything else were decayed in some way. The metal rusted and the wood rotted, but the ancient building stood through it all- including nuclear annihilation. The caravan was stopped at the front entrance, and a super mutant lookout yelled something in somewhat broken English to the head cultist. He replied with a series of words that did not form a proper sentence, obviously a code of some sort. The large doors opened, and we were allowed entry. The head cultist told us to follow him, and the rest of the cultists and the brahmin went another way, probably straight to the lab, where they'd meet their respective fates. The long corridors of the base were lined with cameras, turrets, and guarding super mutants. They were really intimidating, but paid us almost no mind as we entered the second floor. Then I noticed something peculiar. Something was off.

I heard noises, whispers. Nobody else seemed to notice them. I had a gut feeling that I was being watched. My insecurity and anxiety were beginning to grow intolerable, and I wanted to scream. Then came the moment. The moment I realized my situation.

"You can't scare me." I thought, saying the words to myself in my mind, "get out of my head."

In response, the hallucinations intensified, and I began to see things. I glimpsed the Main Six as I'd seen them weeks ago, ready to kill me for acts I hadn't committed. Twilight's words that day echoed in my mind, the ones about my supposed attempt to destroy Equestria, the ones about me being a complete monster. They hadn't produced what I thought was the desired effect in me, however. I had complete knowledge of that day; it wasn't like me to forget the day I'd suffered my only serious wound, ever. Discord had them corrupted that day, and those words were not her own. What was the purpose of this image? It faded as we entered the room which contained The Master himself. I stood there, in the center of the room, staring intently at the distorted, evil being before me. It didn't synthesize any speech, so I decided I'd have to break the ice. I stuck my hands in my pockets, feeling the pulse grenades, and began pacing.

"So, your great 'Unity' is at hand once more, I see."

"What is it that you, a mere child, think you can accomplish?" The Master's computerized voices asked.

"Well, I could talk to you, or I could destroy you," I said. The Master laughed with his creepy voices.

"I have an idea of what your companions can do. You cannot destroy me, that's impossible. You might be able to defeat your companions, however. I will watch this with delight."

I turned around to face my allies. Both ponies were standing stock-still, then they both slowly turned their heads in my direction. Darn. That was the purpose of the image. He was turning them against me.

"Zach, why did you do it?" Twilight asked, her voice heavy with conviction. I could only sigh.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said, "what did I do this time?"

"You know what you've done, you good-for-nothing monster!" Rainbow surged forward, and was hovering in front of my face. She didn't hit me, at least, not yet. Pure hate could be seen in her eyes. I turned around.

"So you've decided to pit me against my friends like Discord did? How very-"

Rainbow collided with my back, sending me several meters forward. I turned around, and saw Twilight's horn glowing. She was moving closer to me.

"We're no friends of yours!" Twilight called, charging her spell. I rolled, and narrowly avoided a magical blast. The next second, Dash was on me, repeatedly landing a flurry of blows on my face with her hooves before I pushed her off. She was lighter than I thought. I felt my backpack open, and Spike tumbled out.

I shrugged off my backpack and struggled to my feet. I pulled both pulse grenades from my pockets, and primed them. Rainbow hit my back again, and I was sent to the ground, still clutching the grenades. I was only about five meters from The Master now- I couldn't miss.

"You still haven't learned that you can be bested, have you?" I rolled the grenades into the base of the apparatus upon which The Master was mounted. "It's time that you did."

The grenades exploded. The Master screamed with his myriad of voices as the electronics allowing him to survive were destroyed. The super mutant guards, who'd obviously been told not to do anything, aimed their laser rifles at me. Rainbow and Twilight both switched from angry to confused at that moment, to my relief.

"You did it!" Spike said, jumping with joy.

I felt the extent of my injuries now. Rainbow's assaults had taken the wind out of me, bruised my ribs, maybe, gave me a pretty big nosebleed and a black eye, but nothing I was too worried about. It hurt a lot, though. I moved closer to my companions.

"Take him down!" The head cultist had seen it all. I closed my eyes. I was about to be fried, this was it. I heard their rifles discharge several times, and nothing happened. I opened my eyes. Twilight had erected a spherical barrier, refracting their shots. Wasting no time, I took the laser rifle from my backpack and began frantically putting it together. Rainbow stood at the edge of the barrier, ready to take on anything that charged through, be it a seven-foot-tall super mutant or not.

The laser rifle was in three pieces. I screwed one half of the body onto the other, inserted the stock, and put in the microfusion cell. I keyed overcharge. Assembling such a complex machine couldn't have been easier.

"Ring of fire!" I called. The stand-off lasted several minutes, more mutants entered the room, six in all now. A general alarm sounded, and the mutants looked around, distracted.

"Now!" I called, to do what I did not know, but Twilight did something clever. She extended the barrier outward, knocking all of the mutants over, then charged a combat spell of some kind. I fired my laser rifle at the mutants, its overcharged beams and Twilight's magic taking them down in mere seconds. I reloaded the laser rifle.

"Was that really necessary? I mean... they're humans, aren't they?" Twilight obviously didn't relish the idea of killing, and she'd just done so. In fact, I had done so, too. I didn't feel much in the form of guilt. The Master was a monster, and these super mutants were this monster's monstrous peons. The cult leader was nowhere to be found. The building shook, from an explosion somewhere. I wondered what had caused it.

"I don't like the look of this..." Spike retreated into the relative safety of my backpack.

"When they turned into these, they lost all of what they were before. Come on, we've got to find that man." I winced as I tried to get moving again.

"Are you going to be alright?" Twilight asked, concerned by my minor wounds.

"I'm sure I will, The Master made you and Rainbow angry at me like Discord did. You didn't impale me this time, but Rainbow laid down a beating," I explained.

"Sorry..." the pegasus said, apologetically.

"It wasn't you, it was him." I pointed at the now-dead Master. How he'd managed to survive the Vault Dweller's actions, I did not know, but he was dead now. After taking several plasma grenades off of the dead mutants, we were off in search of our target.

Moving slowly through the halls, Twilight using her magic to take down super mutants quietly and non-fatally- at her insistance-, we heard a noise coming from outside, almost like a helicopter. I looked out of a window, and to my astonishment, a Vertibird was performing a strafing run on the base's grounds. Missiles streaked toward it, but it was obvious that whoever was piloting the thing knew what they were doing. So that had been our diversion.

"The captive is on the second floor, directly below you," the voice in my arm said.

The staircase was blocked by a squad of six super mutants, clad in some sort of metal armor, clearly smarter than the rest. I was met by minigun fire, and I felt three really hard impacts before I took cover around a corner. I was relieved to find that the armor had stopped the small rounds fired by the massive weapon. I primed two plasma grenades. Grenades were solving all of the problems today, weren't they? I threw them around the corner, and with a peculiar noise, they detonated. I peered around the corner, and made a sound of disgust. The mutants were now mostly green goop. We proceeded.

The holding cell block of the base was guarded by a pair of super mutants, who Twilight immobilized with her telekinesis before their miniguns had spun up. She'd learned that one herself. She moved them into a cell and shut the door. Their yells of fury were ignored as we looked for our target. Sitting in a cell in the far end of the room was the man I'd seen in Canterlot three weeks ago. He didn't look so well, obviously malnourished.

"Ahah, now I'm even more insane! The small horses and the kid are here to keep me company again!"

"We're taking you home."

"No, I'm dead, I can't go home. I died and went to this hell, then you come here to make it worse for me!"

"Come on." He didn't move.

I shot the lock off with my rifle, and opened the door. "Come on! We're getting out of here."

Out of a barred window I saw the Vertibird pass over again, still wreaking havoc outside, evidently. The man stood up.

"What have I got to lose?"

We left the base soon after, and found that the Vertibird's ordinance was not wasted; the entire outside portion of the base was levelled, and fires were burning out of control.

"Mission accomplished, Stross," I said into my arm.

"Nicely done! With The Master gone, the Brotherhood can focus on its primary goals instead. Thank you for your assistance, we couldn't have done it without you."

"Now, can you disable this implant? You can disable this man's, too, he's safe."

"Sure thing. Farewell."

The implant went dead, and I opened my portal. Dropping Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow back in Equestria, I brought the man back with me to Earth. The man called a cab, happy to be back home. I walked home, exhausted, and got there at around dinner time. There I was, coming home from a fictional universe wearing combat armor and with a laser rifle. I went straight to bed.

End of part I

Part II: Chapter Eight: Spare Time (Part I Summary)

Summary, Part I

Zach, Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow Dash go into the Fallout universe, finding it to be threatened by a being known as The Master, a very potent psychic mutant creature that sought world domination. The team, with the assistance of an association known as the Brotherhood of Steel, infiltrate The Master's abode, and Rainbow and Twilight are temporarily mind-controlled, and attack Zach. Zach destroys The Master just in time, a narrow escape. Zach recieves superficial wounds from his bout with the ponies. They leave the universe. Zach gains a laser rifle and army-issue combat armor.

Part II: Chapter Eight: Spare Time

The next morning, my black eye was already starting to fade. I explained my adventure in detail to my parents before I went to school, and they probably thought I was nuts. They knew I had regular contact with beings outside of this universe, but they didn't know for sure what the limits of my abilities were. Admittedly, neither did I. Where couldn't I go? I didn't want to abuse my ability. I could go anywhere and disappear without a trace, I could steal anything, and not get caught, I could even kill dozens of people and get away with it if I really wanted to. But I'd never steal, and I'd never kill unless something tried to kill me and other options were unavailable. I was a good kid, and being able to move between universes at will wouldn't change that.

The day of school went by rather slowly, with many people inquiring about my black eye. my stock excuse was that 'I fell'. Saying that I'd been beaten up by Rainbow Dash wouldn't be believable, after all. Only my close friends and family knew about my ability and my interactions with the ponies. To anyone else, I hadn't done anything but miss a few days of school for no discernable reason, which didn't impress my teachers. I still had good grades, fortunately. When I got home, I found a letter from Twilight in my room.

Dear Zach,

Princess Luna was pleased to hear that we were successful in returning the other human to your universe and that we saved that world from the mutant army. She'd like to speak with you again whenever you're ready, so send me a letter when you're coming. There's no rush, I let the Princess know that you were hurt, and she says you should take your time.

Your friend, Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight had always been so nice to me, but she was nice to everyone. It surprised me that she'd taken note of my minor injuries from the battle, even after I said I was fine. I realized fully at that moment that I really could consider her my friend. She'd gone with me through dangerous adventures, and stood by me in the face of danger, and had even saved my life. Rainbow considered me a friend as well, and went with us through the same thing. The ponies were true friends to me, like only a few other humans had been. My human friends didn't really know much about my powers, I didn't talk about them much. They never asked me to take them anywhere, either. I decided I wouldn't keep Luna waiting for very long. I wrote Twilight to tell her I was coming, told my parents I wasn't going to be home for supper, and went to Equestria.

I walked into Twilight's library. She greeted me as I closed the door. She was reading some really thick, old book.

"Hi, Zach. How've you been?" Twilight stood from her sitting position, closing the book after inserting a bookmark.

"It could be worse. Are you and Spike okay? The whole mutant thing wasn't a very 'light' event, was it?"

"No, it wasn't, but we did what we had to do, right? Besides, as you said, they would have killed more humans if we didn't stop them. I think we did the right thing... even if it was terrible. Spike is okay, but I decided to let him sleep in today, it's been a long few days for him."

"It's good that you're holding up, it can't be easy to accept killing when your society isn't comparatively de-sensitized to it like mine. After all, that universe was part of a game I played."

"That's true, but Princess Celestia told me long ago, when I was young, that lives were always worth saving, even if ending the lives of others was necessary to do so, as long as the number of those saved outnumbered those lost."

"'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'. The Princess is a wise pony. If only human rulers were so wise. Though, no human ruler is thousands of years old. I wonder how long ago she learned this lesson, and what had caused her to do so. She must be very strong to deal with the memory of the many ponies she's had to accept the deaths of over her long life. That's why I don't want to be immortal."

"I'd never thought of it that way. I wonder how long she's been alive, just how many students she's had over her lifetime. I wonder who will wield the Element of Magic when I'm gone."

"I wonder if my Element is going to be around after I die. After all, it was created for me, like yours only revealed itself when you brought your friends together. And I'm not even from this universe. I still have years ahead of me, I'm only an adolescent, as you know. You still have years to go, too. Probably more, because you're clearly healthier than I am."

"I thought you were an adult because of how big you are."

"Nope, I'm still in school, believe it or not. I go to something called a 'high school', kind of like Cherilee's schoolhouse, but much larger and teaching more advanced stuff. I can do math pretty well, I can write, I know some science, a lot of things. I'm in what's called 'ninth grade', ninth out of twelve."

"Wow, what did you have to do to be allowed to take such a complete education? Everypony gets some math and reading and writing, but sciences are usually taught by tutors or books."

"Nothing, there's no requirement in my country."

"Wow," she said again.

"We aren't as morally refined as you ponies are, but that's subjective, so is intelligence."

The door opened, and Luna entered. The Princess had a more casual air about her this time. We kneeled customarily, and she quickly gestured for us to stand again.

"Hello Twilight, hello Zach. Your injuries are quickly healing, I see. It is good to know that you are well. Congratulations on completing your mission, it must not have been easy to get to this beast you called 'The Master'. You destroyed him and his army is routed, I presume?"

I nodded.

"If what Twilight tells me is correct, you've done the citizens of that world a great service, just as you have ours. We are still searching the multiverse for the other missing human, but it is vast, and while we cover a lot of ground each day, it may take a long time to find the right one. I suggest that you bring your team to other universes in the meantime, I'm sure they'd like to explore the less dangerous ones with you."

"Well, Luna, are you sure it's safe to just use my power at a whim? I mean, what if we upset a barrier again?"

"Your spell is completely safe for the barrier, do not fret. Your actions have only an effect on this universe's barrier, and only while you are here, so far as we can tell. The unicorns of Canterlot and I will continue to monitor the multiverse. Good luck in all of your endeavors. It is good to see you are well, too, Twilight Sparkle. Take care."

Luna left the library and began to fly away. I scratched my head. Where were we going to go?

Chapter Nine: Where To Go (Daring Do)

Chapter Nine: Where To Go

Twilight and I left the library, to gather up Rainbow. I had no idea where we could go have an intriguing, but short adventure that wouldn't be dangerous; the fiction works I had read, seen and played were rarely bright or safe, and the ones that were didn't come to my mind very easily.

"Didn't you say in one of your letters that our universe has been portrayed before in fiction in your universe? Something you said was often called 'first generation' in brony terms?" Twilight asked, dropping the idea right into my head. That's somewhere we could go, but I didn't know anything about it other than that it wasn't nearly as good as the current rendition of My Little Pony and that it was mostly about really stereotypically-girly things, things even Rarity might consider silly.

"Yeah, but I don't really know anything about it. Let's see where Rainbow wants to go next." I knew the answer to this; she probably still wanted to meet Daring Do.

I looked up at the sky. Pegasi were moving clouds into a growing clump overhead. Twilight noticed my distraction.

"The pegasi are going to make it rain tomorrow."

"Where's Rainbow?"

"I don't know. She's usually helping out the other pegasi on a day like this. Of course, if she was, then the clouds would already be in place. I wonder where she is."

"Let's check out Sugarcube Corner. Maybe she's there."

"Good idea," Twilight agreed.

We walked into Sugarcube Corner to be greeted by Mrs. Cake.

"Hello, Twilight, hello... Zach, is it?"

"Yes, that's my name. We were wondering if you've seen-"

A pink blur entered the room, and the energetic pony I knew as Pinkie Pie had placed herself in front of me.

"Hi, Pinkie."

"Zach! How've you been? Is your eye okay? It looks like it hurts. I heard you and Twilight and Rainbow had a big adventure and you guys saved a lot of people! Is that true?" The excited earth pony was exuding her regular air of happiness. I smiled, as was inevitable when dealing with the party pony.

"It is, Pinkie. Have you seen Rainbow Dash around?" Twilight answered her questions for me.

"Oh, yeah, she's at home, reading one of her Daring Do books!"

"How do you know that? Doesn't Rainbow live in the sky?" Every logical fiber of my being told me that she couldn't have any idea what Rainbow was doing if she lived in the middle of the sky. Of course, logic does not apply to Pinkie Pie unless she wants it to.

"Yep!" As I thought.

"I'll teleport over there and get her," Twilight volunteered. In a purple flash, she was gone. I envied her magical ability, such power she commanded, yet she never used it for evil. Remarkable. Almost any person would abuse it, including myself, probably. She can teleport, shield herself and others from bullets, emit potent magical blasts, and has potent telekinesis. All of these powers were free for her to use at will, with few limits. She was far more powerful than any human could ever be, yet, despite all of her power, she was unquestionably pure of corruption, which almost always comes with power. Then again, this universe isn't prone to such things as corruption, it was prone to such things as magic and rainbows. This place was pretty utopian, really.

A few moments later, Twilight and Rainbow walked into the bakery.

"Hey, everypony and Zach, what's up?"

"Well, Luna hasn't found the other human yet, so we've got some time on our hooves."

"Luna suggested that we go to other universes in the meantime, and I can't think of anything, really... you still want to go meet Daring Do, right?"

"Well, yeah! Can you take us to that universe?"

"I can. Pinkie, do you want to come too?"

"No thanks, I'm trying out some new recipes this evening, they're going to be just like the MMM, but in cupcake form!"

"Sounds like a good plan, Pinkie. Good luck with that."

I left the bakery, Twilight and Rainbow followed.

"So when do we go? Now?" Rainbow was already impatient.

"Wouldn't Spike like to go with us?"

"No, he doesn't really like Daring Do, and he's really afraid of traps, temples, and snakes. It's my opinion that it's far too unlikely to encounter such a thing. Besides, the adventures in the books must be the most dangerous ones, right?" Twilight had a reasonable argument, but from what I saw of 'fictional universes', everything in these universes was real, which meant that every single temple or reliquary could be assumed to be full of traps and whatnot, just waiting for some clever, intrepid pony to circumvent them.

"In this universe, that might be so, but that universe is different; the Fallout universe had almost every single aspect of the game's world in it, so we can assume that Daring Do's adventures follow the same scheme as they do in the books; everything is dangerous, all escapes are narrow, et cetera," I reasoned.

"I guess you're right. We'll just be careful, then." Twilight was hiding some excitement. She was about as big a fan of the book series as Rainbow was, and was just itching to meet the intrepid pony they'd read about. It reminded me of some of the bronies that had, after the universe-breach incident a few weeks ago, had written about going through portals similar to the ones I could create and what they would do in Equestria if it were actually possible. Since it was now clear that it was, in a way that only Discord and I knew about, the number of these stories increased exponentially, and had become more numerous than any other type of story combined. The ways some bronies explained it in their stories were similar to how it actually was, almost eerily so. A familiar notion returned to my mind. This is quite a bit like those self-insert fics other bronies write.

"Now, how are we going to find Daring when we get there?" I asked.

"She's world-famous in the novels, I think somepony will know where we can find her."

"Okay, that makes sense. Let's go prepare, and this time, you two can tell me about what going to this universe is going to be like."

We proceeded toward the library. On the way, I wondered how I'd manage to get home so I could go to bed and go to school for tomorrow. This adventure wasn't important, so I had no reason to miss school over it. I'd cross that bridge when I reached it. For now, it was time to learn all about Daring Do and her awesome adventures through exotic lands and ancient temples.

Chapter Ten: Similar Worlds

"...Yeah, Daring Do is like this universe's Indiana Jones."

"I'm pretty sure she's an original character, I mean, what non-original character is so awesome?" Rainbow responded, unable to comprehend that this character was, to me, simply another character in pony form with a few modifications and a Rainbow Dash-esque figure, complete with the same magenta eyes and the same mane shape and pattern, which, instead of being colored like a rainbow, was several shades of gray. She's more like a palette swap than an original character- she even shared some of Rainbow's personality traits, if not all of them.

"So you know what to expect now?" Twilight asked me.

"Traps will be everywhere, villains will try to foil us with said traps, and are unlikely to actually fight us. Most obstacles will be the traps, puzzles, or riddles. We're probably going to be looking for an artifact of great power, value or both, and the villain will either be its guard or vying for it as well. That's how it goes, right?"

"Very good! And you're sure you've never read any of these books?"

"Yeah, and I haven't seen many Indiana Jones movies either. In human culture, things like this are all over popular media. Pretty much any human with some knowledge of popular fiction knows how these treasure-hunt stories are. Do we know any recurring villains I should be aware of? They have a tendency to reappear during every other adventure, that is, if they survive."

"Just Ahuitzotl, but he's always foiled in the end." Twilight showed me a book cover featuring the quadrupedal blue villain.

"Okay, now that we're all ready, we can go, right?"

"Yeah! We can! Zach, open the portal!" Rainbow was bouncing with excitement. I complied, and we stepped in.

"What- who are you?!" I heard Twilight ask. A quick glance revealed that it wasn't my companion Twilight, it was this universe's Twilight. She bounded up to our team's Twilight as she asked her questions. Of course, we were still in Twilight's library. "Are you me from the future? Hi Rainbow, are you from the future too? Who and what is that?"

"No, this isn't time travel, Twilight. This Rainbow Dash and I are from another universe, and this is Zach, from yet another universe," Twilight explained.

"Trans-universal travel is possible? How? How did you do it?" This Twilight wasn't going to let up on the questions for a while.

"Discord's magic allows me to travel between universes at will," I answered, "I'm a human, not from this universe. We're here to find Daring Do, do you know where she might be?"

"Daring Do? She came by here just a few hours ago. She checked out a book on ancient ruins situated deep in the Everfree Forest. Last I heard she was on her way to Time Piece's house. Why do you ask?"

"We want to meet her!" Rainbow said.

"What's different about the universe you're from, Twilight?" The identical unicorn mare asked the other.

"Well, not much, except that Daring Do doesn't actually exist, and is instead a fictional character." Hearing two Twilight Sparkles exchanging words was an interesting sight.

"Really? That's it? You can't tell me any more? How did Zach get to your universe, and what made Discord give him these powers?"

"I fell through a hole in my universe, ending up in Equestria. Twilight here found out that I was instrumental in saving the universe, and, well, we succeeded, but other people from my universe were sent by Discord into other universes and he gave me the power to save them, kind of like a scavenger hunt, it's complicated," I explained.

"That sounds exactly like something Discord would do. Is one of your kind trapped here?"

"No, we're waiting for word on where they might be. Rainbow Dash and Twilight want to meet Daring, and since I'm the only one who can summon trans-universal portals, here we are."

"Is that safe?" The local Twilight was concerned.

"Of course, Luna said so." She was relieved by this.

"What can you tell me about your universe?"

"Well, in my universe, the entirety of Equestria is completely made up. Humans- that's what I am- are the only sentient being, and there is no magic of any kind. Pretty much everything is different, it'd be hard to explain it all," I explained.

"Twilight, I'm sure Zach would love to answer all of your questions, but we've got to get going," our Twilight said, cutting off the curious unicorn before she could say any more. We exited the library then, leaving a rather confused Twilight Sparkle behind.

"I wonder what's going through her mind right now," I said, chuckling.

"She probably thinks she's completely lost it. I mean, when a future version of myself ended up in my library-" Twilight began.

"I know that story," I interrupted.

"Zach, what don't you know about us? It's kind of creepy that you watch what we do through some gadget," Rainbow asked.

"Well, I only know the major events of your lives since Twilight moved to Ponyville from Canterlot. For example, I don't know anything about your family or Fluttershy's, and I don't know much about any area of Equestria outside of Apploosa, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, or Ponyville."

"What do you know of my family?" Twilight asked.

"You've got a brother, Shining Armor, recently married to Princess Cadance, and I've seen your parents before. Otherwise, pretty much nothing."

"Hmm."

"Let's get to Time Piece's house, he might know where Daring is," I directed.

"I know where he lives. This way!" Rainbow led the way.

If everything went well, Daring would still be there, and not going on some adventure the ponies would insist on going with her on, and we could just sit there and chat for a little while, and be home before sunset. Though, if Daring was borrowing a book from Twilight, and visiting a historian, there was probably something in the Everfree Forest she wanted, and was sure to launch an expedition to get to. It seemed to me like another adventure was imminent.

Chapter Eleven: Dare to Do With Daring Do

"I wonder where this universe's Rainbow Dash is," I wondered aloud. Twilight looked up at the sky.

"Well, seeing as how the clouds have been arranged for the scheduled rain tomorrow, I think that Rainbow Dash is either hanging out with her friends or at home," she answered.

"In other words, probably off being awesome somewhere," Rainbow added, "I wonder which one of us is faster."

"Rainbow, this universe's Rainbow Dash is exactly like you, probably," I said.

We approached the historian's home, and knocked on the door. The brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark opened the door.

"Hello. What brings you to my home?" He stared at me for a moment. "Who might you be?"

"No, Time Piece. We're here to see Daring Do. This is Zach, he's from a very distant land," Twilight explained, covering my true identity. I had to remember to thank her for that later. If Time Piece knew where I was actually from, he'd have countless questions, like the other Twilight did.

"Hello," I said, pleasantly.

"Pleased to meet you. Is Daring expecting you?" Time Piece questioned.

"No, but we're only here to talk to her," I explained.

"Come on in, make yourself at home."

The interior of his house had many bookshelves, and several display cases showing several obviously ancient and historically-relevant artifacts. He led us to the study, where the treasure hunter could be seen, reading a thick book.

"Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh!" Rainbow sped toward the pegasus, who stood up. Twilight facehoofed.

The pair stared at each other for a moment. Rainbow with an expression of great excitement, and Daring with a surprised look which soon faded to a small smile.

"Hello, Daring, please excuse my friend, she was looking forward to meeting you," Twilight said, courteously.

"I can see that. Hey, Twilight, looking for your book so soon? Who's the other guy?" Daring asked, casually.

"I'll just leave you four here. I must ask you not to make a mess, though." Time Piece left the room, off to tend to his own buisness.

"It isn't about the book, Daring. You see, I'm not the same Twilight Sparkle you borrowed the book from, I'm from a different universe, and this is Zach. He's from another universe too," Twilight explained, rather non-chalantly. She was keeping her cool to get a good impression on the pegasus.

"That's preposterous! There are no other universes, that's filly-foolery!" Daring laughed. "Seriously, though, why are you here?"

"She's dead serious. Do I have to demonstrate?" I said.

"No, no, save your silly magic. Tell me, though, even if you are from a different universe, why are you here?"

"We wanted to meet you, of course! You're just so... awesome!" Rainbow explained.

"And... if you wish, assist you with any quest you are undertaking," Twilight added, with a smile. She wanted to go on an adventure with the one and only Daring Do, despite the dangers involved. I sighed.

"You sure? You three don't look like the most adventurous, except for you, Rainbow Dash, is it? I've heard of you, you're that pegasus that saved the Wonderbolts and that unicorn from falling. You're good! No offense, Twilight and Zach, but I think you two should sit out on this one, it's a particularly tricky one, but no match for my abilities," Daring said, with pride. She was really similar to Rainbow Dash, with the same overconfidence that was sometimes justified, and the same brave look in her eyes.

"Yes! Wait, what? You don't think Twilight can do it? If any unicorn is qualified, it's Twilight. She can teleport, move stuff, she can do almost anything with her magic!" Rainbow said, successfully convincing the palette-swapped pegasus.

"All right, Twilight, you can come. Zach..." she looked me over, "you clearly are not an adventurer, it's far too dangerous for you."

"Zach's saved the entire universe! He can handle an adventure, I'm sure of it," Twilight said. Darn. As much as I would never want to leave the ponies in a dangerous situation in another universe without me, going into an undoubtedly dangerous dungeon full of traps and maybe monsters of some sort wasn't my cup of tea, not at all. In fact, it might've been more fitting for me to just sit around doing nothing, instead of all of this aventuring we'd been doing. On the other hand, I was, like many of my generation, pretty much a slave to my technology, and doing something other than going on interesting adventures like these, and hanging out in this pre-industrial world, would probably get boring really quickly. So I decided; if Twilight and company were going, I was too.

If motivated by a cause, like rescuing a lost person in a different universe, I was completely willing to go on these adventures. A cause is a powerful thing, and fun is lost in the equation when such a powerful cause as saving lives or universes- in my case, both- motivates you to accomplish a goal. Despite what I'd been told, these adventures didn't make me any more worthy of appreciation. Anything I'd done, another person could have with ease. True, I was the only one of our group with knowledge of Fallout, but any major gamer could fulfill my role in that case. In battle, Twilight and Rainbow usually dished out the blows, and when, as had been happening an annoyingly large amount, I had to fight the two, I only emerged alive and victorious because of a powerful weapon to use, and even then I got the tar beaten out of me. I'm still not a hero, I'm just the kid with universe portal powers.

"What? The universe has never been in danger, Twilight, you, of all ponies, should know that!" Daring laughed.

"I'm serious! Zach can open a portal to our Equestria if you want to ask somepony there."

"Well, it looks like if one of us is going, we're all going. It's your call, Daring. Can we come, or not?" I said, flatly, silently half-hoping that she'd just refuse us and send us packing. She brought her hoof to her chin.

"Hmm, do you even know what we're going to go look for?" Daring looked at each of us. I shrugged. "Okay, I'll tell you. The artifact we're going to find is in an ancient griffon temple hidden deep in the Everfree Forest. Of course, since it's still known to be hidden, nopony's found it yet. I, however, have this book." Daring gestured toward her borrowed book.

"Ruins in the Everfree? I've heard of some of those before," Twilight said before Daring could continue.

"This book can tell us exactly where to look in the forest for the temple, it'll help us a lot. Now, for the artifact. It's an ancient, stupidly-rare gem that is said to be able to control- get this- time. Time Piece, for some reason, is more interested in the ruins themselves, and has promised to let me keep the gem if I explore the ruin for him. It seemed like a good idea to me. I don't want the gem, really, but there's an adventure to be had! The ruin is called Temporal Temple, a fitting name," Daring continued. Even if she shared Dash's brashness and courage, she was smarter than she looked.

"Temporal Temple? I know exactly where it is! In our universe it's a known archeological site. I've been there once, but it's been abandoned, and the path would be swallowed up by now," Twilight said.

"You know where it is?! Great! There's no time to lose, let's go!" Daring collected her saddlebags, the book, and her other equipment and bolted for the door. We followed promptly.

"What? Leaving already? Uh, be careful out there, be safe!" Time Piece called as we left.

Daring had decided to run there, and the ponies kept pace with her for a while until they realized I was too slow to keep up. They slowed to a walk, and I caught up.

"I can't believe I'm going on an adventure with the one and only Daring Do!" I heard Rainbow say. Daring chuckled.

"There's no rush, you know, the Everfree isn't very far," I said, somewhat annoyed.

"But the sun sets soon, don't you know what comes out at night in the Everfree Forest?" Daring reminded me.

"Manticores and cockatrices," I replied, flatly.

"And you aren't worried about them?"

I put my backpack on the ground, opened one of the pockets, and pulled the components of my laser rifle from it, and the three microfusion cells I had left.

"No," I said, putting together the rifle. "And besides, Twilight and Rainbow could both take on one of those alone."

"What is that?" Daring asked, pointing a hoof at the piece of human technology.

"A laser rifle. It fires beams of focused light out of one end. This is another one of the reasons I'm not afraid of cockatrices or manticores."

"Yeah, I'm not afraid of them either, they're light fare compared to what I've faced down. Come on!"

The forest was near now. I thought about why the temple might have remained un-found by other ponies in this universe, but not in the other.

"Wait, let's go into the temple from the other universe, I think it'll be safer," I said.

"Why do you think that?" Daring asked.

"Because, in this universe, temples and the like are always hard to find and dangerous to explore. In the other Equestria, though, this 'Temporal Temple' is just an archeological site. I'm also assuming the Everfree is safer in the other universe as well."

"Zach's got a point, there. In Rainbow and I's universe, your adventures appear as stories, and actual ruins are far more tame, but don't contain legendary treasure nearly as often," Twilight said.

"All right, let's go. This is safe, right?"

"Of course." I opened the portal, and the three ponies and I stepped in.

There was an identical scene before us as we came through the portal.

"Okay, let's get going," I said, as Daring looked around.

"Nothing looks any different," she said.

"Of course not, the only real differences between your universe and this one are that you're real in that one and you're not in this one, and that there are fewer monster-infested, trap-ridden ruins," I explained.

"Wow. So you can move between universes."

"Why would I lie?"

The group continued onward, into the Everfree Forest as the sun began to set.

Chapter Twelve: Unsafe Delve

The somewhat-overgrown trail ahead and around us was lit by Twilight's horn and my flashlight. Being in a dark forest at night was unsettling to me, even with light. I'd done it once or twice before. A chill ran down my spine as the eerie feeling sunk in ever deeper. It was almost completely silent, and nobody, pony or otherwise, made noise. All that could be heard was the rustling of long vegetation as we pushed it aside, punctuated by the hushed noises of distant crickets, and the occasional owl's cry. Even with our light sources, the scene was dim and gloomy. This was, after all, the Everfree Forest, the dimmest, gloomiest place to my knowledge in all of Equestria. This silence continued for what seemed like hours; we were all alert, and all of our attention was to the trail and its surroundings, should anything that could be a threat come along. Daring in particular was highly vigilant, watching each and every step, tree, vine, bush, anything. I just kept scanning the area ahead of us with my flashlight, laser rifle in one hand, letting it rest on my shoulder.

Twilight's directions were correct, and we soon happened upon the archeological site of Temporal Temple. Overgrown by now, the exterior of the site was thoroughly examined before anyone spoke.

"This must be the place! Zach, open the portal!" Daring urged. I took this opportunity to present my point of this being more dangerous of an adventure than was required. I was scared, admittedly. I didn't want to allow my friends to enter harm's way just for fun.

"Now, in my opinion, this temple-delving expedition is far too dangerous to go on, and I urge that we turn back now and not run the risk of one or more of us getting-"

"Come on, Zach! This'll be fun! There's four of us and only one temple, how bad can it be?" Rainbow interrupted. I sighed.

"It can be lethal, that's how bad it can be," I said.

"Don't be a silly filly! Nopony's dying on this expedition. Nopony has, and nopony ever will, or my name isn't Daring Do!" It had been clear from the start that I couldn't stop my two teammates from doing this, but it never hurt to try.

"Daring is right, you know. In the books, all of her companions walk away from the adventure alive and well, and as you said, this will be just like the books," Twilight reasoned. Well, she had me there. In this situation, I wasn't the leader of the group, I was really just tagging along for Twilight and Rainbow's fantastical journey in Daring Do-land, and Twilight knew this universe perhaps more than Daring herself. There was no chance to dissuade them now.

"Fine," I said with some distaste, "let's go."

I opened the portal, and placed my flashlight in my pocket, readying my laser rifle in case something was waiting on the other side. On the other side of the portal was a drastically different scene when compared to the one I just left. There was absolutely no noise, and the whole area was surrounded in a faintly-visible spherical yellow shield, only visible because of the pinkish-white light Twilight generated, centered on the temple. Through the shield, it could be seen that corpses of many creatures- ponies included- dotted the perimeter of the sphere. Some sort of freezing barrier that was difficult to see? That would explain the lack of successful expeditions. The creatures looked like they were petrified upon attempting to breach the barrier, the expressions on their faces betraying varying degrees of excitement. It was truly a creepy sight.

"I guess that's why nopony's ever reported to have found this place... how awful," Daring said. Twilight and Rainbow's mouths were open in surprise. They hadn't been expecting this place to be cursed with an instant-death trap because of which ponies had lost their lives- at least, they looked like they were dead.

"Well, at least we're on the inside of that shield," I said.

"I don't know of any sort of magic that can just do such a thing to a pony..." Twilight said, mortified.

"...And the fact that we're inside it allows us to go in," Rainbow finished. Our attention turned to the temple itself. This one was less boring-looking than the ruin on the other side of the portal. It looked almost brand-new, as though it were left undisturbed by time since the day it was built.

"Well, that's quite the ruin," Daring remarked. I couldn't disagree with her; statues of some impressive griffon adorned the entryway, and the structure itself was ornate, with carved pillars and all sorts of other features associated with old ceremonial buildings.

"I wonder why it was built," I said.

"To hold the time gem, probably. It is called 'Temporal Temple', after all," Twilight said.

"Right, let's head in!" Rainbow flew into the open entrance, and we followed quickly.

Shining my flashlight down the corridor leading from the entrance of the temple, and saw that it had tiled flooring, each tile a different color than the one next to it.

"Hold up," Daring said. I knew why. Color-coded traps were not uncommon. I shone my light on the walls and ceiling. Nothing.

"Alright, let's move."

The entryway led to a larger chamber, mostly empty. In the center, upon a pedestal, was a glowing blue object, surrounded by a fainter blue field of what I presumed to be the same type as the one surrounding the place. Closer examinations revealed burned-out candles, books, and other objects, all of them looking rather recent, having collected almost no dust. Either someone had been here recently, or time was just not the same here as it was in other places. The structure had to be ancient, like it had appeared in the other Equestria, but this temple had the look of something completely new. No dust covered any surface, unlit torches lined the walls, there was even a skylight above the pedestal that was perfectly intact.

"Look at that!" Rainbow was excited at the sight of what could easily be the 'time gem' we were seeking.

"Hold on a second. Something isn't right." Daring approached the pedestal, taking care not to touch the blue field. She stared at the glowing object for a few moments.

"A fake. This can't be the real deal if there is one. It looks like a simple magical light enchantment on a pretty blue stone, surrounded in the same time-field or whatever we saw outside. A foal's trap," Daring declared.

"If everything that tried to get in here didn't make it inside, then what is powering this magic? The field out there must have a powerful source, and this field is different, meaning it has a different source..." Twilight trailed off. This magic was blue in hue. What used magic of a blue hue? What was powering the yellow field outside? Those were things we'd just have to find out. We spread out to search the chamber. I examined one of the books. 'Ancient Ruins of the Everfree', it was entitled. It was the exact same book we had brought with us.

"Did you drop this book, Twilight?" I asked. Twilight produced our copy from her saddlebags. She looked at me, confused.

"I don't think we're alone here," I said. A rumbling shook the chamber. We looked around, trying to see what was going on.

"Hey! I found something!" Daring called from across the room. We all came to her position, and found that a spiral staircase had opened up through a stone trapdoor.

"How did you find that?" I asked.

"There was a switch," Daring answered, non-chalantly. Sure enough, on the side of one of the pillars facing away from the pedestal, was a lever.

"Let's get going, shall we?" I said. Now, this was intriguing. Someone was in here, and something had put up a barrier strong enough to stop the poor creatures in their tracks outside, and another thing was powering the field surrounding the object in the chamber. I didn't like it, but now I was interested, and driven to get to the bottom of this.

Chapter Thirteen: Challenges

The winding staircase terminated in a small room, a narrow corridor leading out from it. What caught my attention most, however, was a pair of torches mounted on the wall. They were lit.

"Yeah, we're definitely not quite alone here."

"But how did they get in? That barrier outside would have kept them out, too," Twilight said.

"We don't know that, there are some clever ponies out there," Daring added, taking a look around the room.

"Whoever they are, we're more than a match for em', I'm sure of it," Rainbow said.

"But we don't even know if they mean us any harm, do we? Let's get moving." Twilight illuminated the corridor ahead, which was unlit, and led the way, minding where she stepped. The group moved in single file, similarly minding their surroundings. We were led to a large chamber with a great chasm running through it. A drawbridge was clearly visible from the other side.

"A retractable bridge? Hah! I'll go extend it," Daring volunteered, and took flight. When she was about halfway across the chasm, round boulders began to fall from above, leaving the pegasus dodging a barrage of massive rocks, and she quickly retreated to our side of the bridge. The rockfall stopped, and the echoes of the rocks striking each other as they fell continued for about ten seconds. It was an awfully deep chasm.

"That isn't going to work," Daring said, already frustrated.

"How did the rockfall trap detect you?" I asked.

"It was magical, I'm sure of it. Detecting ponies is an easy spell," Twilight explained, "I'll try to teleport us across."

With a flash, the ponies were gone, and had reappeared on the other side. I felt a tingling as the spell fizzled when used on me.

"Hold on, we'll extend the bridge!" Rainbow called over, and proceeded to a wheel on the wall, and attempted to turn it. "It's stuck!" Daring helped her give it a push, and eventually, the bridge dropped. I joined the ponies on the other side.

"Easy-peasy!" Daring exclaimed, pleased.

There was a lit torch here, too. Whoever was here with us could teleport, which fell in line with the blue-hued magic surrounding the gem Daring claimed to be the fake. There was a magic-user down here with us. Something caught my attention. Daring was looking at a tablet on the wall, inscribed with ancient-looking hieroglyphs, or something of the sort.

"What's that, Daring? Can you read it?"

"I think it says we've passed the first challenge," she replied, "I think this is some sort of test, but what for? The time gem, perhaps?"

"We'll find out soon, I'm sure," Twilight said.

"Let's get going!" Our resident cyan pegasus wasn't interested in talk, not right now, anyway.

The next corridor led to another lit chamber, and another chasm which, again, had a platform. Floating over this chasm, however, were many rocks of different shapes and sizes, slowly orbiting one another.

"What's with the rocks?" Rainbow asked, and flew over to one, nudging it. It bobbed slightly.

"I don't know," Twilight's horn glowed, and a pinkish-white glow enveloped a rock. She focussed, moving the rock slowly to the base of the platform, and upon releasing it, it stayed in place. "Huh." She tried to teleport, but it fizzled, this time not working for any of us. "Can't teleport, either."

"Oh, I get it!" Daring began pushing one of the rocks down, placing it next to the one Twilight moved. Rainbow caught on as well, and before long a bridge had been constructed of the floating rocks. We crossed, and examined another tablet.

"One challenge left, it says. I wonder what that could be?" Daring turned to Twilight, "did this place even have any of these chambers and tunnels in your world?"

"No, none that we've found."

"Enough with the chit-chat! Let's go do that last challenge!"

"Rainbow..." I paused. "Calm down. We're in no rush here, and rushing through this could get someone hurt. Get it?"

"He's right, you know. I used to be uppity and excited on my adventures, too, but a few careless mistakes later, I learned to take it slow," Daring said.

"Uh, sure, whatever. Let's go."

The third chamber was bigger than the previous two, and nothing at all could be seen on the other side of the chasm, just a rock wall.

"This one looks like a doozy!" Daring exclaimed, her words echoing through the empty chamber. "Zach, give me your flashlight thingy, I'm going to look through the chasm."

I turned on my flashlight, and Daring took it in her mouth. She flew off into the chasm. Rainbow took off after her. Twilight produced a magical ball of light, and sent it down into the chasm below. Something occurred to me.

"What if whatever we're looking for is up, not down?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Send a light ball up there."

Twilight complied, and, for several seconds, a mirror-like surface could be seen. I took aim at it with my laser rifle.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No. Hey, Daring, Rainbow Dash! Get back here!" I called. The two pegasi came back almost immediately.

"Nothin'."

"Not a thing."

The two sounded almost completely identical. It was weird. I fired at the spot. The beam got reflected, and the visible red beam struck many different mirrors on the wall, the beam being reflected to a place out of sight. A bridge faded into view, as did a platform on the far wall.

"I didn't think that would work," I admitted, and we crossed the chasm.

"How did you figure that out?" Rainbow asked.

"Just a hunch. Daring, what does this tablet say?"

"It says to proceed to be granted your reward," she replied.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Rainbow led the way through to the presumably-final chamber. In the middle of it sat a pedestal. This chamber looked a lot like the main one from upstairs.

"Who's there?!" I heard a familiar voice shout from an undiscernable location. Who was that?

"Daring Do, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Zach," Daring called back.

"Twilight Sparkle? What is Twilight Sparkle doing here?" A blue unicorn appeared from the shadows. Trixie.

"Trixie? I'd ask you the same thing," the lavender unicorn replied.

"I asked you first. Why have you followed the Great and Powerful Trixie here?"

"We didn't even know you were here, Trixie, and stop it with the 'Great and Powerful' thing, we all know who you really are," I said, sternly.

"I don't, who is she?" Of course, Daring had no idea what was going on.

"She's a magician that travelled to Ponyville some time ago, claiming great feats of magic, among them the defeat of an ursa major by her efforts. When some fans of hers lured an ursa minor to town, Trixie was unable to stop it, and ran away. Twilight saved the day, though," I explained. Trixie's face grew red with rage and embarrassment.

"I'm not the foal that you bested last time! This time I am truly the Great and Powerful Trixie! Just you watch!" Trixie faded from view, and reappeared behind us with a flash, blocking our way out. "This time, it's a duel."

"Trixie, I don't want to-"

"Be quiet! We'll settle this once and for all, you and me." Trixie's horn charged, and Twilight's did as well. I pointed my laser rifle at Trixie.

"Trixie, there's nothing to settle, nothing to fight about. You ran away in the face of danger. Sure, it was after some grand boast, but almost any pony would run at such a sight. I know I would. There's no need to fight over anything, quit this nonsense, you don't want to start what you can't finish," I reasoned, in the most authoritive voice I could muster. Trixie stood down, as did Twilight and I.

"Good, now, why were you protecting the gem at the entrance of the building?" I interrogated.

"Just in case some ponies like you came along and decided to take it. I decided to look further after entering myself because it didn't do anything when I tried to use it, but..." Trixie trailed off. She had calmed down now, and was less angry and more sad, for some reason.

"What?"

"The real one's a dud, too. It doesn't even do anything. Here, have it, it doesn't matter to me anymore," Trixie said, sullenly. She produced a small blue stone from her saddlebag, dropping it to the ground in front of us. As far as I could tell, it was a simple blue gemstone, probably not of too much value in this mineral-rich land.

"How long have you been down here?" I asked.

"A few days..."

"Days? Without food or water?"

"Yes. Time doesn't seem to pass here like it does everywhere else. So I decided I'd stay here for a while, try to find something of value here. I haven't even had to sleep since I came here."

"Why would you spend so much time in this place? And, more importantly, how did you get in?" Twilight asked.

"I learned to reflect magic. None of the other ponies that have tried to come through here tried that, and got frozen by the barrier. Why did I stay here, Twilight Sparkle? Why? Because I promised the entire town of Hoofington I'd find it, and I was sure I could do it. I'm tired of failure."

"Hold on a second, how is that time barrier functioning if this gem doesn't even do anything?" Daring asked, changing the subject.

"Maybe it does do something. Are there any tablets with odd writing on them in here, Trixie?" I asked.

"Yeah, over there." She pointed a hoof at the pedestal. We examined it, finding a small indent where the stone had sat, and .

"Place your... Oh! The blue gem is a key, and this is a key slot! The temple itself is the field's generator, and this gem is just the key and controller!"

"What? Really?" Trixie was surprised. "What should I say to-"

"Nothing, don't say anything, just forget about Hoofington," I said, "this time field is far too dangerous for anyone to have access to. We should destroy the gem," I said. Trixie looked at me incredulously.

"Zach's right. Did you see those ponies out there? This whole thing could be a weapon, for all we know," Twilight said.

"Hey, can you turn off the barrier?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes, it says you can. Just turn the keystone in its slot," Daring replied.

I placed the blue gem in its slot, and twisted it.

"There." I placed it on the ground, and fired at it with my laser rifle, warping it into a useless shape.

"Well, Time Piece will be happy to know what we've found here," Daring said, "let's get out of here."

"Are you coming, Trixie?" Twilight asked. She looked surprised at the invitation.

"Yes, let's leave."

We trekked through the chambers of challenges and started on our way up the stairs. I wondered what the true purpose of this place was, if time had different effects on those inside it. Whatever it was, it was history now.

Chapter Fourteen: Back To The Buisness At Hand

Ascending from the depths of the temple, we heard some noise from above, as though something else was inside the building. Sure enough, when we got to the surface chamber, a number of treasure hunters were in the room. Some were bickering, a few were even fighting, and all of them were confused to some degree about who found this place first, why so many ponies were there, and such. I recognized these ponies. They had been the ones trapped in the time barrier.

"They're alive!" exclaimed Twilight.

"Yeah! They are!" Daring exclaimed, similarly.

"Wow, that was awesome! It was so awesome going on an adventure with you, Daring Do!" Rainbow's excitement and pride had caught up with her. "I can't believe I helped Daring Do!" The palette-swapped pegasus chuckled at the other pegasus' excitement.

"Yes, yes, you helped Daring Do. Can we leave this place now?" Trixie was impatient, and probably sick of this place. After all, one does not stay in one little place for so long without contracting even a mild form of cabin fever.

"Yes, perhaps we should. It's going to get awfully busy around here soon," I said. I was ready to go. Twilight and Rainbow had their fun, and our actual task might be achievable now that Luna had been given some time to search. Yet a bit more pressing was that it was the middle of the night and I hadn't returned home yet.

"Alright, then let's go," Daring instructed.

We managed to slip by the crowds, and back into 'regular' Equestria so we could traverse the forest safely.

"Daring, are you interested in coming with us on our journeys? I know we could use you," Twilight offered. I was, however, against the idea. Having a team of individuals from three separate universes could get complicated, and Daring was one of the more iconic ponies to surround ourselves with should we venture into another Equestria-based universe, and could draw a ton of attention. That, and Rainbow Dash was nearly identical to the pony. They would eventually start competing, and, knowing Rainbow's nature, that could end badly. I always liked having control over a situation, and I thought incorporating both ponies into the same team for any significant period of time would disrupt what control I had over the team. Then it occurred to me; there was no team leader.

"You three sure helped me out a lot, it would've taken me much longer to go through that by myself... I'll have to think about it," the pegasus replied.

"Oh, please-please-please come with us!" Rainbow floated in front of the treasure hunter, making sure she was paying attention to her pleas. From the look on her face, she was getting a little bit annoyed, but still found the other pegasus' disposition amusing.

"I don't think you should come with us, really. I'm just not sure this type of adventure is cut out for you," I said.

"What do you mean, Zach?" Twilight inquired. Of course, I didn't really have a solid point to push, but I couldn't really tell them that two Rainbow Dashes was too many, could I?

"Uh, we're not going to be doing much treasure hunting, we're just going to these universes to save people. You might find it boring."

"Boring? Not a chance! The last universe we went to wasn't boring at all! Sure it was dangerous and not that fun, but it was definitely not boring!" Rainbow had a point, and my counter-point was far weaker.

"But not all human universes are like that, for example, this one, as we see it, came from humans just as Fallout did. We could be going anywhere, and there are pretty boring universes out there to go to."

"It seems clear that Zach doesn't want you around, Daring," Trixie observed.

"Yeah, I think she's right everypony, Zach doesn't want me around. Why is that, Zach?" Daring asked, confused somewhat.

"Well, you're just like Rainbow Dash in so many ways, and I'm afraid you'd compete and that you'd get us in danger, or something. No offense to either of you, of course. I do like you both as individuals." So I spilled the beans. The group had stopped by then on the overgrown trail as the conversation occupied our minds.

"Why are you so worried? This is a serious matter, saving your fellow humans. We don't have time to occupy ourselves with such petty things as competition," Twilight said. That set me off.

"We have the time to occupy ourselves with a fantastical adventure with a fictional treasure hunter, don't we?! Who, exactly, leads this team, anyway?" I was getting angry. I didn't get angry much, but when my sense of control was threatened, I tended to have a short fuse.

"Hey! Standing right here!" Daring said, annoyed. I ignored her.

"Uh, I don't really know, it seems to depend on where we are, doesn't it?" Twilight answered, with some uncertainty.

"In fact, why are you helping me, anyway? You don't have to do that! I didn't ask for your company, Luna assigned you to go with me. I couldn't have done this alone, I admit this readily, but I don't like being in charge of anybody in any way, or bringing them into dangerous situations because they wanted to help me, not at all! I just don't want any one of you to get hurt, and I especially don't want any of you to die! I almost got you, Spike and Rainbow Dash killed by my stupid plan to infiltrate The Master's base! I've gotten an idea of what danger feels like, and I don't like the feeling, not one bit! That's why I don't want Daring to come with us; I don't want one of us to die because of some stupid plan or competition! And no matter what, It'd be my fault!" I burst, laying my feelings bare.

"But your plan worked, Zach, and that entire world is a little bit safer now because of what we did there that day! Remember what you said about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few? That human, lost out there in some universe somewhere, needs our help, and the people of that universe might, too! We're helping you because you helped us, not to mention that you're our friend, in fact, this entire universe owes their very existence to you, Zach! I've led the Elements of Harmony through hardships before, and I know how you feel, and from that I know that you can't let this stop you from achieving your goals," Twilight said, in her lecturing tone. The unicorn's words were very reassuring, and made a lot of sense, like everything else she'd said.

"You're... Absolutely right, Twilight, I can't let that get in the way. But I must insist. Daring, Trixie, you should go back to your universe, that's where you belong. There are plenty of tombs and temples still waiting for you to explore them, Daring, and Trixie, you're good enough to traverse that entire temple by yourself. You two would make a great team," I said.

"Yeah, you're really quite good, aren't you, Trixie? I think that's a good idea, maybe you can restore your reputation!" Daring turned to the blue unicorn.

"Yes, I do believe I could. Very well, the former Great and Powerful Trixie, and the great explorer, Daring Do, shall work together," she said. I nodded in agreement.

"Good, now that this is settled, let's get out of this forest, I'm tired."

"I agree. I'm beat!" Rainbow Dash agreed.

*****

We exited the forest some time later. I checked my watch, finding it to be 1:00 AM.

"Well, I think it's time for us to part ways for now," I said, and opened the portal for Trixie and Daring.

"Thanks for your help, Zach, good luck!" Daring and Trixie left this universe, leaving Twilight, Rainbow and I.

"Well, that was fun! Thanks for taking us there, Zach!" Rainbow seemed to forget all about not having Daring on the team.

"It certainly was thrilling," Twilight said, "I'll write Luna straight away about any progress."

"I'll see you both tomorrow, then, about four o'clock?" I thought of home, to summon my portal.

"You bet! See you then, Zach," Rainbow said, and they started on their way to their respective homes. I opened the portal, then turned around, to face Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight!" I called to her. She turned around. "Thank you."

*****

My parents were asleep when I returned home. I grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed, as discreetly as possible. It was time to get back to the buisness at hand, which was, for the moment, getting to school tomorrow morning.

End of part II

Part III: Chapter Fifteen: Monsters In Pockets (Pokémon) (Part II Summary)

Summary, Part II

Luna's team working to locate those lost in the multiverse has not found out where the last human is trapped, and the Trans-Universal Recovery Team is given some spare time. At the ponies' insistance, they go to the Daring Do universe, where they find Daring herself, and she becomes part of the team for that portion of the adventure. Daring is on a treasure hunt, hired by Time Piece, the historian, to examine an ancient ruin known as the Temporal Temple located deep in the Everfree Forest, which is found to be defended by magical energies. These energies are surmounted with Zach's universal travel power, and they enter the temple to explore it. They discover a hidden staircase leading to a series of challenges, which require the use of all of their skills to surmount. They succeed, and find what they're looking for, an object aptly named 'time gem', which controls the magical field surrounding the temple, a potential weapon. Also found there is Trixie, who agrees to leave the temple with them. On the way back through the Everfree Forest, the team gets into an argument about whether or not Daring should be incorporated into the team. Zach doesn't like this idea, fearing that Daring and Rainbow would compete, and he lays bare, for all to see, his grievances of leading the team, and the burdens of keeping them all safe, haunted by the near-failure of his plan to destroy The Master. Zach instead suggests that Trixie and Daring team up, and the team goes their separate ways for the time being, and Zach goes home, Twilight contacting Princess Luna for any new information.

Part III: Chapter Fifteen: Monsters In Pockets

My parents told me to try to stop leaving the universe so often and for so long. I was needed at home to keep up on my chores. Their gripes were justified; I hadn't told them a word about the team and its goals, and they hadn't taken notice of my laser rifle or combat armor, both of which remained stowed under my bed when not in use. I didn't think I'd ever use that combat armor again, but that laser rifle had been very useful, I'd continue to keep that with me on my adventures. So my parents didn't know I'd been going to dangerous universes almost daily for the last few days, and they didn't know I had a futuristic weapon under my bed. I decided I didn't want to tell them; what they didn't know couldn't hurt them, in this case, even if they knew they couldn't help me if I were in danger anyway. For all they knew, I was just hanging out with the ponies. My excuse for returning in the small hours of the morning was that Pinkie Pie held a party and insisted that I stay. My excuse for being away for a few days to kill The Master? I'd been meeting with Celestia in Canterlot, to swap information. They bought it, having read up on the characters I was to be hanging out with, and knowing that these were likely enough stories given the nature of said characters. My relationship with my parents was good, and I didn't like lying to them, but I still had a job to do and I decided that I didn't really need to tell them anything about it.

School was as usual. I was tired, really tired, and the school day went by slowly, but it eventually passed, as it had done so hundreds of times before then. At home, I found a letter from Twilight addressed to me sitting on my computer desk, which had been serving as my trans-universal mailbox. It read that Luna had uncovered the second human's location, and would be waiting in the library with her until I arrived. I packed, I left a note, and I went through my transition routine; I left my house, went to the location corresponding to Twilight's library, opened my portal, and through I went.

I was met by a steady downpour of rain, and quickly knocked on the door to the library, pulling up the hood of my fleece sweater. Almost as quickly, it opened, and I stepped in to the pleasantly dry and warm interior of the tree-house-library. Twilight magically closed the door behind me. She and Luna were both standing in the middle of the room. I pulled down my hood.

"Hello," I said, non-chalantly.

"Greetings, Zach, I trust you've been well?" the Princess greeted.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. What's the location this time?" I asked.

"A world of humans and a great many creatures of great ability, physical and magical, in harmony with one another," Luna explained, "as the unicorns describe it." What could this one be? I pondered while Twilight continued.

"Since it appears to be that there are many animals in this universe, I've asked Fluttershy to come with us-" she paused, and we all looked around, "Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy emerged from the kitchen, and slowly joined the others in the center of the room. Why she was afraid to be here for my arrival, I couldn't tell, but the timid pegasus was, for some unfathomable reason, afraid of me.

"There you are," Twilight said, "as far as we can tell, humans in this universe sometimes keep these animals in some sort of capsules-"

"Pokémon! The human's in the Pokémon universe," I interrupted.

"You know of it?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, just like Fallout, it's a series of games in my universe. Also just like Fallout, I've played almost all of them, and know a lot about it," I replied.

"That is good. Please share your knowledge," Luna said.

"Wait, where's Rainbow Dash?" The blue pegasus that was always ready to join Twilight and I for our adventures was nowhere to be seen.

"She was going to be here, but-"

The door opened, and Rainbow came in. The soaked pegasus was panting.

"Sorry I'm late."

"You're just on time. So, I'll explain where we're off to next." I sat down on the floor, and began my spout of specific knowledge.

"The Pokémon universe is a lot like mine, but is far more scarcely populated, with about a thousand residents, give or take, in any one region, for some reason. Their technology and intellectual development is somewhat greater, as well. However, the major differentiation between my universe and this one is that this one is also inhabited by Pokémon, or 'pocket monsters', that get their nickname from a device called a Poké ball, that can be used to capture Pokémon in a harmless manner, though weakening the Pokémon is often required to catch it. Pokémon are often trained to compete against one another for various reasons, in sport and law enforcement, for example. They're often trained to assist humans in performing tasks as well. What makes Pokémon different are their abilities: Each Pokémon has a number of strong abillities that make them formidible combatants, well, most of them, at least. Additionally, all Pokémon can resist a great amount of damage, and are apparently very difficult to kill and heal quickly, or so it seems, and they all have a tendency to faint before taking any amount of damage that would severely injure them, so it's almost unheard-of for a Pokémon to die in a competitive battle, which are usually completely safe." Fluttershy made a noise, and I stopped talking.

"Fluttershy?"

"Umm, so humans make the Pokémon fight each other? Why would they do such a thing?"

"Well, they seem to enjoy it for some unfathomable reason, and since they only rarely recieve threatening injuries, I'd assume it's, well, for fun," I said.

"Is that what the games are about?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, that's what they're all about."

"So, what are these Pokémon things anyway?" Rainbow asked. Just as with Fallout, it was Q&A. A lot of it.

*****

Two hours had passed, and I'd managed to explain in some detail the numerous different regions and the differences between them, each of the player character's adventures in the games, and information on how Pokémon fight, and how trainers would probably try to engage us in battle should we approach them, because the ponies look like Pokémon. I'd also explained the currency, which we had none of, and the typical villain scheme of evil organization that tries to take over the world, the government- or rather, lack thereof- and the very seldom use of firearms, which gave us an advantage in my laser rifle. I'd explained that the universe was completely safe, for the most part, and most Pokémon would be either apathetic or oblivious to our actions, wild or otherwise. As it was, I was pretty excited to go to this universe in particular, and hadn't thought about it before as a possibility. I could get my own Pokémon if I wanted to! I could sell them in my world for millions! On the other hand, as we had been discussing Pokémon catching and the like, I'd developed a distaste for the method, and had decided that I would not bring any Pokémon back with me. It could cause problems, lots of problems, and problems were not my cup of tea. The discussion had been terminated, and Twilight was making last-minute preparations while Spike prepared us a meal. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were talking, the latter giving the former one of her typical speeches on courage. Fluttershy was scared, even though I'd told her that this adventure was going to be our safest one yet, or possibly ever.

"I have heard that you are uncomfortable with guiding these adventures," Luna began. Her larger size was ill-suited to the confines of the library, and she constantly seemed just a little bit too large for the room.

"Twilight told you about that, huh?"

"She thought it was important that it come to my attention. You are afraid of losing a member of your team, and would feel responsible."

"What are you getting at, here? Of course I worry about losing someone, and I wasn't the leader of that expedition, we didn't have a leader for that, really."

"Twilight says you've always been the one who's led the team. What I am getting at is this: Despite what you may feel, the rest of your team looks to you for leadership, and you will continue to provide it."

"I'm comfortable with this one," I said, non-chalantly, "I'm excited this time."

"That's good. Be careful, the team needs you as much as you need them. Good luck." Luna left the building then, and I knew what she meant, both logically and otherwise. They needed me to guide them through this universe, and they needed me to get back to their own world should something happen. Being a key part of something filled me with some dread. If I fell, all would fall around me. On the other hand, nothing in the Pokémon universe was likely to kill me, so I figured it'd all be okay. If anything, we'd have to scare off some grunts of some Team Something-or-Rather, or fend off a legendary rampaging Pokémon, and that's not quite an everyday occurance. We'd be fine.

After dining on some fruits and breads, we decided it was time to go. Spike elected to come with us at the last second, and the team members five entered the portal into the world of Pokémon. Our journey was about to begin.

We were in a forest. I glanced about the area, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. A trail could be seen through the brush, and we all went to it without a word. It'd probably lead us to civilization, which couldn't be far off. I didn't have any idea where, exactly, we were, but it was clear that it would be hard to discern from this location.

"Zach, do you have any idea where we are?" Twilight asked.

"Nope, no idea. Rainbow, can you fly up and check out the view from above?"

"Yeah, sure." She bolted upward. I took another look around. Fluttershy had strayed from the group, and was located near a tree off the side of the trail. I walked over to her.

"What is it?"

"Look!" Fluttershy pointed her hoof at a number of small grey birds perched on the upper branches of a tree. I recognized it to be Pidove. We were in Unova, or so it seemed.

"Those are Pidoves, a smaller species of Pokémon that lives in the Unova region. That must be where we are," I said.

Rainbow came down then.

"Looks like there's a town of some sort to the north, and farther north-west there's a bridge, and even farther there's more cities, including a really big one," Rainbow reported. We were in Unova alright, and this had to be... I couldn't remember this particular place, but this wasn't a video game perspective or an anime perspective, it was real life this time, after all. A lot of things could look different, or be bigger or smaller than they were in the game. Only time would tell. We continued along the trail.

A few minutes of walking later, I heard a rustling in the bushes. I motioned for the party to stop, and approached it, the ponies and Spike clustered behind me. I parted the foliage, revealing a Dustox. The poison-wielding bug-type scattered green spores over all of us as it frantically flew away. I wondered how in the world a Dustox had gotten here as I found myself becoming incredibly drowsy. I fell to the ground, and blacked out.

Chapter Sixteen: I've Never Heard Of Yes Town

Formalities: Pokémon isn't mine, it's property of Game Freak and Nintendo, or something like that.

Chapter Sixteen: I've Never Heard Of Yes Town

I woke up, and opened my eyes. I was laying on a bed. My backpack was near it. I got up, and realized that the sleep powder hadn't completely worn off yet, and I was still drowsy. I shook it off, put on my backpack, and exited the room into what looked to be the main chamber of the house. It was a simple enough dwelling, and nothing seemed too peculiar. Someone had taken me from the woods to here while I was asleep. Where were my friends? I looked out of a window. The sun was beginning to set. A man and a woman were standing outside, talking. Nearby were my companions, all still asleep. I left the house, and my hosts turned their attention to me.

"Hello," I said. I was unsure of what else to say.

"Ah, good, you're awake. Are you a Pokémon trainer, by any chance? Are these yours?" the woman said, pointing to my unconscious companions.

"Uh... I'm not a Pokémon trainer, really-"

"So you're a breeder?"

"No."

"Then what are you, then?"

"Well, these creatures here aren't really Pokémon, and I'm not a trainer. These four are my friends, we're from a... far away land."

"You must be able to tell us something about where you're from. What's your hometown?"

I felt it necessary, completely necessary. I grinned. "Yes Town."

"I've never heard of Yes Town," the man said, exactly repeating the words I'd expected to hear, and scratching his head. I laughed aloud.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, forget about it. Where are we, anyway?"

"The outskirts of Nacrene City, we found you and your friends in Pinwheel Forest. I'm curious, why did you come from somewhere so far away I've never heard of it?"

"We're looking for someone. I'm not quite sure who. All I know is that they appeared somewhere in this region about four weeks ago."

"I don't recall anyone peculiar coming by here, except for you. Someone did, however, recently take the mantle of Champion of the Pokémon League here in Unova, about two weeks ago. I can't remember her name," the old man said.

"Thanks for the information, and for getting us out of that forest. I must ask, though, how did a Dustox get here?"

"Another one of those? That explains why we found you all unconscious. The Poké Transfer lab had an accident almost a year ago, and Pokémon from all over started to appear. But no new ones have appeared in months, though, and you claim they're not Pokémon. What, exactly, are they?"

"Well, these three are ponies, two of them pegasi and one of them a unicorn, and this is a dragon," I said, pointing to each, their names are Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy. The dragon's name is Spike."

"Those are some interesting names. What's yours, youngster?"

"I'm Zach."

"You can call us Mr. and Mrs. Lane. We're both artists by trade," the woman said.

"Thank you again, Mr. and Mrs. Lane, I've got to wake up my friends. Would you mind giving us some privacy?"

They nodded, and went back into their house. I didn't want to cause a fuss over my talking companions. I shook Twilight, then Rainbow. They didn't move, but continued their peaceful sleep. After a few more tries, I pulled on Rainbow's wing. Still nothing. I kicked Twilight lightly. Still nothing. That sleep powder was certainly something. I decided I had to try other measures. I picked up Spike, and shook him about.

"Ahh!" the dragon awoke. I set him down.

"What was that for!?"

"Sorry, you wouldn't wake up. Neither will they," I said, and pointed to the ponies.

"What happened?"

"Sleep powder. Some Pokémon can use it."

"Oh. I know what to do."

Spike belched a small quantity of green flame that narrowly missed the ponies' heads. Immediately, they were all stirring.

"Ponies are sensitive to heat," Spike explained.

"Good one."

"What happened?" Twilight asked. The three ponies got up.

"Yeah, what gives?" Rainbow re-iterated the question.

"Sleep powder, a Pokémon used it as a defense, we scared it. The good news is, we now know where we are," I explained. I glanced about, and saw someone, an older boy, I guessed, with blue hair walking by at a hastened pace, avoiding eye contact with me. Strange.

"Where are we?" Fluttershy asked.

"Nacrene City. West of here is Castelia City, the capital. We might be able to find out more there."

"We should get going before nightfall," Twilight suggested.

"Yes, we should." I turned back to the Lanes' house, and waved before leading the group down the road.

We walked into Pinwheel Forest once more, bound for Skyarrow Bridge. In the encroaching darkness we did not see any Pokémon, but frequently heard bushes and long grass rustling about us. The path itself was clear of the long grasses, and nothing was actually seen until we reached the forest's exit. A person flashed a flashlight at us. It was well after nine o'clock, and, blinded by the light, couldn't tell who our assailant was.

"Hey! Fancy a battle?" a male voice said. Slightly posh, but casual, playful.

"Turn off your light, no need to jump out at me," I said. What was I going to respond with? He thought I was a trainer, and if trainers saw each other, they battled. That's how it was. He turned off his light, and I shined mine at him. It was the blue-haired person from earlier, holding a Poké Ball in his right hand, a flashlight in the other.

"Oh, no, I'm not a trainer, really," I said, almost apologetically.

"Nonsense! You have four Pokémon right there." Twilight stepped forward, and extended a hoof.

"Hello, mister. My name is Twilight Sparkle. We're too busy to battle you, I'm afraid. Perhaps some other time," she said, cordially. The boy shook her hoof, and looked surprised.

"What kind of Pokémon are these? I've never met any that can talk," he asked me.

"They aren't Pokémon, they're ponies."

"Well, actually, I'm a dragon. Still not a Pokémon, though," Spike said.

"I see. Maybe we'll meet again some time. Good luck on whatever it is you were doing," the boy said, obviously disappointed. He walked away, back down the trail into the forest.

"What was with that guy?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know, but, as I said before, trainers always want to battle," I explained, and looked ahead, seeing the bridge. "Let's get going now."

We began walking again. Mere moments passed before a voice called out.

"Halt! In the name of Ghetsis!" Ghetsis? Ghetsis is in prison or something, isn't he? I turned around and flashed my light at them. Four Plasma grunts stood there, including the boy trainer, now clad in the uniform of the criminal organization. What could they want? I took off my backpack and opened one of its pockets, and retrieved my laser rifle, putting it together.

"I'm warning you, I'm armed, and my companions are very powerful," I half-bluffed. I couldn't shoot a person.

"Armed? You hold a mere metal rod! Hand over your Pokémon to the responsible hands of Team Plasma!" the boy's voice said. Obviously, the square silhouette of my AER9 laser rifle didn't give them the indication that it was a ranged weapon. The grunts threw their Poké balls, revealing two Watchogs, a Timburr, and a Woobat. I fired a warning shot into the ground in front of them, scaring the creatures. The laser ignited a small patch of grass. Upon noticing that the blast came from my 'mere metal rod', the grunts began to panic.

"I warned you. I don't want to have to start trying to hit anything, do I? And besides, I have four 'Pokémon'," I said with added air quotes, "and a gun, you do not."

"I told them we should use guns, but no, we just had to be given Pokémon instead!" one of the grunts said. They turned and bolted, their Pokémon followed. I stamped out the grass fire.

"We could've taken them on, anyway!" Rainbow said, "who were those clowns?"

"Team Plasma. They believe that Pokémon should be entirely separated from people, as equals. They thought you were Pokémon, and that I owned you four, or something. They're total hippocrites, of course, and use Pokémon to their own ends. Why the organization still exists, I do not know. A Pokémon trainer pretty much assured their failure and disbandment, as I said before," I explained.

"How awful," Fluttershy said.

"Yeah, they'll be back in greater numbers to try again, that's how it works. Let's get over this bridge now, shall we?"

Skyarrow Bridge was one of Unova's great bridges, and was truly rather impressive. Both Fluttershy and Twilight remarked on the bridge's extravagance as we went across it. I didn't say anything, though. I was busy wondering why Team Plasma had returned, and what their plan was this time.

Chapter Seventeen: The Meddlers Three

Castelia City came into full view, its lit skyscrapers dominating our view as we crossed the bridge. I began to notice similarities to our first foray into another universe other than Equestria or mine. Firstly, they were both video game universes, and role-playing games, second, they were both favorites of mine, third, both have a missing human in the midst of them, and fourth, being in a position to do something significant. That is, if this resurgence of Team Plasma was a major crisis as The Master's new army was. I began to suspect that Discord had picked these universes because of me. As part of his game, of course. As Rainbow had said before, he should get a better sense of humor. But it now seemed more than likely, almost certain, that this was no coincidence, and Discord may have set this all up before we came here. All part of his games.

"So this is... Castelia City? City of grandeur?" Twilight asked, reading the sign at the entrance of the city, and not recognizing the name. I hadn't really recounted many city names of this universe, as I couldn't remember a good number of them with great clarity.

"Kind of like the capital, it's one of the largest cities. This place has one of the highest populations of all cities that have appeared in the video games to date, housing about... a hundred and twenty people, I think," I explained.

"That's not very many. I know for sure that Ponyville has more ponies in it than that, I've counted the houses, there's like... a hundred of 'em," Rainbow said.

"I know. There really aren't very many humans in this world, as I said. Even my hometown has over twenty-five thousand people living in it," I said, "and it's not even considered a 'city'."

"Wow. There didn't seem to be so many humans there when I went there with you," Twilight said.

"Those were the suburbs, for the most part, the least dense part of town," I explained. I yawned. It was getting late.

"Where are we going to sleep? We don't have any money, do we?" Fluttershy asked, all of us noticing now that Spike was asleep on Twilight's back.

"No, we don't have any money. Let's go back to Equestria for tonight," I suggested, and focussed on opening my portal.

"Wait, shouldn't we do this out of sight, somewhere?" Twilight interrupted. I nodded, and led us into an alley. There, I opened my portal and we went through. No problem.

On the other side, we found ourselves in the middle of the Everfree Forest. We looked nervously around, checking our surroundings carefully for any danger.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Twilight pulled the words right out of my mouth.

"Where should we go?" Rainbow asked.

"Seems like Castelia's alleys are the only option." I opened the portal again, and left the eerily dark and forboding forest behind us, again appearing in Castelia City's alley. We went to the end, tried to make ourselves confortable in the less-than-great conditions, and tried to fall asleep.

*****

I woke up to a noise, and looked around the corner of the dumpster I was laying against. There, standing in front of a struggling Rainbow Dash, bound in a net with duct tape over her mouth, were three individuals I'd never thought I'd ever see. It was James, Jessie, and Meowth, from the televised anime series. I got to my feet. They noticed my surprise and tried to start their introduction routine.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie said. I facepalmed.

"Make it double!" James continued.

"To-"

"Shut up, I know who you are, let my friend go," I interrupted. They looked at me with distaste.

"What are you going to do to stop us, twerp?" Jesse laughed. I turned around, picked up my backpack, and set it upon the dumpster, opening its pockets.

"What's he doin'? We've got all of his Pokémon," Meowth said.

"I don't know. maybe he's getting out money," James replied. I couldn't help but smirk. I pulled the now-assembled laser rifle out of the backpack.

"Now, I don't want to have to use this..."

"What's that? A foam dart gun?" Jessie laughed again.

"Something like that." I fired a blast into the pavement at their feet, taking care not to hit anything else.

"Yow! He's got a laser!" Meowth exclaimed.

"Forget this one, we've got three already! You can consider us blasted off!" Jessie said, and they bolted from the alleyway. Three already? Oh no.

I ran over to Rainbow, and began to untangle her from the net, taking the duct tape off of her mouth.

"They took Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike!" she exclaimed once the tape was off.

"How could they have managed that?"

"They took Fluttershy first... Twilight wouldn't attack them. I came back from my morning flight too late to stop them. I tried to take 'em out, but they shot a net at me!"

Well, this wasn't the best way to start the day. So we had the typical Team Rocket and Team Plasma going about. We rushed out of the alleyway to see their hot air balloon- black with the signature red 'R'- rise over some of the lower buildings, heading northward, away from the city. Rainbow took off after it. I aimed my laser rifle. I heard shouts as a police officer came my way, armed with a baton and yelling something. Definitely not a good way to start the day.

"Stop! Drop your weapon!" he commanded. I complied. He must have noticed the way I was holding it. The last thing I wanted to do was get thrown in jail while my friends were in danger.

"But my friends! Team Rocket took them!" I pointed to the balloon fast rising into the air.

"Team who?"

"Team Rocket! The criminals, from the Kanto region!" I explained.

"We're pretty far from Kanto, kid. Now, tell me, where did you get this?" He pointed his baton at the laser rifle, and picked it up.

"We don't have time for this! They're going to get away!"

"No they aren't," he said, and pointed in the direction of the balloon.

"What do you mean-" I turned around. The balloon was deflating rapidly through two large holes, still heading northward. There's Rainbow Dash, I thought.

"Please, don't take this from me. It's my only defense."

"I can't give this back to you, you must know that. Sorry kid, I won't bring you in, but I'm not letting you run around with a potentially dangerous object."

"Are you going to help me get my friends back?"

"Yeah, come on, let's go find your 'Team Rocket' fellows."

The two of us rushed through the city, entering the adjacent route and immediately recognizing the balloon wreckage. Rainbow was plucking nets from the fallen balloon's basket, which also housed the dazed members of the Team Rocket trio.

"Good one, Rainbow!" I complimented, and Rainbow brought the net containing Fluttershy, the last one, to the ground, and began walking over to me. The police officer inspected the three semi-conscious beings in the balloon basket, and handcuffed them.

"That was one fragile balloon, it's almost like it gets broken every time it goes anywhere," Rainbow remarked.

"Yeah, something like that. Let's get these three out of these nets."

Twilight had been defeated in battle by the two's Pokémon, and wasn't in very good shape, having fainted. Spike and Fluttershy, meanwhile, were uninjured. We untangled the three, and Fluttershy immediately took to inspecting the fallen unicorn's injuries.

"Did I just hear that Pokémon talk?" the police officer asked.

"Yeah, they aren't Pokémon, these four. You could say they're not from this world, aliens, if you will," I said.

"Whatever, kid, they look like Pokémon to me. Good luck, and thanks for helping me catch these criminals before they hurt anyone else. Here, I'll help your friend."

The officer pulled out a red spray bottle from a pouch on his belt, and sprayed it liberally over the purple unicorn. A super potion, no doubt. Her wounds seemed to disappear before our very eyes, and she was soon awake.

"Wow," Fluttershy said, in awe of the powerful medicine, "I haven't seen such effective medicine before."

"Well, this one's empty, but I've got another if you want it." He pulled another potion from the pouch, and placed it in Fluttershy's saddlebags.

"Umm, thank you, mister."

"No problem, take care, you hear?"

He called for back-up, which promptly arrived to take the three Rockets away, and left the scene, probably to report to the police station, or something. We continued northward, soon encountering Unova's desert. I began to wonder. Who else from this universe's various interpretations would appear on our journeys? I also cursed myself for not asking the policeman for information on the person we were looking for. I guessed we could find information on the other side of this desert.

Chapter Eighteen: Task

"The cop took my laser rifle," I said, solemnly. I was kind of attached to that rifle for some reason. After all, it had been my only weapon. I'd have to find a new one.

"Who were those criminals? Why did they kidnap us?" Twilight asked. Her wounds were pretty much gone, she was again operating at full capacity.

"Yeah, what gives?" Rainbow added.

"Well, they gave you their introduction speech, I'm sure, and I told you who Team Rocket was, didn't I? That's three of its more persistent members. Jessie, James, and Meowth. They never succeed at what they do in the end, and this case was no exception, right, Rainbow?"

"Yeah, that silly balloon of theirs didn't stand a chance!"

"Thanks for saving us. I don't want to know what would've happened if you didn't!" Spike added.

"I've never been in a desert before," I said, changing the subject. Unova's desert wasn't very big, and most of its road construction that had been present during the game was complete. Not a bad thing, as it meant that at least most of the sand was swirling gently in small wisps rather than under our feet. Walking on sand wasn't a favorite thing of mine. After all, as soon as you touch a grain of sand, it's everywhere. Or so it seemed. The walk went quickly, and at the end of the route, a man, dressed in what I recognized to be a Ranger uniform, beckoned to me. I walked over with my companions.

"I've got this egg..." he began, retrieving a rather large, generic Pokémon egg, off-white with black spots.

"And?"

"I was wondering if you would take it."

"Why in the world would you stop me? I haven't done anything to deserve an egg, and besides, these aren't Pokémon," I said, gesturing to my companions.

"They aren't? Where are they from?"

"A different universe. What's the egg of?"

"That's... strange. I know just as much as you do about the species of Pokémon it is, I was hoping some trainer could raise it. I don't really train Pokémon myself."

"I see. What do you think, Fluttershy?" I turned to my quiet, yellow ally.

"Well... it's an egg. We can't really care for it properly out here," she said softly, almost as if trying not to be audible to the Ranger.

"Nonsense, Pokémon eggs are known to hatch in almost any circumstance or conditions, without harm," the Ranger explained. He was slightly preturbed by the use of speech by my companion. "Here, I insist. I have a feeling you'll take good care of it."

He handed the egg to me, and I took it.

"Here, I'll carry it," Fluttershy offered, opening her saddlebag. I placed the egg carefully inside. What could it be?

"Uh, thank you, I guess. I have to ask you again, why did you give me this egg?"

"I know a good trainer when I see one," he replied simply, and walked away.

"What did he mean by that?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know where he got that idea," I replied, "he thinks I'm a good leader, or something."

"He's not wrong, you know," Twilight said.

"No, no, I'm not a good leader."

"Umm... But you've led us well so far," Fluttershy reasoned.

"I let you get kidnapped, that's how well I've led you. Anyway, let's keep going."

"Gee, I wonder what's in that egg. I was an egg once, I don't remember what it was like," Spike said, absent-mindedly.

"We'll just have to wait to find out, won't we?" Twilight asked.

"Indeed, let's get out of this desert," I suggested. We went through the route gate into Nimbasa City.

"This city's a bit bigger than Castelia," I began, "maybe we can find some information here."

I waved over a passing resident. "Hey, do you know of any peculiar people that have come through here over the last few weeks?" I asked him.

"No," he said simply, and kept walking.

"That didn't work," I said, mostly to myself.

"Do we have any leads at all?" Twilight asked. I thought of something. A new trainer had recently taken up the mantle of champion of the Unova Pokémon League. Could this be the person we were looking for?

"Only one. The Pokémon League champion was recently replaced by another person, a girl. But that's a difficult place to start; the Pokémon League requires that we go through Victory Road, and we'd have to travel through the rest of Unova to get there."

I noticed something in the corner of my eye. A Dragonite was flying overhead. I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun to get a good look at the creature. A person was riding on its back. It landed right beside us, and the person got off. She started walking toward us. She was clad in a light jacket with a T-shirt underneath and jeans, and had six Poké balls on her belt. She also carried a satchel. She looked to be a few years older than me. She was obviously a trainer, but something about her was... different.

"Well, maybe we won't have to look after all," Spike said.

"Yeah."

"Wow, I never thought I'd see another one of you ponies," the girl said, gesturing at the numerous ponies in front of her, "what in the world are you four Equestrian beings doing here? I thought I'd seen the last of you four weeks ago!"

"Hello, I'm Zach. These ponies, dragon, and I are here to rescue you. You seem to have come to us, though."

"Rescue me? How did you-"

"It's a long story. In short, I can get you home if you want me to."

"I can't go home now. There's still so much I can do here! I love Pokémon, even more now that I'm part of it. It's always been a dream of mine to be a part of it. Besides, I've got to stop Team Plasma, and Team Rocket right now. I'm Elise, by the way."

"What about your family? Do you miss them?" Fluttershy asked her.

"Yeah, every day, and now that I've got the opportunity to go back home, I'm busy."

"So, if we helped you out, you'll come with us?" She scratched her head for a moment.

"Gee, I don't know. Are you sure you can help? You don't have any Pokémon."

"Well, no, but ponies are about as powerful, right?" I turned to my companions. Fluttershy shook her head, Spike shrugged, Rainbow nodded, and Twilight brought her hoof to her chin to think about it.

"Doesn't matter. We're still capable of helping you. What do you need?"

"Hotspots of Rocket and Plasma activity have been appearing all over Unova, it seems as though they're working together to make a comeback. We've got to disperse them. It's fun, I've already cleared most of Unova!"

"Yeah, fun... Give us the closest location."

"Right here in Nimbasa, but I don't really know where. Here, I'll lend you one of my Pokémon, in case you need the help. Serperior, you're up!" She threw one of her Poké balls, releasing a large, elegant, snake-like grass-type Pokémon, final evolution of Snivy. She handed me the Poké ball. "Take good care of him. I take it you know enough about Pokémon to command him, right?"

"Yeah, I'm a big fan, myself. Are you sure he'll obey me? I don't have any badges."

"Oh, don't be silly. He'll do whatever I tell him to do, and that, right now, is to listen to what you have to say. Got that, Serperior?" The creature nodded, and hissed a little. "He knows a lot of moves, like Leaf Blade, Giga Drain and Solar Beam. He's a handful in a fight, don't be afraid to use him."

"What have you been doing since you got to Unova?"

"I've done a lot of things! I even became League champion!"

"Alright, Elise. We'll look for this hotspot for you. Come back in about three hours, I think we can do this in that time."

"Good luck, Zach! And don't you run away with Serperior! I'll find you!" she said, half-serious. She really was rather cheerful, it was still a game to her. She mounted her Dragonite, and flew off, heading south.

Now, how were we going to find this hideout, hotspot, or whatever it was?

"Serperior, do you like being Elise's Pokémon?" Fluttershy asked, in her soft tone she often used to communicate with animals. Serperior nodded. "That's good." Fluttershy didn't understand the whole trainer-Pokémon mechanic, what with the recreational battling and bonds of friendship resulting from these battles. In a way, my own relationship with the ponies was like this. We fought together against common foes and became friends.

"Okay, Serperior. Can you lead us anywhere?" It was merely a hunch. The Pokémon hissed, and began slithering around, sniffing the air. It hissed again, and began to lead us in another direction. Seeing a real Pokémon was something rather astounding to me, especially ones like this one and Dragonite. As much as they fascinated me, we had tasks to accomplish, and it was time to do just that. I wondered what our mystery egg contained.

Chapter Nineteen: Petty Foes And Eggs

Serperior had obvious experience in sniffing out the two villainous teams. Why hadn't Elise told us this? Maybe she hadn't ever asked him to do this. It led us to a warehouse, on the edge of town. How typical, I thought, testing the door. It was locked, of course. I returned Serperior to his Poké ball.

"Twilight, can you manipulate locks with your magic?" I asked. She nodded, and with a glow of her horn, the door was unlocked.

"What kind of lock was it?" I asked.

"Deadbolt," she explained.

"Right. Let's get to work." I opened the door, and we stepped inside.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for a large open box, filled with Poké balls. I threw one of them, in case they had something in them. There was; a Lillipup emerged from the ball. I returned it to its ball before it could determine what was going on.

"They've kidnapped all of these Pokémon," I said.

"Why would they take so many of them?" Fluttershy asked, "or any at all?"

"Money, or something. I don't know."

"Of course we kidnapped these Pokémon, the boss needs 'em for his plans," a voice said from somewhere amongst the crates.

"And don't try to run away, we've got this place locked down," another voice said. I turned around to face the door. It was locked again. We could open it from this side, but it would take time. Several Rocket grunts appeared from behind the crates, and blocked our exit. More grunts appeared around us. I sent out Serperior.

"We're going to need your help here, Serperior." The creature nodded. The Rocket grunts each sent out their own Pokémon. An assortment of Ratattas, Watchogs, Woobats and Zubats. A mix of Kanto and Unova Pokémon, and, of course, light fare. However, their numbers were concerning- there were about a dozen grunts, and each was holding another Poké ball in reserve. We were outnumbered, four to one, if I counted right.

"Team Rocket, attack!" a voice shouted, and the various grunts began to shout commands. Rainbow took flight, Serperior raised its head and looked to me, awaiting command, Fluttershy shrunk, Spike looked around nervously, and Twilight's horn glowed. It was time for a Pokémon battle. I had no weapons of my own anymore, but they'd likely target my Pokémon, and not me anyway.

Rainbow got to work immediately, strafing the line of Pokémon in front of the door, striking them with her hooves. Twilight fired blasts of magic into several Pokémon as they tried to close the distance. Fluttershy took flight and flew frantically away, minding the egg in her saddlebag, as a trio of flying Pokémon came in her direction.

"Alright, Serperior, use Razor Leaf," I commanded, uneasily, indicating the target to be Fluttershy's pursuers. Glowing leaves shot from Serperior's lower half toward them. Despite the move's type disadvantage, it easily incapacitated all three of them, the superior power of the fully-evolved Pokémon clearly showing. "Nice work."

There were four Pokémon engaging Twilight in physical combat, and despite her size advantage, she was being overwhelmed, but had taken down three already with her magic. Spike had been knocked off, and was attacking a Rattata with his claws to some effect, and the rodent-like Pokémon was sent into a retreat. One of the Watchogs used Retaliate, and sent Twilight sprawling. She was really getting beaten up today, I thought.

"Serperior, Razor Leaf, again." The powerful serpentine Pokémon's multiple-target attack struck three of the assailants, who fainted and were retrieved by their trainers. Twilight was able to use her spells to deal with the other one. Rainbow was still striking at various targets to great effect, and three more Pokémon had fainted from her attacks, and another three or so had been hit.

One of the grunts threw a net over Rainbow Dash from on top of a crate, causing her to crash. There were about half of them still left.

"Serperior, fire at will," I commanded, and ran over to a cowering Fluttershy amid the chaos, shielding her saddlebag, which held the egg, with her body, in case something tried to steal it. Serperior hadn't been told to attack at will before, evidently, and used his moves and speed with great efficiency now that the trainer's commands were out of the equation. The rest of the Pokémon fell in short order.

"Uhh, retreat! Retreat now!"

The Rockets scrambled toward the exit, one of them stopping to pick up Rainbow, still in the net. Serperior fired a razor leaf at the wall behind him, and he dropped it and ran with the rest of them. I walked over and undid the net.

"We totally destroyed them!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"I hope they'll be alright," Twilight said, wincing as Spike got onto her back again.

"Nice work, Serperior, you probably saved our necks. I'll be sure to tell Elise that." The serpentine Pokémon raised its head proudly. It had taken very little damage, as its sheer size and level of training made it nearly impervious to the petty attacks of any assailants. I was glad they hadn't packed any ice- or fire-types.

"Are you alright, Twilight? You got a little bit banged up," I asked.

"I'll be okay, don't worry."

"We hurt so many Pokémon..." Fluttershy said.

"Fluttershy, they'll be just fine. As I said, they're extremely resilient to lethal damage. We should take this box, and hand it over to the authorities," I suggested.

"I don't get it. How do those Pokémon obey their trainers if they do such awful things?" Spike asked. He had a point. I was unsure of the answer, though.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because they caught them and raised them that way, but I really don't know why they obey without question. Serperior obeyed me without question, and I haven't done anything to deserve his respect."

Serperior hissed in a friendly manner.

"Huh."

I picked up the box, finding it to be rather lightweight. We left the warehouse, bound for the Pokémon Center near the center of town. If trainers were looking for their missing Pokémon, they might look there. So I dropped it off and notified the nurse, who inquired about my strange Pokémon, like everyone else. I told her they were from far away, again, like everyone else.

"What do we do until Elise comes back?" Twilight asked. I was kind of tired of being asked what we would do all the time. I might be the leader, but I didn't know everything.

"I don't know. We have no money and about two hours to spend."

"Umm..." Fluttershy sounded like she was about to say something.

"What is it?"

"The egg..."

The egg was moving, shaking slightly. A crack began to appear on it. Then another. I took the hatching egg from the saddlebag, and placed it on the ground. The eggshell broke, and a very small Blitzle sat in the shell. I'd caught and used a Blitzle in the games, I recognized it immediately.

"It looks like a zebra!" Rainbow observed. Its mane glowed yellow, and it cocked its head.

"A unicorn zebra?" Twilight half-asked.

"It's tiny," I said, "and adorable."

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"A Blitzle, a baby Blitzle. It looks like a zebra, but it has electrical abilities as well. It wouldn't be as smart as Zecora, it's not sentient, but like most Pokémon, they're smart, I'm sure."

"Electrical abilities? So it can do magic like unicorns?"

"No, not really. It can only use electricity, that lightning bolt-shaped horn is more like a lightning rod than a magical horn," I explained, "it can summon thunderbolts, for instance."

"Wow, so it's like a unicorn that can control the weather like a pegasus?" Rainbow asked.

"No! That's not what I'm saying. It's not a unicorn, and it's not a pegasus, and it might look like a zebra, but it's not a zebra etiher. Get it?"

"I get it," Spike said. The others nodded. Serperior just looked kind of bored.

"Alright... how are we going to take him with us?" Twilight had a point.

"I don't know. Maybe Elise can help us, or take him off our hands. I don't think we should take a Pokémon with us when we leave."

"Why not? He's awesome!"

"Because, Spike, I know almost nothing about raising Pokémon, and if I took it into my world, people would notice."

"I could take care of him," Fluttershy volunteered.

"Are you sure?"

"It would be like raising a foal, right?" Twilight asked. To them it seemed that' baby zebra Pokémon' meant 'pony'.

"You could think of it that way, sure, but Fluttershy, you haven't raised a foal before."

"I babysit all the time."

"You don't babysit the Cake twins."

"Alright," Rainbow interrupted, "your knowing everything about Equestria and having only been there for what, a week in total is kind of creeping me out."

"I know why. You don't know my secrets, and I know most of yours. It makes you feel insecure. I don't have any interesting tales to tell and I don't live in a land of magic. Let's get back on topic, this baby Blitzle." Rainbow gave me an odd look, and Fluttershy continued.

"If you can't take care of it, I will. I'd love to have a new friend." She nuzzled the newborn Pokémon.

"Alright, let's keep him."

Fluttershy set about taking care of the baby Blitzle as well as she could, and the rest of us just waited around. Elise would be back soon, we'd just have to wait.

Chapter Twenty: Battle For The League

The Blitzle had grown to nearly full size in less than an hour. It was amazing how fast Pokémon could grow. It was now almost the size of a pony, and had readily adopted Fluttershy as its guardian.

"How did he grow so fast?" Fluttershy had asked me.

"Pokémon stay at a certain size after they are born until they evolve, I think Blitzle is just growing to full size," I'd replied.

Another hour later, Elise's Dragonite again swooped over the city, touching down nearby.

"Hey! How did it go?" she asked, "cool Blitzle!"

"Yeah, just hatched him. We were successful, we found the spot in a warehouse, Serperior sniffed it out for us. We found about a dozen Rocket grunts inside, and we routed them. We couldn't have done it without him." I gestured to Serperior, and handed his Poké ball to Elise.

"Good job, Serperior!" she praised, before returning the serpentine Pokémon to its Poké ball. "I've learned something from my raid. There's been a prison break, and Ghetsis is free again. He's planning to attack the Pokémon League to take back N's Castle."

"And we're going to go stop them, I presume?"

"Well, yeah!"

"But we can't carry all of us on Dragonite's back, can we?"

"He can carry me and you," she said. I glanced at her suspiciously.

"Do you mean-"

"Yes, we can put the ponies in Poké balls. Temporarily, of course."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on a second. You're not putting me in a tiny ball!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"You two pegasi can fly, we don't need to put you in Poké balls," Elise explained.

"Uh, will this hurt?" Spike asked.

"Not a bit. Just don't struggle." She primed three Poké balls, and threw one of them at Spike, one at Twilight, and one at Blitzle. They were all successfully stored within the Poké balls, which immediately indicated capture successful.

"I'm surprised that worked," Elise remarked. "Pick them up, let's go."

I put the three Poké balls in my pockets. I almost laughed aloud. I had Twilight Sparkle in my pocket. I climbed onto the Dragonite, gripping one of the large Pokémon's horns.

"I'm kind of afraid of heights," I admitted, "are you sure this is completely safe?"

"We'll catch you if you fall, Zach," Rainbow said. It wasn't very reassuring. I weighed upwards of a hundred and eighty pounds, hardly lightweight. However, Rainbow could carry several ponies at once, as she did with the Wonderbolts and Rarity once. I supposed I had nothing to worry about as I thought about it.

"And besides, Dragonite is a stable ride," Elise said. She was always cheery, very cheery.

"Alright, where are we headed?"

"The Pokémon League, of course. They were about to set the plan in motion when I showed up, we should get there as soon as possible."

"Alright, let's go."

The thirty-minute flight across Unova was one of the longest half-hours of my life. I often looked beside me, at Elise, trying to observe how she wasn't afraid. Rainbow and Fluttershy were flying behind and beside us, forming a chevron. Elise wasn't worried about falling, she was just looking straight ahead. I tried to do the same and relax. It didn't work. When the area came into view, I could observe some commotion below.

"This isn't looking good," I said.

"Don't worry, I think we'll be able to do this."

"Rainbow, break and attack," I ordered. She nodded, and sped downward.

We landed, and observed the scene around us. Numerous trainers, including those of the Elite Four, were battling with the combined Plasma and Rocket grunts. I let Twilight and Spike out of their Poké balls.

"Elise, send out all of your Pokémon, tell them to attack at will," I suggested.

"What?!" I found it humorous that she hadn't considered that, and that none of the others present had considered that.

"Just do it, Serperior did it wonderfully in the last battle."

"Alright, if you say so."

Elise sent out all of her Pokémon. It was an impressive array. Dragonite and Serperior we'd already met, she also had a Vanilluxe, a Marshtomp, a Raichu, and a Lucario. How she'd aquired so many powerful Pokémon, I'd probably never know, but she had been here for about four weeks, after all. I guessed she might have travelled after she took the title of champion, which couldn't have taken all of her time.

"Okay, everyone... uh..."

"Fire at will," I finished.

"Yeah, what Zach said!"

The Pokémon went to work, supporting the friendly trainers and Pokémon. Twilight took action as well, firing bolts of her magic at our allies' assailants. More grunts and more Pokémon just kept on coming, but had been pushed back considerably. Other friendly trainers realized what we were doing, and sent all of their Pokémon out as well. The battle had swung in our favor until our opponents too sent all of their Pokémon at us. The friendly trainers' Pokémon were clearly of greater quality, and more of them had multiple-target attacks than their foes did. Rainbow wrestled with the flying opponents. Despite being outnumbered, our side held the line. Elise recalled all of her Pokémon except Dragonite, and climbed onto its back. I ran over to find out what she was doing.

"We've got to get to Ghetsis," Elise said, "if we don't get rid of him, then they'll keep coming."

"A good assumption, but how are we going to find him?"

"Simple, look for the guy that looks like a castle."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Let's go."

Spike and Twilight came over to us, and I returned them to their Poké balls. I climbed onto Dragonite again.

As we flew over the continuing battle, we were joined by Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, what's up?" she said, non-chalantly. The fight hadn't really done much harm to her so far.

"We're taking out Ghetsis, the leader of Team Plasma," I explained.

"Count me in on that one."

Unova's Victory Road was a series of caves that led up a very steep hill that wasn't quite a mountain. At its base, we saw Ghetsis and his Sages enter one of the caves. There was no rear guard, and we landed at the entrance. Elise returned Dragonite, and handed me a Poké ball again, and sent out her Vanilluxe, a Pokémon that resembled a trio of large ice cream cones. I threw the ball, and Serperior came out.

"Why did you give me Serperior again?"

"He likes you. And you seem to know how to use him," Elise said. Serperior hissed.

"Alright, fair enough." I let out Twilight and Spike.

"Where are we now?" Twilight asked.

"The entrance of a cave. Ghetsis is inside, we're going after him." They both nodded, and Spike climbed onto Twilight's back.

Our journey through the caves was not difficult. All of the wild Pokémon had fled the area as the two teams' forces came through, and there were no grunts to be seen, they were all busy battling topside. We proceeded quickly, and catching up to Ghetsis' entourage wasn't difficult. Four Plasma grunts stopped to face us when we challenged them, and Ghetsis kept going. The grunts were higher-ranked than most, and sent out tougher Pokémon. Though, we quickly found out that they each only had one, even if they were powerful ones. Elise sent out all of her Pokémon, and the grunts, outnumbered, were defeated easily. They retreated. Running through the cave system, we finally caught up to Ghetsis himself.

"Stop!" I shouted.

Ghetsis turned around. "Meddling children, always meddling children. Leave this place at once, or things will become... unpleasant," he said threateningly, bringing his arms to his sides, probably to be ready to throw a Poké ball.

"What is your plan now, Ghetsis?" I interrogated.

"I don't have to answer to you, you can't stop me," he said. I looked at Serperior, who looked back at me with an expression that seemed to indicate mischeivousness. Without warning, Serperior sent out his vines, tripping and binding the man and dragging him toward us.

"Sure we can. I'm champion of the Unova Pokémon League for a reason!" Elise said with pride.

"No! You cannot! My plans can still be put into motion! I was so close!"

"You can't do anything. You've already failed, give it up."

Grunts began to run through the caves.

"I'm out of Pokémon!"

"Retreat!"

The various grunts ran by, paying no mind to any of us.

"Yeah, I don't think your friends would say the same," Rainbow said.

"Did we win?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, I think we have."

*****

The attack had been routed, and many of the members of teams Rocket and Plasma were arrested, including much of Team Rocket and Team Plasma's administration. Ghetsis was sent to a higher-security prison this time, and additional measures were taken to prevent him from escaping again. Wlise had accepted my invitation to return home.

"Well, looks like we've helped out another universe," Rainbow remarked.

"Yeah, it does," I said. "Fluttershy, you have Blitzle?"

"Yes, he's right here." Fluttershy placed the Poké ball in her saddlebag. She was excited about taking care of it.

"We're done here, it seems. Are you ready, Elise?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," she said, solemnly. She wasn't so cheery since she had left her Pokémon with Professor Juniper. She knew as well as I did that she couldn't bring them with us.

"You know, I can take you here whenever you want, if you can get into contact with me," I offered.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, it's simple when you have universal portal powers. Just ask me sometime. I'll give you my contact information. You'll have to return to this place and tell me before you go when you want to come back, though. I don't want to have to go looking for you again." I took a piece of paper from Twilight's saddlebag, and a pencil from my pocket, and gave her my contact information.

"Thanks, Zach, I appreciate it."

We were in Pinwheel Forest, where we had entered from Equestria. I took us to my world first, and gave Elise some directions so she could find her way home. Then I sent the ponies on their way to Equestria and went home. I still had Twilight and Spike's Poké balls on me. I smashed them. I had no use for them, really. I went to bed that night with the feeling of a job well done. We'd squashed Team Plasma and Team Rocket's ambitions, Fluttershy had a Pokémon, and we'd saved the last missing human. Everything was going according to plan. I could now worry about trivial things, like whether or not Angel would like Blitzle. Trivial things, I thought happily, as I drifted off to sleep.

End of part III

Chapter Twenty-Two: Overthrow

Canterlot Castle

"Hello, Princess Celestia," Zach said, casually, moving through the throne room toward the spot in which the Princess sat.

"Zach. It is good to see you again. I've heard that you've succeeded in rescuing the last missing human. Congratulations, and I thank you for keeping your friends safe," Celestia replied. She squinted at him. Something was wrong. His posture was less formal than the last time she'd seen him, but that had been weeks ago. The next thing was his eyes. Celestia knew little of human anatomy, but she knew for sure that slightly glowing, orange eyes were not normal, especially considering he wasn't a magical creature. Could it be?

"Yes, yes, thank you. What I'm really here to-"

"I don't mean to offend, but if I may ask, why are your eyes orange?"

"You may not ask. As I was saying, I come to you with an ultimatum."

"An ultimatum?!"

"Yes. Relinquish control of your throne. Immediately."

"Why would I do that?" Celestia knew the answer all too well, but had to know how far Zach- if this was Zach- would go.

"Let's just say that a universe with me in charge is probably preferable to none at all." A wide, uncharacteristically large grin appeared on his face.

"You wouldn't dare! You have friends in this universe!"

"Friendship, dear Princess, is not the driving force of humanity. To be frank, it's greed. Isn't that what Twilight told you I'd said motivated some of us? And now, I want everything you and your little sister control, ceded to me, immediately." Celestia knew a lot of things by this point. This was not Zach, not the same Element of Order that had saved Equestria in its time of need. This was someone else, if the glowing orange eyes weren't enough of a giveaway. It was Discord.

"Discord! Relinquish control of Zach's body at once!" she demanded. The guards in the corners of the room responded, preparing to fight.

"What are you going to do? Destroy my statue? Go ahead, it won't solve anything," he said, plainly.

"What have you done to him?"

"Oh, I put him in a safe place," Discord said, idly inspecting his new body's fingered hands.

"Get him back here, right now." Celestia charged her horn. Zach didn't have any magical abilities, and Discord couldn't have all of his in this form. Though, if anything, it was a bluff. Zach was still alive in some way; Discord didn't kill, it was against his chaotic morality. Celestia couldn't fight Discord in this form, it was too fragile, whatever remained of Zach in that puppet controlled by Discord might die if she tried anything, but Discord would survive. Discord always survives.

"Now, dear Princess, do not forget who holds the cards here. I do. Anything I do that is chaotic might make things unpleasant for the parties involved. Now, do I have to start doing what I do best?" Discord's body glowed orange, as though preparing a spell. So the body was magical. At least, it was now. Nothing could be done now. Discord had won this time. He had all the cards, and he only needed one of the Elements this time. A thought occurred to her. The other Elements! Zach's Element isn't required to activate them!

"Very well, Discord," Celestia said, seething with rage, "you win. But if I may, can I send a letter?"

"No. You may not. Now, to do away with you." Discord glowed orange again, and Celestia was turned to stone before she could respond. The guards attempted to intervene, but they, too, were stoned. Discord could release them at any time as he wished. Maybe he'd play with them some more later.

"This is going well," Discord said, chuckling.

Canterlot gardens

Yeah, this was really boring. How dare he steal my body that way. That was mine. And he had to put me in a statue, to add the icing on the cake? Darn. I got tired of looking at the same scene after about twenty seconds. Then I began to ponder how I would get out of here. Would the Elements come save me? Nah, probably not. They couldn't know I was in here, after all. Discord had switched bodies with me. Yeah, that's what's happened. I couldn't wait for someone walking by to do something chaotic enough to make the statue come to life, because Discord wasn't in here. This was just getting worse.

Twilight Sparkle's library, Ponyville, one hour later

Twilight Sparkle was penning a report on recent events to send to Princess Celestia, summarizing all of the things she'd learned about friendship throughout her adventures with Zach. She wrote a section about leadership, and how leaders that worried about their comrades too much or too little were not good leaders, doomed either to be unable to take action or unable to value their friends' lives. Zach was more on the 'too worried' side, but when they weren't in a land of inherent danger, or when his authority wasn't threatened, he was capable, or so it seemed. He was a bit of a control freak. Admittedly, he was just like her in that respect. What else had she learned? She'd learned how to kill. She'd helped Zach kill mutated humans to save other humans from that fate. That wasn't a lesson in friendship, though. She set down the quill with her magic. She had to think about this more. Spike, who was arranging books nearby, belched forth a letter. Twilight retrieved and opened it.

'My Faithful Student,

This is a pre-written, automatically-sent message from Canterlot Castle. If you are recieving this, Equestria's throne has been overthrown by Zach or another being with similar properties. In fear of repercussions resulting in the endangerment of the universe should we resist, I, Princess Celestia, have ceded control of Equestria and all of its properties to this individual, legally making them the ruler of Equestria. You will follow their instructions when they give them, and will not take any hostile or disruptive actions against them, for everypony's sake. This being is the most dangerous creature in the universe, Twilight, do not make a mistake.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia.'

Twilight's jaw dropped as she lowered the letter to the desk with her telekinesis. Zach couldn't do such a thing. There had to be something very wrong with him to make him do that, she knew that much.

"What're we going to do?!" Spike asked.

"I have no idea, Spike. Let me think."

They couldn't just kill him. Or maybe they could. A human with the same universe-altering properties as Zach had been killed without the barrier collapsing, but Zach had been their friend merely a day earlier, he couldn't have changed overnight into a power-hungry monster. There had to be another way. Or, maybe Zach wasn't the culprit. It might be another human. After a pause of about thirty seconds, Twilight answered.

"Spike, we're gathering the Elements."

Chapter Twenty-Five: One Step Ahead

Twilight and company began to run toward the castle. Suddenly, Rainbow and Fluttershy fell from the sky, wingless. Twilight tried to use her own magic, but found that her horn, and Rarity's, were gone as well. Luna, too had lost both her wings and horn. She looked quite different without them. Sounds of laughter, Zach's laughter, something they'd seldom heard before then, could be heard from somewhere in the distance.

"Agh, he did it again!" Rainbow exclaimed, rising from her not-so-graceful landing.

"We must drive onward. Our powers are not needed for this, we have the Elements," Luna said.

"The Princess is right. We don't need fancy magic or wings to save Zach and the Princess," Applejack added.

"Alright girls, we've got to get to the castle. Magic and wings or not," Twilight said.

"Umm, Blitzle still has his." Fluttershy pointed at her foreign companion, who perked up at the mention of his name. He hadn't really been given a name yet, he was a just called by his species' name. But, since he was the only one of his kind in Equestria, it didn't really matter.

"Yes, but Blitzle's talent is electricity, and we don't really need electricity right now." The zebra-like creature then took on a slightly discouraged look as the group continued on.

They stuck close together, in case of any ambush or separating obstacle. If any of them were to be caught alone, they would be in danger. They now knew that Discord's magic had travelled with him into Zach's body, and they could only assume that he was just as powerful as before, and probably not very much impeded by the apparent harmlessness of Zach's form. It wasn't Zach they were dealing with, it was Discord. The very same creature that had manipulated them in ways that made them go against their morals and beliefs, to work against their best friends.

The twisted road that Twilight knew led to the castle was a dead end. They all looked about for another way.

"You thought I'd just let you into the castle? You all know that I don't work in direct ways." Discord's voice was heard, but a source could not be determined. It laughed, then faded.

The group went back through the street from which they came, and sought an alternative route to the castle. When they did find a way, they found themselves surprised. The castle was now surrounded with warped houses, forming a very tall wall. There was only one way in, a gap in the wall.

"Why would he inconvenience us in such a way?" Luna asked, rhetorically. There had been little point in blocking their other entrance. It was evident that, while they were his foes, Discord loved to trick, to play.

"I don't know, Princess. Come on, girls," Twilight ordered, and the group entered the castle grounds. Zach- or rather, Discord- appeared in front of them again.

"I would conjure some hedges or something to keep you occupied," he began, jovially. "But we should really get this over with. Come in, we should settle this inside." He casually walked toward the entrance of the great castle.

"You aren't pulling any of your tricks this time!" Twilight said, and nodded at her companions. Each focussed their Element.

"You foal. You know that I cannot actually evade this attack of yours, you're attacking an illusion. Now please, step inside, and we can discuss this like civilized people. But not you, Princess Luna. You will have to wait outside, or you'll end up like your sister. Surely, your Elements are all that are needed, that goes for you too, zebra-thing," Discord said.

"Blitzle, stay outside. Don't worry, listen to Luna, okay?" Fluttershy whispered to her companion. He nodded understandingly, and stood beside Luna. The others held their ground.

"You can stand there and not trust me forever, or you can follow me, accomplish your objective and save your beloved kingdom and not trust me. Either works, but please, tell me which you plan on doing, I have things to do myself."

The Elements looked at each other. Each nodded in turn. "Fine," Twilight said, "we're coming in."

"Ah, good. Let me get some... refreshments." The illusion of Zach disappeared, and the Elements proceeded carefully into the warped castle, making their way toward the throne room.

Canterlot Castle gardens

Discord entered the garden area, moving toward the statue.

It may be wise, when he releases you, to act as though he is in control.

I agree, but... Aren't you supposed to have an extreme sense of honesty?

Honesty with one's enemy is only deserved when one's enemy is honest.

Works for me.

"Ah, now, let's see how much easier this prison is to open from the outside..." He lay his hand on the statue, which began to glow.

Now is the time.

My body fell to the ground. It felt very odd to have such a shape. I wiggled my now-serpentine body and flapped my mismatched wings and tried to rise. I found the wings to be unnecessary, and that I could just float.

"Zach, your enemies are here. Now, see them out the door." Discord chuckled heartily, and headed into the castle. I followed wordlessly to the throne room, where a surprised Mane Six stood. Scattered about the room were stone statues of several guards and Princess Celestia.

"D-Discord!? But you're..." Twilight stammered.

"Dear friends, meet... Zach." He spread his arms and gestured to me. I chose to reveal myself then.

"Hello, everyone." I picked up my body. "That's mine, thank you very much." It was interesting speaking with Discord's voice, very much so.

"Huh!? What? What do you think you're doing? They are your enemy, not me!"

"Discord, had you forgotten that I'd been possessed before? You are clever, I'll give you that, but the Elements of Harmony are stronger than that. Especially if they're inside your mind."

"That's... impossible! They left you weeks ago!"

"I thought so too. Now, give up. You've lost."

"What is goin' on here?!" Applejack asked.

Discord wriggled in my grasp. I tightened it. I was pretty heavy, but Discord had been pretty strong.

"Discord corrupted me in my sleep yesterday night, and made me go to Canterlot. There, he transferred me into his statue, and took full control over my body. Then, the Elements of Harmony themselves, which had stayed in my mind in case of an emergency or whatever, took action, bringing me back to my senses. Some time later, Discord tried to make me think of you six as my enemies. He was going to use me as a weapon. But, since I was uncorrupted at the time, and his influence failed to subvert me. So, here we are now."

"I should've..." Discord mumbled. His borrowed body glowed orange, and found that his spell fizzled.

"Shut up. Hey, girls, mind blasting us with those Elements of yours?"

"But dear, your body. Discord told us that-" Rarity began.

"Just do it. Discord wouldn't give me my body back, anyway."

The Elements began to charge their attack. As they did, I heard my own laughter. My point of view changed back to that of my own body. He grinned, and punted me with a clenched claw across the room. The beam missed Discord entirely as he made erratic maneuvers, ones the homing beam of energy could not beat, and the beam hit the floor without any effect.

"I may not have planned for this, but you haven't won yet!"

I got up from my sprawled position, quickly assessing my body's condition. I was very tired, thirsty, and hungry. I felt tingling all over and I had to use the bathroom. Obviously, Discord hadn't taken account these needs. Discord had taken to smashing through one of the windows and going through it.

"Zach, you okay?" Rainbow asked, walking toward me. I noticed then that none of them had horns or wings.

"Yeah, I've been worse. Let's go find Discord and end this. I want to go home."

The Elements freed the guards and Celestia, who remained unconscious. We proceeded back through the castle toward the exit. As we did, I heard a very loud noise, like thunder.

"What was that?! It sounded like thunder!" I said.

"I think it was Blitzle..." Fluttershy said.

"Blitzle?!"

"Fluttershy brought Blitzle with her. He and Luna are waiting outside."

"Oh..."

We ran out the door to see Discord laying in a heap in front of Blitzle and Luna. He had developed a serious twitching problem. The two turned around.

"Our ally here has stunned the creature," Luna announced. "Quickly now, strike him with the Elements!"

So they did. However, as the beam struck, he disappeared in a flash of light instead of turning him to stone. His changes were reversed before our very eyes, and Canterlot returned to normal once again.

"Good going, Blitzle!" Rainbow praised the Pokémon, testing her newly-restored wings. The young Pokémon looked very happy with himself.

"I should set the sun now," Luna said. The light level decreased dramatically as the sun set and the moon rose in the sky. Everything was back to normal.

"Come on, everypony, let's go see Princess Celestia!" Applejack said.

"We should. I'm sure she will want to commend you all for your bravery," Luna said. "Come." She walked toward the castle's doors. We followed. When we arrived back at the throne room, Celestia was on her hooves again.

"What has happened? Where is Discord? Is that you, Zach?"

"We've handled Discord, Princess, don't worry."

"But what of the universal barrier? Luna, is anything out of the ordinary?"

The other of the diarchs' horn glowed for a moment, and she closed her eyes. She shook her head slowly.

"This is not good..." she said. "Discord has damaged many barriers, not just one this time. The breaches are not going to heal on their own accord, and I detect Discord's meddling. It looks like Discord has fled into many different universes at the same time."

"How many universes are we talking about?"

"From what I can tell, more than twenty." That was not a friendly number.

"How long do we have, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"It is impossible to tell, but a while yet. I must continue my analysis of these damages."

"I'd hate to ask you for help again, Zach, but..." Celestia sighed. "Can you help us again?"

"Obviously. After all, I'm the only one who can get to these universes. But... that's a lot of them."

"You may all take your leave. We can discuss this matter in the morning," Celestia announced. "Thank you again, Elements of Harmony, for saving Equestria once again."

I decided to sleep at the castle for the night. After all that, I didn't really feel like walking home. More importantly, though, more universes had to be saved. A lot more. Even with just a simple glance into the multiverse, Luna had discerned more than twenty different damaged barriers. I had a lot more on my plate now, and I probably wouldn't have any time to deal with trivial matters again for a while.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Chaos Theory

I awoke at the crack of dawn. I hadn't slept too well, as, just like the first time I'd stayed at Canterlot Castle, I was extremely worried. Now I'd have to defeat Discord more than twenty times in a possibly small time frame. Even with help, that would take a long time, and these missions could be extremely difficult, especially if each manifestation of Discord was as powerful as the primary one. Discord had taken us on a very interesting and lengthy ride, and it wasn't even nearly over yet. I got out of the pony-sized bed, stretching. I went into the main hall of the castle. Princess Luna and a slew of unicorns were talking about something.

"Uh, hello?" All of them turned to me.

"Zach, you are awake early. Were you having trouble sleeping?"

"Yes, yes I was. What have you found out?"

"We have reached several consensuses on numerous subjects regarding your impending task. The first is that each barrier has roughly a week and a half before de-stabilization resulting in events similar to your coming here in the first place occur, then, if the barriers are left alone, several more days will cause failure."

"Two weeks... How many barriers are we talking about?"

"Twenty-three. The second-"

"Wait, Twenty-three? Princess, I think we may need to field some sort of larger force if we want to solve this crisis in time."

"I am getting to that. The second one is that Discord is likely to be mortal in his weakened, split state. he may be susceptible to conventional attacks. However, the only way we see that can fully stop Discord is to kill him or convince him to leave. This leads to our next point. We have determined that, judging by how the barriers appear to be behaving, Discord might be controlling the decay, and if he is removed, the decay may cease."

"So we've got to go convince Discord to leave these universes, or kill him?"

"If our hypotheses are correct. However, these are optimistic educated guesses, do not take them as law. Our fourth and fifth consensuses, are that individuals that have travelled to other universes from Equestria for a significant period of time may have similar effects on universal barriers as you do, and that only groups of four individuals can traverse the universal barrier without damaging it. Now, we should wait for the rest of the Elements so I can brief them further." Luna turned back to her associates. "Dismissed, all of you, go get some sleep." The unicorns sitting around the room each got up and rather sluggishly left the castle. Luna must have kept them up all night doing this. After the last of them left the room, Luna turned to me again.

"Zach, can you still open portals?"

I conjured a portal to my universe, then poked my head through it. I was surprised by what I saw.

"Chaotic magic..." Luna muttered. "Why do you suppose Discord left you with this power when it was obviously in his interest to take it away?"

"Luna, Discord has linked my portals to specific locations. This portal leads directly into my house. He's got control over where my portals end up now."

"This does not bode well for us. We have determined some details about many of these afflicted universes. Some of them are far from inviting, and if Discord could place you wherever he wished, this could be extremely perilous." Luna hovered a piece of paper over to me from a table in the center of the room. It contained somewhat vague descriptions of the universes involved. I recognized a few too many of the elements for it to be coincidence.

"He's sending us to human fictional universes, again," I stated, pointing to several of the descriptions. "Some of these I can't identify right now, but I know this; this is definitely another game." If Discord had control of what time my portal came out at, he might put anyone going through my portals into the stories or major events of these universes. This was not good.

"I'll try to figure out what these all are. Thanks, Luna."

"Do not thank me. We are the ones in your debt. Everything we have is at your disposal."

Luna left the room. I pulled a pencil from my pocket and continued to look through the list. There were a lot of familiar ones, and some unfamiliar ones. Maybe if I had access to a computer I could research them, learn more about them. Regardless of what the situation called for, I'd just have to continue to sift through these descriptions. Maybe he would pick ones I did not like as well as those I did. All of this was not to be taken lightly, now twenty-four universes were in danger, total, and we had merely a few weeks to save them all.

Some time later, I'd identified at least six of the universes, and guessed at many of them. It was a good start, but I'd need a computer to do much more.

"Hey, Zach, there you are. It's time for breakfast." I hadn't heard Rainbow enter the room. She flew over to me. "What are you doin'?"

"Luna's found out which universes Discord's gone to, but she can't really identify them. Discord's gone to universes I know about, and some I don't. I'm trying to figure them out."

"We're going to talk about that. Come on."

I followed Rainbow to the dining hall, where the Mane Six and both Princesses could be found. Rainbow and I both took our places.

"Now that we have all assembled, we shall discuss what Luna and her associates have discovered, and from there, determine what we shall do to stop Discord and save Equestria," Celestia said, and nodded at her sister.

"We have reached some conclusions about Discord's actions which resulted in twenty-three other universes' barriers being damaged. Firstly, we have little time to waste. We have but one and a half weeks before the barriers decay badly enough that individuals from these universes will fall into Equestria, and another several days before it fails completely. Second, Discord is likely to be weakened in his current state, and is probably vulnerable to conventional attacks. Third, any individual that has left this universe for a significant amount of time will, if our hypothesis is correct, have a similar effect as Zach's on any universal barrier, including those afflicted. Fourth, Discord's presence is, again, if our hypothesis is correct, accelerating the decay of these barriers. If he is removed, decay will slow to a manageable rate or stop. Fifth, only four individuals can safely cross into any one of the other universes, as allowing any more through will cause damage and hasten the decay. Finally, Zach has determined that his portal spell has been altered, and his portals are now linked to specific locations in each universe. What have you found out so far, Zach?" Luna's lengthy speech had each of the ponies thinking.

"Discord is leading us on another one of his games. The barriers he's disrupted seem to all be fictional universes from my universe, and many of them are dangerous. And since he can direct my portals wherever he wants, Discord is likely to be making the portal destinations rather interesting, if not dangerous as well. Since there are twenty-two different universes we must travel to in order to stop this decay, we don't have enough time for just one team to do it all."

"You're suggesting that we-" Twilight began.

"I am. We're going to have to form a number of different teams, each led by someone that has left this universe for an extended period. There are a number of legible team leaders, that is, all of those that had travelled with me, including you, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Trixie, Time Piece, Spike, Derpy, Elise, if we can get her here, and myself."

"Who else is going to be in these teams?" Rainbow asked. "I mean, no single one of us can do this alone."

"We should call for volunteers," I suggested.

"What about the Royal Guard? I'm certain they would be willing to accompany your teams," Celestia said.

"We'll need ponies with diverse skillsets. I think your guards are little... specialized."

"Good point. I shall make a public announcement at noon for volunteers. In the meantime, I'll send messengers to fetch those legible to lead one of these teams. But for now, we should eat," Celestia said, informally adjourning the meeting for the moment.

As we ate, I found myself thinking about my own team's composition. I couldn't bring along Twilight and Rainbow like the last few times, I'd have to recruit others, and since my own team was probably going to have to go through the most complex universes, as I was one of only two humans available, I'd need some resourceful teammates. Meanwhile, the doomsday clock was ticking, and it was going to have to be soon that we acted, and fast. First, I'd have to identify and research each universe, and make sure each team was assembled. Second, I'd have to brief each team on said universe, and what they could expect from Discord's plans. Third, we'd have to gear up, and I'd have to set up portals for each team, go on my own mission, and be back in time to make the exit portal for them as well. This was going to be an interesting two weeks.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Laying The Plan

Celestia returned from making her announcement to the ponies of Equestria. Our eyes tracked her movements as she moved through the throne room to her position. Her expression was all buisness.

"I have an impression that we will have the volunteers that we need. I've sent messengers for Time Piece, Derpy, and Trixie, and those wishing to volunteer have been asked to arrive in the early evening. I invite you all to make full use of the castle's facilities in the meantime."

The ponies acknowledged the Princess and left the room. Celestia's gaze was now on me alone. Luna wasn't in the room, probably doing something important.

"Zach, see what you can find out about the other universes, and try to find Elise, if possible."

I nodded. "Yes, Princess." I'd taken rather quickly to the idea of being commanded by Celestia, even though she had never specifically told me that I was or was not to follow her orders. It was no problem for me, of course, since our goals were one and the same at this point.

I opened my portal, and stepped into it. Like before, it led directly to my room in my house. I booted up my computer, dialed Elise's phone number, and waited for her to pick up. No answer. Well, that was going to be harder without her, but there was no time to waste. I had to get researching.

*****

My research went on without interruption. It was fortunate that nobody else was home, as my responsibilities and frequent disappearances were going to catch up sooner or later, crisis or no crisis. It had been about three hours, and I had, with quite a large degree of certainty, identified all of the universes, and learned about some rather intriguing games and television series I'd be watching when this was over. The initial outlook could have been worse. Some were really dark, inhospitable ones, others were light, fluffy universes. The rest were... somewhere in-between. I divided them into five categories, by general risk. Low, low-medium, medium, medium-high, and high. The spread was rather even, almost as if Discord had selected them with some sort of scale in mind, as part of this oh-so-wonderful high-stakes game of his. I had printed off materials pertaining to those universes- mostly copied and pasted from Wikia articles- for the teams to look over, and had placed them in a binder. Along with some supplies, I stuffed it into my backpack. Some of these would be quite vague to the ponies and to myself, but that's what we'd have to go by.

I opened my portal to Equestria, and found it to lead directly to Canterlot Castle. I took the now-familiar path to the throne room. Celestia was talking to Shining Armor about something.

"...If he doesn't make it, there won't be any way to stop this."

"A valid point, Captain Armor. Zach, you've returned, I see. Where is Elise? Could you not find her?"

"No, I couldn't. I did find out what all the universes were, though. What's going on here?"

"Captain Shining Armor would like to be part of your team."

I turned to face the unicorn stallion. "Wouldn't you rather be with Twilight's team, though?"

"Twily can handle herself, I'm sure of it." I remained silent. Was he implying that I couldn't? In his place I'd probably feel the same way, trying to make sure that the mission does not fail as much as I could. And, he was entirely correct; my own abilities did not grant me significant survivability in a combat situation. In such situations I'd only been saved by magic or by not being a target in the past. If not for those two things, I might have died in my very first battle, the one against the corrupted Elements of Harmony about a month ago. It felt like such a long time had passed.

"I don't mean that-"

"You want to come with me because if I die on this mission it'll be a complete failure. Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Well, I agree with you on that one. I'd be glad to have you on my team."

"I won't let you down."

"I'm pretty sure you won't."

"The rest of the team leaders have arrived, and are waiting in the dining hall for you," Celestia said. "We have an hour to discuss our plans."

The three of us went through the castle into the dining hall. The six ponies that would be leading teams, Spike, Blitzle, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony were in attendance. The ponies were chatting away until they noticed us enter. Celestia took her place at the head of the table, and Shining took a spot as well. I opened my backpack and pulled out the materials I'd gathered, setting the binder down in the center of the table.

"Derpy, Trixie, and Time Piece, are you filled in on what's going on?"

The three ponies nodded.

"Good. Let's begin. Well, everypony, these universes are the ones we will be going to. I've identified them all, and assigned each of them a level of danger. Since there are eight of us, six of the teams will have to take on three universes, the other two taking on two of them. Take a look at all of these." I took the pieces about each universe from the binder and placed them in groups according to my threat assessment. Each universe only had about ten pages of material, if that. The ponies became mobile, shifting about to examine the materials gathered.

"How are these organized?" Twilight asked.

"By danger. I've divided them into five different danger levels, ranging from low to high. I was thinking that some teams would take more dangerous ones while others would take less dangerous ones, because, y'know, some of us are less suited to fighting than others. You should assign yourselves, I don't know fully what all of your strengths are."

"How are we going to pick our teams from the volunteers?" Rainbow asked. She was looking at the most dangerous of the lot. Of course, these universes would require handling with extreme caution.

"Well, the team leaders will choose them, I guess."

"What about the rest of us?" Applejack asked, gesturing to Rarity and Pinkie Pie. "Certainly we can help."

"I don't know, I'm sure all of you will find a place in a team."

"What does each team need, personnel-wise?" Twilight asked. "Should each team be of a leader, at least one unicorn and at least one pegasus for versatility?" Twilight was focused on the medium-high group. Like Rainbow, she knew more about human universes compared to the others and was very capable in battle, as she must have become aware of over the last few weeks. She must have determined that someone had to go through these universes, and if that had to be her, she would do it.

"Yes, that sounds right. Though, I think that every unicorn involved should know shield spells, we know how useful those are against human weapons. The pegasi and earth ponies should be picked for individual talents, I think."

"Um, just how dangerous are the less-dangerous ones?" Fluttershy asked, flipping through the low category.

"Hardly at all. The potential locations Discord could bring anyone going there to would not be very dangerous. The ratings are not entirely accurate, though, as I can't anticipate everything from a few hours of research."

"Gee, this whole thing sure looks like a doozy," Derpy said. She was examining the medium-low range with Spike.

"Sure does, but we don't have much of a choice on whether or not to go through on it, and the entire universe is depending on us," Time Piece said. He and Trixie were looking through the medium areas. "I, for one, am happy to be a part of this."

Everything was going rather smoothly. Each catagory was being looked into, and a few universes had been claimed already. I approached Shining, who was looking at the high-risk category.

"Rainbow Dash can't handle all of these," he said. There were four in this category. I figured Rainbow would take one or two of them, just to prove she was ready for anything. The way I was putting them into danger like this weighed heavily on me. The stakes were way too high. A slip, a hop, a jump, and you're dead in these places. I was having difficulty deciding whether or not to leave the most dangerous of missions to the- to put it bluntly- more expendable individuals. I was the only one absolutely necessary to complete this task, though loss of more than one team could definitely spell disaster, that is, if we could afford to lose a team. We had eight leaders, and losing one would mean another team would have to go in after them to complete the mission, which could obviously complicate things.

"No, she can't. These ones are quite a bit different from the others, with the chance of injury or death being quite high. These universes are about grim, dark places with hostile entities ranging from demons to monsters to robots. These ones are not to be taken lightly. If there is no other way, our team can take one of these on. I know some about two of these." I pointed to two of the universes' stacks, ones pertaining to games I'd played.

"No way, that's too risky. You know what happens if you don't make it back." That made me turn my thoughts to how the ponies were going to get back. I probably couldn't keep seven portals open all the time, which meant that I had to be back in Canterlot to conjure my portals for each and every team so they could come back. This could lead to problems related to the extraction of these teams. I was getting the feeling that I was a sort of general in this situation, and this was some special operation. The thought both slightly disturbed and amused me.

"What's going on?" Rainbow asked. She was only a meter or two away, and was listening in over the productive chatter of the other ponies.

"Shining is part of my team, we're discussing whether or not our team should go to a high-risk universe," I explained.

"You? No way! You should stick to the medium areas, we kind of need you to live through this."

"What about you?"

"What about me? I've survived in the universes you took me to!"

"I don't want any of us to die, Rainbow. These four universes are by far the most likely to make you end up as a corpse."

Rainbow was about to deliver a rebuttal when another voice came from behind. "Not if I have anything to say about it." We all spun around. Standing there was a unicorn, dark gray in coloration. Her cutie mark was a silhouette of a pony, outlined with some sort of glow.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the rest of the volunteers?" I said quickly.

"No, I am on the Magicians' Council, the group that has uncovered these universes for you. We stay in the castle at times like these. I've been told that you may have some challenging days ahead. I am an enchanter of ponies, the only one of my kind in Equestria to anypony's knowledge. As such, my magical experiments are the only ones in the field, which makes me kind of... important, I suppose."

"Enchanter of ponies?" Rainbow asked. I was just as confused as she was.

"I can cast spells that improve various aspects of a pony's body, but not mind. I can make ponies non-corporeal, so they walk as ghosts or I can conjure magical armor, stronger than any other, for example. Though, the use of these spells requires me to be very close to whoever I might be using them on, which is why I am a perfect candidate to be part of one of your high-risk expeditions! The problem is, I can only use basic spells outside of these ones." She smiled, clearly excited to have a use for her unique and not entirely practical skills.

"What's your name?"

"Call me Shimmer."

"Okay, Shimmer. Rainbow, are you okay with Shimmer joining up with you?"

"I guess so. You're the one in charge, right?"

"I'm not the boss, I'm the... coordinator."

"Okay, Rainbow Dash, was it? I'm sure we'll make a great team. Now, let's look over these pages," Shimmer said to Rainbow. I turned back to Shining.

"Couldn't we just pick out the universes one at a time, going through them in order instead of all over the place?" he asked me.

"Yeah, that's a great idea."

"Everypony!" The room quieted. "Shining Armor here has given me an idea. We will simply take these universes on in sequence, from low risk to high risk. Pile up all of the materials, I'll sort them into groups."

The ponies complied, and I gathered the piles, arranging them in three sets of eight, with two missing spaces in the third set.

"Okay, leaders, select a universe from the first set. When we come back, we'll pick for the second set, and so on."

The ponies huddled around the piles, chatting amongst themselves. I walked over to Celestia. She had been sitting at the end of the table, observing the scene.

"How much time until the volunteers are supposed to arrive?" I asked.

"Forty-five minutes. I will explain to them in detail what is going on, then I'll leave it to you and your fellow leaders to explain the plan from there. Are they nearly ready?"

I looked back at the others. They'd mostly made their decisions and were now discussing their choices. "Almost."

I headed back to the group. "Okay, everyone but me has made their decision, right?" The ponies nodded. "Okay, good. Now we should discuss how we're going to spend our time in these universes, and how we're going to get back. I think two days should be enough to complete this first set, so, after two days' time after we leave Equestria, you'll have to be ready at where the portal brought you in, and I'll open my portals to bring you all home."

"What if a team doesn't make it back in time?" Twilight raised a valid point. I scratched my head for a moment.

"Hmm. I'll open a portal to the universe every thirty minutes for three hours, then a team will be sent to search for the lost one. Sound good?"

The ponies looked at one another, and nodded at me.

"Excellent." Our newly-made, rough-and-ready plans were nearly complete. It was only a matter of getting the team members and departing now. We'd go through the universes in order from least dangerous to most dangerous, in three sets, returning two days after we left Equestria.

"Will we be able to communicate in case of emergency?" Time Piece asked.

"I don't know, but I think I have an idea. Twilight, you remember the bottle of dragonfire you gave me a few weeks ago?"

"Yes... yes, that could work! If the barrier between your universe and this one is more stable than these universes', then letters could be sent between them like they could there."

"Am I going to have to prepare that many bottles?" Spike groaned.

"There are plenty in storage, that will not be necessary, Spike," Shining answered, to the relief of the small dragon. "In fact, I should speak with somepony about expedition supplies. I won't be gone too long." Shining left the meeting.

I walked over to Celestia again. "I think we're ready."

"Excellent news. When the volunteers arrive, I will explain to them the situation in detail, and you and your friends will explain the rest of the plan. Does that sound all right to you?"

"Yes, it does."

Now all there was left to do was wait for the volunteers. I mulled over in my head what I'd say to the undoubtedly large number of ponies that would arrive. What would I say?

Epilogue: Trans-Universal Crisis Team

The plan. I'd devised a plan, and I'd have to explain it. No big deal, not at all. It's only the fate of the universe, no pressure. It wasn't my universe, but a universe of colorful ponies, of fun, friendship and rainbows. These ponies would be thrust into situations unlike those they'd ever find, technology and concepts that they'd never dreamed of. Dangers unimaginable to a pony's mind. I'd have to explain that, and send them willingly into this danger. No pressure.

Twilight approached me from the other side of the room. As she neared, I saw her expression to be one of worry. "Hey, Twilight," I said.

"Zach, I've been thinking. What if this plan doesn't work? What if one of the teams goes missing? What if somepony doesn't make it back? What if you don't make it back? If you don't come back, no one else will either."

"As terrible as it sounds, team members will be replaced if something terrible happens to them, but we won't give up on them until we're sure they did not make it. And if they don't... I feel it's an inevitability, Twilight. Not all of us are likely to survive all of this, unless Discord's rules about no killing are in effect. Though, I think we've pushed him a bit too far to play fair. We can only be careful."

"Zach, wouldn't it be safer if you stayed behind and coordinated the rest of the teams from here?"

"Maybe so, but that would mean that one team will have four missions, and all the rest will have three. I don't think it's reasonable to send Spike's or Fluttershy's teams on the last set, and they wouldn't think so either. Your brother is part of my team, and if I know anything, he'll be able to keep me safe, as you have over the past few days." Twilight brought a hoof to her chin.

"Me? Keeping you safe?"

"Well, your magic, you, and your friends are the only reason I'm still alive today. If anything, I owe you for saving my life more than once."

"You saved our entire universe, that's enough for me."

"No, Twilight. I didn't save the universe last time, Discord did, remember? He set himself up as a target so we could reinforce the magical barrier. I was merely a pawn in his plans, but he didn't anticipate the Elements' intervention, or Blitzle's thunderbolt last night, and his plan was foiled. So he's devised a final plan, another game, of great scale and stakes, for us to complete before he calls it quits. So I've done nothing to deserve such praise. If anything, I owe you and your friends for coming with me to those universes we've gone to. That was unnecessary and very kind of you to help me track down those strangers."

"I suppose you're right, but you're our friend, Zach. Friends help each other, no matter what they might need."

"You have no idea how corny that sounded, but I guess you're right. Have any other ponies joined your team so far?"

"Pinkie Pie wants to come with me. Rarity's going with Fluttershy and Blitzle, and Rainbow Dash wants the Wonderbolts Soarin' and Spitfire to join her and Shimmer. I don't know what Applejack is thinking of doing."

I nodded. "Okay then. I've got to prepare a little speech for the volunteers soon. I'd advise looking over the materials about the universe you've chosen some more."

"Good idea." Twilight trotted off.

I walked back over to the stacks of piles concerning set one. The other leaders had dispersed, talking amongst themselves and those that had joined their teams. One universe remained, and I smiled as I flipped through it quickly myself. This one would be fun.

"Howdy," I heard Applejack say, rather jovially. It was a good thing that, in general, everyone seemed undaunted by the immensity and danger of this task. I looked up from my pile, at the orange pony.

"Hey Applejack, what's up? Are you going to join one of your friends' teams?"

"Actually, I'd like to go with you."

"Why might the reason for that be?"

"To be honest, I've heard of what these universes can be like, and I think I could help you out. And besides, somepony's got to make sure you get home in one piece. Just in case, I mean."

"Shining Armor is part of my team, he said the same thing. And I'll say the same thing I said to him, Applejack. I'd be glad to have you on my team."

She smiled and nodded. "So, where're we goin'?"

I pointed to the main page of the stack. Applejack nodded again, and we continued reading through it together.

Shining Armor returned several minutes later, coming up to us. I looked up at the unicorn stallion.

"What've you got for us?" I asked. Shining pulled a list, and levitated it to me. It was a manifest of sorts, what each team would have for equipment. Two healing potions, paper, ink, quills, dragonfire, a medical kit, and some apples.

"Only two healing potions?"

"The castle's supply isn't large enough to equip eight teams three times with any more. These potions are very powerful, you don't have to use an entire potion to heal a wound. They take a very long time to make, and should be used wisely." Shining had a very formal air about him, as though he was speaking to someone of a higher rank. I wasn't even ranked at all.

I nodded. "What about specialized equipment, like armor, weapons, and tools?"

"Those will be distributed on a case-by-case basis. According to your threat assessment, I don't think we'll need much in the way of armor or weapons. If that's not to your liking..."

"No, no, that's fine. That's a good list. Now, Applejack and I have determined what universe we're going to. Read this over." I gestured to our stack.

"Certainly."

I sat in the corner of the room, planning my speech for the volunteers. Celestia would explain the primary details, then I'd explain the plan. It wasn't a hard thing to do.

*****

The team leaders, including myself, stood in front of the large crowd of volunteers, those that had answered Celestia's address, had gathered in front of the castle. It was not an easy call to dismiss, a universe was kind of important, especially to those residing within it, no matter how one sliced it. I was nervous, quite nervous. Not only had I never spoken to a large audience, but I was quite a shy person, and the ponies, with their cartoonishly large eyes, were all staring at me, some in awe, others in excitement. My reputation was quite interesting. In their eyes, I'd saved their world once, and I'd save it again, but this time I'd need a little help from some sidekicks. This was not entirely accurate. I was Zach, a fourteen-year-old male human with no training, few skills, and dependancy on my teammates for survival. Regardless, I knew the most about these universes, and I was the main planner of the operation. It was almost time for me to make my speech.

"Citizens of Equestria," Celestia began, her voice surprisingly loud, yet still fluid. "You are here because you have been asked to save our universe from destruction. As you are all aware, Discord was defeated again last night by the Elements of Harmony. He was not confined to stone as before, and has split himself into twenty-two different manifestations, each one moving into a different universe from human fiction, and endangering the universal barriers between this universe and those, which means that these eight individuals will lead teams of four to go into these universes to defeat them. Since Zach is the only human here, he will explain further."

That was my cue. I retrieved a hastily-written piece of paper full of notes, looked around for a moment, and swallowed before delivering what I was slated to say. "Hello. I'm Zach. You might know me as the human that saved Equestria last month. Regardless of how true that might be, I'm here to help save it again. These universes are those that are from fiction in my home universe. Human society produces a lot of dark and violent pieces of fiction compared to this universe, and some of these fictions are those that some of us will have to travel to in order to stop Discord. There might be evil, there will probably be danger, and there will be risk. I cannot promise that we will all come back, and this is one of the reasons that this is a volunteer mission. This is how it will happen: I, along with the other team leaders, will assemble their teams from those present here, then they will look into which universe they are going to, and make preparations. We will depart tomorrow, at which point I will open portals to each of these universes for you to travel through."

I flipped over my page and cleared my throat again. "Each team will have two days to defeat Discord and return to where the portal took you in the first place, at which point I will open a portal for you to take back here, to Equestria. If a mission fails for whatever reason, attempts will be made to find the team and complete the mission. There will be no way to opt out of the mission while you are in these other universes, but after each mission, team members can choose if they want to continue to the next one, and those that might happen to fall will be replaced, not that we plan on losing anyone. In order to maximize versatility and safety, each team will contain at least one unicorn and at least one pegasus, and a unicorn in each group will need to know shield spells well enough that they can protect the entire group. As for the other two spaces in each group, other ponies will be picked for individual skills and talents. Now, the teams will be picked and those that don't want to go should leave. Thank you all for coming, this is a dark time for Equestria, and we all appreciate what you are offering to do."

I stepped backward. A few from the crowd began to leave, while the rest stood and talked amongst themselves. I only had one slot left for my team, so I looked around for a pegasus, one of which we'd need according to my own guidelines. The rest of the team leaders were joined by their already-established members and some of the ponies began to slowly approach us. It occurred to me that nobody knew how to pick and whatnot. This was getting nowhere, and I decided I'd do something about it.

"Everyone into groups. Unicorns on the left, pegasi on the right, and all others in the middle," I called. Slowly, the groups began to form.

"That's better. Now, team leaders, go talk to the volunteers, please. They want to help us, so let them help us." They all complied, and soon the leaders were at least partially surrounded by potential allies, talking to them all. I headed off to the pegasus group. Operation: Trans-Universal Crisis Team was go.

End of part IV

To be continued...

Chapter Five: Joining The Children

Chapter Five: Joining the Children

Our brief encounter with the Brotherhood patrol was friendly, and we had in our possession two pulse grenades. We entered the city soon after, Spike hiding in my backpack rather uncomfortably, with the ponies assuming the behavior of blindly-following companions of mine, as rehearsed. Rainbow and Spike had expressed distaste toward this practice, for the reason that Rainbow disliked being too quiet, and Spike had to curl into a ball to fit in my backpack, which was not comfortable. I had told them not to worry about what I did when we did find the Children of the Cathedral, I had a plan.

My plan consisted of offering to join the Unity, offering the ponies as unique creatures that the master could make use of in his army, and perhaps make more of them. Spike would remain hidden in my backpack until it was safe. The plan wasn't complete; I still needed to find a way to get into the Master's base. Perhaps I could offer myself as a super mutant candidate; my body was almost untouched by radiation, a prime candidate, even better than the master himself had been. It was risky, almost stupidly so, but as I saw it, it was the best idea I could come up with. Getting to the man we were sent to save was going to be another thing altogether, as would be actually getting to the Master through his psychic abilities, guards, and defenses.

Asking around for a while, I found out the nature of this settlement. It was a booming city, with an abundance of security, food, water, and opportunity. New Metropolis had four major factions and a ruling council. Surprisingly organized, I thought. The factions were color-coded, being blue, red, green, and yellow. The Blues were traders, opportunists, scavengers, and everything in-between. The Reds were a questionably-pure, relatively friendly communist micro-nation, that was often at odds with the Blue nation. They had an industrial capacity that was extremely impressive, allowing them to trade manufactured goods for other things. The Greens were mercenaries of all sorts, from loan sharks to full combat units, mercs from the Green faction could be hired for almost any job. The Yellow faction was a strictly agricultural state, which provided a good supply of food, sometimes even a surplus. They were thriving, as food was one of the most valued commodities of the wasteland. The entire city was thriving, each faction was rather well-off, and there was no fighting due to strict mediation by Green forces. The Children's church was actually not very hard to find, located in the center of the Blue area.

"Hello. Is this the Cathedral of the Children of the Cathedral?" I asked the guard, a robed figure who eyed my companions oddly before answering.

"Yes, it is. What is your buisness here?" He asked.

"I wish to join you."

"For what purpose?" He was testing me, and I knew exactly what he wanted to hear.

"To serve our New God, to transcend our ancestors. To spread the Unity." I had difficulty saying this convincingly, but it seemed to convince the man well enough.

"What are these creatures?"

"These creatures are highly valuable, unique, you could say. I wish to bring them before the New God and offer them as tribute. Their value is great, it is of great importance that I present this gift myself."

"I am sure he would be very pleased to accept your... generous offer. Please, come inside."

I cast a slight nod at Twilight, who seemed to understand my plot, as she made evident with a . Rainbow just looked confused, but while I'd expect any other pony to be scared, she only showed confusion. Twilight looked at her and nodded, and she followed her in with me.

The Children's base was quite ornate. The guard led us to a person wearing an ornate purplish robe, obviously of higher rank.

"This young man has an offer for the New God." He told him.

"Does he? What is it?"

"Creatures he claims will serve the Unity well."

"These creatures have surprising intelligence, and this one can fly." I explained.

"How intelligent are they?" The high-ranking man asked.

"Intelligent enough to understand my orders. I'll demonstrate." I pointed to a nearby spot on the floor. "Move." The two ponies immediately moved to that position, getting the hint.

"Very good. Why would the New God want such creatures?"

"For the army of the Unity, of course. To strike down those that oppose them. The blue one has significant speed. Demonstrate it."

Rainbow took off almost immediately, and flew around the room at great speed.

"Yes. I see. We can arrange these tributes to be sent in the next caravan to our New God's residence."

"I must insist that I come along as well."

"Very well, if you must. We are sending a group of other Children to Him that will leave on the morrow, be ready by noon, and do not be late, and do not do anything foolish in the meantime."

Yes! That was easier than I thought it would be. We left the city shortly after, to explain my plan more thoroughly to the ponies.

****

"So we're going to enter the base, and when we are brought before the Master, we'll destroy him? How will we escape?" Twilight asked. That was the one part of the plan I had not worked out. An idea occurred to me.

"We'll throw our pulse grenades at the Master when you're brought before him, probably taking him out, find the man, who wouldn't be far from the Master, I believe, then we'll go through my trans-dimensional portal to Equestria."

"Are you sure this will work? This Master guy sounds mean." Spike commented.

"I have no idea whether this will work or not. The Master has psychic abilities that might blow our cover."

"Psychic abilities? I thought magic didn't exist in this world." Twilight said.

"I don't think it's magic, it's some sort of mutation from FEV." I explained.

"I can try to dampen it if it happens, but if it's not magical I can't do anything about it."

"Try your best, Twilight."

It was getting late by then, and we promptly decided to go to sleep. Finding no suitable place to do so outside of New Metropolis, it was decided for safety's sake to cross into Equestria to report to the princesses and rest for the night. I set my watch's alarm for ten o'clock in the morning. We didn't want to be late.

Part IV: Chapter Twenty-One: A Purpose Fulfilled (Equestria) (Part III Summary)

Summary, Part III

Luna has located the last missing human, trapped in the universe pertaining to the Pokémon series of video games. Zach, Twilight, Rainbow, Spike, and Fluttershy travel there, and find that they have appeared in one of the in-game regions, Unova. As they journey through Unova, they find that the resident criminal organization, and one from far away, appear to have teamed up in an attempt at world domination, or something like that. In a hostile encounter, Zach loses his laser rifle, having it confiscated by police.

Later on, Zach and company are given a Pokémon egg by a passer-by, and meet the human they are looking for, a girl named Elise, in the region's largest city. They find out that there is a criminal presence in the city, and the team plans to help Elise by raiding it while she tackles another presence in another city. Elise gives Zach a Pokémon temporarily to bolster their chances of succeeding in the raid, and they do. The egg hatches into a Blitzle, a zebra-like Pokémon that Fluttershy adopts. After that, Elise returns with news that the Pokémon League, which is also where an abandoned criminal base is located, is under attack by criminal forces, and the team departs to bolster the defense. They succeed, and the attack is crushed.

In the aftermath, Elise leaves her Pokémon in that universe before she goes home with Zach's assistance. Fluttershy keeps Blitzle, and the team's primary goals are accomplished, leaving Zach with no need to go on adventure anymore. He goes to sleep that night, relieved.

Part IV: Chapter Twenty-One: A Purpose Fulfilled

We were running. The six other Elements of Harmony were running ahead of me. What were we running from? Something terrible, something unstoppable, something the Elements could not face down with their combined strength. Their- no, our- first defeat, our first failure, and it was reduced to this. Running.

"We can't outrun it!" Twilight shouted.

"Rainbow! You can make it! Go!" Applejack shouted at the blue pegasus keeping pace with the others overhead.

"No! I'm not leaving you here!"

"Go on, I'm sure we'll be okay!" Pinkie Pie half-lied. Whatever this was, we had all given in. We'd lost.

"Never!"

"Stop being such a stubborn pony! We can't stop it, you can still escape!" Applejack tried to convince her. By the way she said it, and the Element she represented, Applejack was sure; we couldn't do anything to stop it.

"We have to distract it somehow!" Rainbow changed the subject. My heart pounded in my chest as adrenalin kept me from falling too far behind the ponies, who were simply faster than I was.

"Hey!" I called out between heaving breaths. They didn't seem to notice me. I looked behind me. Nothing was out of the ordinary. They were running from me. Why? I noticed something was resting on my head. It was a crown, the crown of my Element, but instead of a grey stone, like it usually held, it was a blood-red, pointed star. I wasn't the Element of Order anymore, this was something different. Something... opposite.

"Run faster!" Rarity cried.

"You'll never be one of them. You never were. They don't care about you, they just think you're great because you saved the universe..." A voice was slipping into my mind. I couldn't pinpoint it.

"...But it wasn't you. It was me. I saved the universe using you, and now that you, my pawn, have played your favorite games, I will play mine, and you will fulfill a different purpose."

"But this doesn't make sense!" I cried out. "Why would they be running from me? Why are you doing this? I just want to return to my normal life!"

Your life isn't normal anymore, Zach, and you know it. I've been hanging around in here for about four weeks, and from what I've seen and heard, your life is just not normal anymore." The voice laughed maniacally.

*****

I woke up in sweats. Why was I so uncomfortable? What happened? Oh well, bad dream. I was bored. Very bored. I got out of bed and rooted through my backpack. I had to go to school. Did I have to? Probably. Did I want to go? Nah, but I'd go. Why not? There was a crown in my backpack. I tossed it across the room. I didn't need that. Was that my Element? Probably. I changed my clothes, putting my shirt on inside-out, putting on my sweater. It was at least a little bit less boring that way.

At school, I was given detention for throwing pencils. I had been bored, the very nature of the classroom was boring. So structured, so... ordered. Throughout the rest of the day, I did a whole bunch of things to make the day more interesting. "You've always been such a good student," they'd say, "we'll let you off the hook this time." Sure, not that it mattered. I was just trying to make it more interesting for me.

At home, I felt a strange urge to go to Equestria. I didn't bother taking off my backpack, I just left my universe and went to that one. There was always something to do there. I looked around. Okay, I was in the middle of Ponyville. Some of the ponies waved at me, happily. I was something to them, apparently. One of them stopped me and told me my eyes were a different color, orange, they said. Oh well, at least they weren't the boring blue they usually were. I decided to go to Canterlot. Why? Because it's less boring there than it is in Ponyville. I started walking. I didn't use the well-travelled path, that was too boring. I went through the brush. It'd take a while, but I had a while to get there, it was fine.

Canterlot came into view a few hours later. Two, at least. It was a pretty tiring journey, and very boring, not enough interesting things happened. In fact, nothing interesting happened. Or did I not consider anything interesting anymore? Oh well. Canterlot was kind of bland, ordered. That was fine, I might be able to change that later. I passed through the front gate. The guard seemed to recognize me. I couldn't tell, all the types of guards looked the same. Pegasus night guards, pegasus light guards, unicorn night guards, unicorn light guards. Not enough variety. Too boring. I might be able to change that too. How? I wasn't sure. I just wanted to go here for some reason. It wasn't too much less boring than Ponyville. I thought about going to the castle. Yeah, that was a good idea.

Navigating the streets was hard, but I arrived at the castle. The guards greeted me again. What was up with that? I might've saved the universe, but I wasn't the one to blame. I went into the garden. A familiar statue sat in the center. Well, it was Discord, of course. I walked over and touched the statue. I felt my viewpoint shift to that of the eyes of the statue. Man, it was going to be boring in here.

"Thank you for your willing cooperation," my body said, before laughing and walking away. As he did, he was wreathed in an orange glow. Well, this sucked. I wondered how Discord got inside my head. He mentioned four weeks in that weird dream I had. It must've come with the portal powers. Maybe I should've read the fine print.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Elemental Issues

Something filled my mind. It was quite unsettling, but at least this either meant that I was already going insane from waiting in this statue, or something had entered my mind. Again. This had to stop happening to me. Oh well. What was it now?

Return to us, Element of Order.

What are you talking about? Who are you? I'm not really an Element of Harmony, that was just a little party game, like all of this has been from the beginning.

You are required once more. We can assist you.

Okay, I'm listening.

Your afflictions cannot be healed by us, but if you trust us, we will help you do what is necessary.

Yeah, I knew it, you're the Elements of Harmony, aren't you? That's cute. What do I have to do to get out of this?

Be yourself.

Well, that's going to be difficult if I don't have my own-

My mind was flooded with images. Men and mer, friends and enemies, all filled my sight at once. Memories, new and old, of all those ponies I'd gotten to know over the last month, of all the adventures we had, of the success we'd enjoyed. I felt something welling up inside me. I felt... different, normal.

Return to us, Element of Order.

The voice faded. Okay, this was bad. I was still stuck in this statue. What was Discord doing with my body? How did the Elements get in my head too? I felt a need to tell the world that my mind was not a plaything, it was getting very, very annoying. I thought about what Discord could do with my body, threatening to destabilize the universe if he didn't get his way. This was bad.

Discord has no power. Your influence is bound to your soul, not your body.

Yeah, good to know, thank you. Now, get out of here, please.

I was left to think. Had the Elements been in my head the whole time, too? My brain sure had been crowded for the last few weeks, and I was getting awfully tired of being possessed. At least they snapped me out of that state. Now what did I have to do? Wait for someone to come rescue me? How in the world could they do that?

Ponyville library

"Alright, everypony. I've asked you to bring your Elements of Harmony with you because Equestria is in great danger," Twilight said, observing the reactions of her friends and finalizing in her head what she was going to say. Each of her friends had been asked to pack for adventure, and to bring their enchanted jewellery, to be prepared for whatever they decided to do about this. All were clad in their saddlebags, and Fluttershy had brought Blitzle along.

"W-what kind of danger?" Fluttershy asked. Before Twilight could answer, Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"Yeah, and where's Zach? I saw him a few hours ago, walking through Ponyville."

Those words struck like a hammer. This confirmed that Zach had betrayed Equestria.

"Where might he be? You must've surely sent him a letter." Rarity, too, spoke.

Twilight sighed. "Zach has overthrown the Princess. Legally, he is now the ruler of Equestria."

"How is that even possible? I mean, he's one of the Elements of Harmony, like us, right? No Element of Harmony would dare betray the others, and especially not the Princess," Applejack stated. All of them were certain of Zach's position as one of the Elements, there was no question there. The real question was why Zach would undergo such a reversal in loyalty practically overnight.

"I don't know, Applejack. What we do know is that Celestia has ordered us, specifically, not to intervene. I, for one, think that this situation completely calls for intervention," Twilight continued, "and if we can't stop him, we can at least try to figure all of this out. What do you girls think?"

The ponies looked amongst themselves for a moment.

"Umm... will this be dangerous?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight had to think about that. Zach had lost his only weapon during their last adventure, and his physical capabilities were nothing if not insubstantial. The most dangerous thing about Zach was his ability to maipulate the universal barrier, and that was what made him a risk big enough for Celestia not to interfere with. Though, he was unlikely to suddenly start doing chaotic things when they arrived, it wasn't like him to do so. Then again, nothing he'd done today were things he'd normally do.

"I don't think so, Fluttershy, but we can't be too careful."

"It is settled, then," Rarity said, "we will go to Canterlot and apprehend this rebel."

"Maybe he isn't taking over Equestria," Pinkie Pie said. All attention went to her. "I mean, it would be an awesome prank to pull."

"Again, Pinkie, we can't be too careful. We should get going to Canterlot, it's getting-" Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she noticed something. The sun was not setting. "-Late. Something has happened to the Princess! Come on, girls!"

The Elements, minus one, joined by Blitzle and Spike, made haste for Canterlot. The Princess was in danger, and Zach had gone rogue. The Elements of Harmony needed to intervene.

Canterlot Castle

Discord sat on the throne, gazing idly at the five statues, of four guards and a Princess, wondering where the second Princess had hidden herself. She would show eventually, he was sure of that. He'd already changed Canterlot to fit his preferences. The citizens were in panic, of course, and he was enjoying all of this chaos. Overthowing Celestia had been very easy, as was disposing of Zach. Sure, it had been boring waiting in his mind for such a long time, waiting for him to finish his games, but it had been worth the wait. The rest of the Elements would have recieved their letter not to trifle with 'Zach'- that is, if Celestia wrote one. She was smart enough to do that, though. They wouldn't be able to fight their 'friend' anyway, even if they knew it was him, and he knew how loyal they were to their beloved Princess. His victory was at hand, everything was going according to plan.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Chaos, In All Of Its Forms

Canterlot Castle gardens

If the Elements had been in my mind for the last four weeks, as had Discord, and both the Elements and myself were in this statue, then... Discord had completely occupied my body, and the Elements were trapped in here like I was.

You are correct.

So, what does Discord plan to do with me?

There is no way to know. He may attempt to corrupt you again, or he might release you. Little is known of his intentions.

And what of my friends? The other Elements?

They would not stand for this. They are likely to attempt to stop Discord. They already know of Celestia's deposal.

Celestia's deposal? What are you talking about?

The sun has not set. Discord has imprisoned or otherwise incapacitated the Princess.

Using my body?

Yes.

I should've expected that. Well, there's nothing we can do about it just now, is there?

Outskirts of Ponyville

They were making good speed toward Canterlot. They'd be there in a few hours at this pace. But did they have that long? Twilight Sparkle pondered this as she saw a shape appear in the mid-evening sky. Princess Luna descended when she noticed them, landing gently on the road ahead.

"Princess Luna! What's happened?" Twilight asked as the group hastily bowed, excluding Blitzle, who had stayed close to Fluttershy and knew only that something was going on, and it wasn't good.

"Discord has taken control of Zach's body. He has many of his powers, and has already transformed Canterlot to match his vision. My sister has been imprisoned. I have not set the sun so you would take notice of this plight, but it appears you already have. Come, we must reach Canterlot." Luna's voice remained calm as she explained the situation in detail.

"What's happened to Zach?"

"I do not know."

"Geez, that guy still needs to work on his sense of humor," Rainbow Dash said.

"Yeah, that's not funny at all!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"We can't afford to waste any more time." Luna's voice quieted the ponies.

"Alright, Princess, you're in charge," Applejack said.

Now the group was in far higher spirits. Not high spirits, not quite; Equestria was still in danger, as were Princess Celestia, Zach, and the rest of Canterlot. They had their Elements, and they knew who they were dealing with. However, since Discord was in Zach's body, this might not be so straightforward as blasting him with the Elements, not this time. With renewed enthusiasm, they again made haste for Canterlot. It was time to save Equestria once again.

Canterlot Castle

Luna still hadn't shown herself. That was fine. Ol' Discord had more than a few tricks to deal with her or any reinforcements she might bring with her- even the other six Elements of Harmony- in some feeble attempt to stop him from taking over the rest of Equestria. His chaotic influence continued to grow beyond Canterlot, and as he saw the world change before his borrowed eyes from the tallest tower of the great mountainside city, he felt proud. All was going according to plan. He wondered how Zach was taking this, sitting corrupted in the statue he once occupied. Probably pretty bored. He snickered at the irony of it all. He and his fellow 'bronies' often wrote about themselves or others defeating him, but this one had lost, for real this time. Maybe he could use him further. The Elements of Harmony wouldn't harm one another, would they? Discord began to laugh heartily as plans came to mind.

Canterlot Castle gardens, one hour later

From my static view, I could see my body approaching the statue. As per its new owner's changes, it was wreathed in an orange glow, as were its eyes. Discord began to come closer, the most diabolical of grins spread across the face I was the rightful owner of. Man, I wasn't pretty.

He wishes to corrupt you.

How do you know that? He already thinks I'm corrupted.

He thinks you already are, but he is mistaken. Steel yourself, he will attempt to twist you further.

Discord reached out and touched the statue. Images flooded my mind once more, of the fighting I'd done with and against my new friends, accompanied by whispers to incite rage and telling me that they were my enemies. I knew I would have been touched by these messages, if not for the Elements' presence. Whenever a notion of uncertainty, fear, bloodlust, or rage entered my mind, the Elements and I would block it. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, Discord moved his hand away.

"Now what do you think of your 'friends'?" Discord said, returning to the interior of the castle.

That was unpleasant.

Indeed, but you remain as you were. That is what matters.

What was he trying to do?

Turn you against your allies, as he had turned them against you before. He plans to free you from this statue in this form when they arrived, at which point you would fight and likely defeat them. Or so he believes.

Looks like he's in for a little surprise.

Canterlot Castle, two hours later

Discord looked through the telescope occupying the balcony of the tower, and saw what force the other Princess had gathered, moving down the road. As expected, it was the other Elements, joined by another creature, zebra-like in color. It was just that Blitzle that the one representing Kindness adopted. He had planned for this. When he released Zach, he would have all of his powers and no qualms with doing battle against his foes. He'd stone them, teleport them away, he could do all sorts of magic, plenty enough to drive them away, should his powers in this form fail him. And they would hardly resist, Zach would prove himself to be enough like he usually was that they wouldn't risk destroying him. What was left, but to give his guests a warm welcome to Canterlot?

Canterlot

Luna teleported them through the warped, unguarded gates of the city. Ponies ran in terror and fear through the streets, not taking notice of them at all. The interior of the city was similarly in complete disarray. Houses floated upside-down, fountains spewed molasses instead of water, mixes and mashes of various animals roamed the streets without purpose, and the roads twisted and banked in rediculous ways.

"This is unpleasant," Rarity commented.

"At least we know what we're fightin'," Applejack added.

"We'll have to be careful, though, this is still Discord we're dealing with, even if he does look and sound like Zach," Twilight said.

"I hope Discord didn't do something terrible to him..." Fluttershy added.

"He is still alive, I'm sure of it. Discord does not kill, be it ponies or humans. It is not above him, however, to break those who stand against him mentally," Luna said.

"You can say that again," Spike said.

Blitzle let out a noise, and his horn crackled with electricity. The ponies looked to where he indicated. Zach was walking down the road. The ponies took on battle-ready stances.

"Hello, my dear friends," he said. He sounded exactly like Zach. "I see there is no reason to continue this charade. You come here to rescue your good Princess, your fair capital city, and your dear friend Zach. I will tell you now, that you shall fail."

The Elements donned their pieces, and, at Twilight's order, began to focus the attack.

"Oh, Twilight Sparkle, you wouldn't use such a powerful weapon on your good friend, would you?"

The beam shot out, and Discord teleported behind them, the beam changed direction, and struck Princess Luna, knocking her over, but doing no other harm, the Princess quickly rising to her hooves again. The Elements charged the attack for a second time.

"What if Zach isn't in here? What if this is but an empty husk, and your friend is elsewhere? If you banish me, you banish this body. And if you banish this body, Zach is lost, forever."

Discord teleported to evade the attack once again, this time directing it into a building. He appeared again in front of them. Blitzle issued an electric shock, which was harmlessly absorbed by an orange magical shield.

"You're lying, Discord! You can't dodge us forever. Let Zach and the Princess go, we both know that you can't win," Twilight said, "girls!"

Discord teleported away again as a third attack was sent at him. He didn't come back this time, and the beam was directed at the castle.

"The castle! Let's go!"

The group continued at a run toward the castle. What did Discord mean by Zach being 'elsewhere'? Was he telling the truth? If so, where was he? It was time to confront Discord, and take him down. What Twilight feared, however, was the potential cost of doing so might be.