Chapters Misunderstood and Mutated
[Medulla’s POV]
I wandered through the caves in a haze, barely noticing the intricate structures and vibrant colors. Once I felt I was deep enough into the cave, I pulled five Leppa Berries out of my ‘bag’ and ate them like there was no tomorrow, found one of the less spiky corners of the cave, and closed my eyes and relaxed. When I meditate, I relive moments in my life or construct a mental playground, but when I’m particularly tired I only see memories.
[1223 years ago back on Earth]
It was my first convention but I wished I could have made a cosplay of Gold from pokemon. It was incredible, the energy in the merchant hall was infectious, but the body-odor off of some of them was almost unbearable. There was one merchant who no one seemed to even notice. I walked towards him, the crowd almost melted away, I felt like there was something pulling me to him.
He smiled as I approached him. “Well, what would you like to buy young man?”
As I looked around I noticed at everything was of incredibly high quality. But only one thing caught my eye, a fist sized gray cat’s-eye marble with pink and purple on the inside, looking exactly like the megastone Mewtwonite Y from the sixth generation of pokemon. I pointed towards it, “How much for that?”
He chuckled slightly, “Well that particular piece is handmade and with that quality it should be around five hundred at least, but you seem like a nice kid and I think that you’ll take good care of my handiwork, so for you… seventy five should do just fine.”
“There’s no way you could give me that kind of discount on something like this!” I said utterly shocked.
“No? I made it, I’m selling it, why can’t I set whatever price I want? I insist!” He affirmed.
“Okay, but I still feel like I’m robbing you blind.”
I payed for the the massive marble, and took it. I looked it over and felt the weight, it was beautiful and felt just right. Then the merchant started to laugh and I felt like an unseen wall around my mind shattered. For a short moment I could ‘see’ every mind around me, including the merchant. I could see he wasn’t a normal human, he was some kind of eldritch being projecting itself into this world. Seeing its mind broke mine. As the merchant tore me from my world I had already been driven insane, so as I traveled through the Void between worlds my mind couldn’t be broken anymore and it began to reassemble itself as best it could.
I landed in a forest clearing, my entire body was in agony and my mind reeling from seeing into the mind of an otherworldly unknowable entity. All I could do in that moment was scream, and only a small portion of that scream was vocal the vast majority of that scream was mental. And that mental scream, full of pain and confusion, tore through several miles around, and was echoed by every sentient mind with in that area.
[Celestia’s POV, Present time]
“Thou. Didst. WHAT!?", Luna roared, slipping into the Royal Canterlot Voice.
Shining Armor hung his head in shame, he shifted around as if trying to knock loose the right words.
Celestia while still disappointed in her Captain for his actions, knew he wasn’t entirely at fault for this. “Luna, he may not have been a stable state of mind, Insanity- I mean Medulla, even admitted that it manipulated him in his desperation.”
Shining responded quickly, “Yes, but everything I did was my decision. He never took my will as you pointed out, even though he might have been able to do it. I should still be punished for my actions even if I didn’t know this history.”
“If this knowledge were to become public, the populace will still want the pony responsible punished. We should act while only we know of this.” Luna added.
Shining stood resolute, “I should go before a tribunal to decide the punishment.”
Celestia decided on a better option, “No, effective immediately your on a one month unpaid administrative leave, after that you’ll receive a 25% pay cut until Medulla has been captured again. This must remain out of the public eye as much as possible, so we’ll find some excuse for the ‘official’ reason for this punishment.” He was about to protest when Celestia interrupted him, “Shining, I know that any punishment a tribunal decides on is nothing compared to the hell you’re putting yourself through right now. A month to think upon these events while you’re unable to do anything about it, is almost too severe in my opinion. You may go now, and take any personal effects home, you don’t want Storm Bolt messing with your stuff while you’re gone, do you?”
Shining bowed and turned around and began to walk away before pausing. He turned his head back and said, “I almost forgot, Medulla asked me to tell you that you had it all wrong, that you need to talk about this as adults, and that it’s sorry for everything, specifically that town because what ever happened there it didn’t intend. It sounded genuinely heartbroken, but I don’t believe that considering what you told me...”
Luna gave her a quizzical look as Shining Armor left but said nothing.
As his hoofsteps faded, the Princesses turned to one another, both looked very disconcerted. Luna spoke first, “I will head the search for the beast. It has an effect on the mind, I might be able to trace it by looking for the effect in ponies dreams.”
“True, we also need to have the Elements on stand by en case you find it. We wont have this be another century's long wild goose chase.” Celestia concurred.
“Captain Armor did mention that creature claimed a need to investigate oddities in the ‘mental landscape’ what ever that might mean, it’s likely a fabrication of some kind, but it won't be harmful to keep watch for whatever those might be.” Luna thought out loud.
At that moment they felt the presence of the being they once referred to as Insanity, but they now called Medulla.
“Just so you know, I do appreciate your sensitivity about my gender being unknown to you, you may refer to me a ‘he’. Although this body is genderless in every respect, I think of myself as a male for a few reasons. ” Medulla chimed in.
Luna flared with rage, "DEMON! WHERE ART THOU!?"
“Now now, Lulu, use your inside voice, or as I like to call it your thoughts. Shouting at the sky like that is one sure fire way to make ponies think you’re crazy. As to where I am, you should have learned this by now, I can communicate with unicorns or alicorns that are almost on the other side of the world, because their thoughts are projected so loudly and efficiently through their horns. You should probably find a way to suppress that, I’m not the only creature that can do this kind of stuff, you know. ” Medulla stated in a chiding voice.
“Why run? You’ve shown you can take us on before. Have you become a coward over your one thousand, one hundred year of prison.” Celestia said, her voice dripping with mockery.
“Well it’s quite simple really, I don... ” His thoughts seemed to trail off.
The sisters stood in silence for a moment unsure of what was happening. Celestia and Luna share a silent look, and Luna cast a spell to try to trace him.
“... Sorry about that something... distracted me, what was I talking about? ” Medulla’s voice seemed oddly flustered.
Somewhat confused Celestia reminded him, “You were explaining why you won’t just fight us head on.”
“Oh yeah, thanks Tia. As I was saying, I don’t want to fight you, because I want to make amends, so I have no reason to fight so long as you don’t try to confront me. Plus that time I beat you, I had caught you entirely off guard. So I wouldn’t call that a fair fight. Not only that but you two must have gotten stronger since my capture. ” His voice seemed more focused now.
“Thou seem much calmer than when we confronted you a millennium ago.” Luna noted.
“Well it helps to not be in front of you two brandishing weapons at me, and commanding me to be silent when all I’m doing is trying to explain what’s going on. Oh and that tracing spell you’re cast won’t work. If you’ll notice, I’m using every magic horn in Canterlot as an interlocking array of relays. Face it, when you’re in Canterlot, I’m basically untraceable. I’ll give you a hint to where I’m going though, as a courtesy. There’s a mountain village where an anomaly has moved too. It originally appeared ninety years after my imprisonment. If you can find me before I investigate and possibly destroy said anomaly, I’ll explain everything and more, so long as you’re willing to listen. Auf widersehen! ” And with that Medulla’s presence vanished.
The sisters just sat there quiet for some time.
“One thing’s obvious,” Celestia declared breaking the silence, “We’ve severely underestimated him.”
[Medulla’s POV]
Well, Using Gravity to make another wormhole is out of the question right now. I thought to myself as evening slowly approached.
I could use Telekinesis to lift myself up high enough, combined that with Gravity to pull myself forward, and move at about seventy to eighty percent. If that works out I should be there two hours past nightfall. That will give me plenty of time to investigate. This sounded like the least strenuous method of travel, unless I feel like trying my luck with Metronome… No thankyou!
I snapped my fingers twice, I started floating even higher than usual, and ‘falling’ due north. I used my innate levitation to move faster and bypass the normal terminal velocity.
Now, I began to let my mind wander, time to theorize who I’ll be going up against. The time frame of it’s original appearance would indicate a correlation between it coming here and all those minds far to the north disappearing. They didn’t die, or else I would have felt some about that… It could be that one… That would explain most of what’s going on. They’ve been bringing others here and breaking down this world’s barriers. But that still doesn’t explain ‘why?’
Author's Note
I actually waited until I was mostly finished with the second chapter to submit the story, because was uncertain who the community would respond or if they would at all.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 3 The night the first dragon died
[Medulla’s POV]
If this is who I think it is, then I don’t have much that can take them down quickly. So I’ll just go with a functional set up that they aren’t resistant to . As the town approached I began to strategize.
Let’s see for my Battle Moves… Can’t go wrong with Shadow Ball… well usually. Charge Beam, even though it isn’t exceptionally powerful, could come in handy. Ice Beam might be useful. That leaves one more move… Ooooohhh, I haven’t gotten a chance to use this one yet, Psystrike, you beautiful piece of destructive power, are going for a test run. And with that my Battle moveset was complete.
The village was called Surehoof Springs. As I walked through the sleepy hamlet I skimmed the minds of the locals for information. It mostly consisted of earth ponies, and it was a winter vacation resort. At this time of year it’s very quiet, and has no visitors. There was something else on all their minds, something they couldn’t quite put into words. The ground beneath their hoofs was acting oddly. The hot springs’ flow was intermittent and full of mud, and the snowmelt was disappearing without flowing into the rivers. The didn’t think much about it because it was the off season, but it still itched at the back of their minds.
Okay, good incentive to get this done with as little collateral damage as possible. But where is the epicenter? With that thought I levitated myself as high as I could, about one thousand feet in the air. I then snapped my fingers summoning the power of Miracle Eye. I may only be able to carry four moves into a battle, but outside of combat, with enough concentration I can use any move Mewtwo was ever able to learn and give it further utility. In battle, Miracle Eye enables psychic types attacks to damage normally immune enemies, but outside of battle, I can use it to see what the naked eye cannot.
What I saw confirmed my suspicions. Another landscape was overriding the natural one. It was starting deep underground, and faded in and out quickly. The process would take about at least a year to complete and by then most of the residence would have left because the winter attractions would have stopped working and the tourist would have stopped coming. At the top of the ridge that overlooked the town, there was a structure sitting just below the surface of this reality. It was like looking at an ancient Greek temple, with its roof torn off, under thirty feet of water. And I was beginning to understand what was happening.
Spear Pillar was being dragged to this world, and with it, more than likely, the rest of the world of Pokemon.
[Luna’s POV]
If Luna understood one thing about minds, it was that they couldn’t come in contact without leaving some trace on the other. Where that contact was a discussion over tea, or the actual melding of thoughts, minds have a way of leaving marks on one another. She was going to use this to find Medulla. A mind as powerful as his could not help but leave a trail on any creature that could think.
“Where art thou Medulla? Show me some trail.” Luna muttered under her breath as she soared over the mountains surrounding Canterlot.
None of the villages’ so far had a trace of Medulla’s presence. And there were so many villages in the mountains around Canterlot. It would take hours just to canvas each once. Most of the hamlets’ residences dreams were peaceful, with the occasional nightmare about Ursas or rockslides. After six hours she found one town that was not as asleep as it should be. She would have to return to Canterlot to set the moon soon, but this warranted investigation.
[Medulla’s POV]
I raced towards the forming Spear Pillar, not sure if could do anything to undo the current damage, but that sure as hell wasn’t going to stop me from trying. As I got closer to it I felt like i was swimming through jell-o. It seemed that this reality was trying and failing to expunge the intruding structure, and the one bringing it here was working slowly, possibly to avoid attracting more attention than necessary.
I finally broke through into the desolate temple. They knew I was there but they decided that I was not a substantial threat and continued their work out of site. “Hay water for brains, why don’t you stop metaphorically mutilating this plane of existence for FIVE SECONDS, so I can ram a Ice Beam SO FAR UP YOUR ASS YOU'LL HAVE BRAIN FREEZE FOR THE REST OF YOUR SHORT LIFE!! ” Smack talk: the best way to convince a species bent on fighting to become stronger to do exactly what you want.
“Young One, do you honestly believe that you could kill the LITERAL GOD OF SPACE!!” A pink bipedal ‘dragon’, more than twice my size, shimmered into existence twenty feet in front on me.
“OH good, arrogant and stupid a winning combination! ” The amount of sarcasm in my thoughts almost hurt me, ”Palkia, You’re no more a god than I am. I’m also not that young, I have around 1200 years of experience.You’re an elder dragon who just so happens to be able to control the fabric of space. In terms of raw potential we stand as equals, so don’t give me that high and might bull ‘cause I’ll start takin’ this personally. ” With that I took a fighting stance.
He just laughed like everything I said was the greatest comedy routine he’d ever heard. For that I just snapped my fingers and unleashed Psystrike. All around him psychic energy congealed into a physical form of razor sharp shrapnel, it then bombarded him from every angle. The result was a Palkia that looked like it been through a washing machine filled with grass shards and razor-wire.
“YOU. DARE. STRIKE. ME!!!” Palkia yelled breathing heavily between each word.
“You really are dumb! I don’t just dare, I did! ” I said completely monotone.
All of a sudden Palkia realized that he might be out classed. So he got desperate. “If you kill me this area will explode, with a force greater than any you could possibly comprehend, without my influence. ”
“Bluff, calling it. Why do some many creatures not realise that because I speak directly to their minds that I can read their thoughts. This superimposed reality will be expunged, as will all the damage you’re done. Even that crap with the Crystal Empire. Good the world will repair that on its own eventually. Why’d you do that anyway… No, wait, you just told me, REALLY you’re stupid rivalry with Dialga. I’m going to rip those shiny little orbs off your shoulders and force you to watch me crush th- ” That was when I remembered one of the most important rules of a fight; don’t monologue when you’re enemy is free to move, because they will hit you VERY HARD, just like Palkia did to me at that moment with Spacial Rend.
Were it not for the border of this area acting like a massive cushion, I likely would have flown all the way back to Canterlot. The power behind that attack was nothing to sneeze at but it was meant to get me away from him more than it was to harm me. As I regained my bearings, I noticed that Palkia was now standing on the ground outside the barrier and I was floating on the other side, and he looked like he was getting ready to do something big. He was facing the town so I knew that he was going to smash some shit up, and I had to stop him.
Some how he knew that I wanted to protect the town, and because I wanted that he was going to destroy it. I raced towards him charging up an Ice Beam in my left hand that might freeze him. As if predicting this he shot a quick Aura Sphere at me, not that he needed to aim it, it never misses. I wasn’t too worried about it hitting me, but if I was going to win this, with as little damage to the village as possible, every hit point would count. Just before it impacted me in the head I fired a Shadow Ball from my mouth. Luckily they canceled each other out.
I landed in front of Palkia and fired the Ice Beam I was holding. He managed to unleash his attack just before he froze solid. That attack was Bulldoze. Thankfully for the sleeping people of Surehoof Springs, I was able to absorbed the brunt of the attack. I was not looking much better than Palkia by this point, and I could only move at about ⅔ my normal speed.
“YOU DARE TO HARM INNOCENTS!!! YOU WISH TO SEE DEATH!! WELL THEN, I’LL SEND YOU RIGHT TO YVELTAL’S DOOR!!!!! ” It been a long time since I felt such unadulterated rage. And it was going to feel good to let it loose. I summoned the power of Psystrike once more but instead of congealing my psychic energy into shrapnel, I formed it into a sword, more specifically a Scottish claymore. I grasped the Psy-Sword in my right hand, and rushed the still frozen body of Palkia. I stabbed him right where his heart should be, and I let the sword’s power erupt. The ice around Palkia shattered, his body fell limply on the ground, blood gushing from the cannon ball sized wound in his chest.
“Palkia, I know you’re still slightly conscious in there, so I’m telling you this a courtesy. I going to find out everything you know, even if it means tearing your dieing mind apart piece by piece, Mmmkay. ” With that last bit of hatred dripping from my thoughts, I bore through every scrap of knowledge he ever held. Most of it was useless or too degraded from his imminent death, but I did find out that a group had formed after I was encased in stone. This group was intent on bringing everything from the Pokemon world into the Equestria. They called themselves Team Cascade, Man that’s a dumb name, well so are most of the team names from Pokemon, so I shouldn’t judge .
To my surprise the body started to dissipate. The would-be 'Spear Pillar' also faded into nothing. The world was reasserting its normal state. The only sign of the fight was the ice, blood, and broken trees left behind. Even more surprising was the the only things that didn’t dissipate from the body, were Palkia’s two shoulder pearls one shrunk slightly but retained it’s color it now resembled a massive pearl, the other shrunk to about fist sized and changed in color to resemble a gray cat’s-eye marble with dark purple and blue.
I chucked the gigantic pearl, also known as the Lustrous Orb, in my ‘bag’, likely to never be seen again. The fist sized cat’s-eye marble was something I’d been looking for for quite some time, the beauteous Mewtwonite X. I held it gingerly in one hand, watching it gleam in the starlight. While in the stone I’d seen something people like me had done, that I wanted to do it now.
I held the Megastone above me and focused my mind one the magic rock. “Let those who value the freedom of all sapient life and the beauty of nature call upon the name of Medulla in your hour of need and I will lend aid… Or if you want to hang out or whatever that cool to. ” I let it drop and snapped my fingers using Gravity to make a much small wormhole out to the Void underneath it.
And with that I passed out on the dirt, my only thought, why are those shrubs walking towards me?
Author's Note
Well, Medulla is now available for summons. Please PM me if you want for a cross over. I'll work with you, but I'm a computer science student in college who is working part time, so free time fairly rare for me so please understand. I'll also be posting the official summon information in the Displaced summon thread.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 4 Aftermath in a Town Obsessed
[Luna’s POV]
Luna lighted in the town square of the quaint village Surehoof Springs. She had heard many nobles mention this place as a place for an enjoyable winter vacation, although they would make it clear that they could care less for the earth-pony residence. Many ponies were moving from building to building, not in panic but possibly in search for or investigation of something. The foals were standing at the doors watching the movement and rubbing their eyes, a few holding blankets. One pony stopped in her tracks when she notice Luna standing there watching, the mare bowed respectfully then turned and ran in another direction. The mare approached a stallion who was few blocks away, and said something to him while pointing a hoof at the Night Princess.
The stallion quickly approached and bowed. “Princess Luna! You grace this small town with your presence. I’m Ridge, Mayor of Surehoof Springs. How can I assist you?”
“Why are some many of your citizens up this yearly in the morning?” Luna inquired.
“I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I said getting ready for winter, would you?” He replied half laughing.
“I certainly would not.” She replied flatly.
He sighed heavily. “Come with me all show you.” He said as he walked up the slope of the mountain away from town.
As the walked he explained that about three months ago the hot springs stopped working right, the flow was periodic and muddy. “Most of us were starting to lose hope, but we wouldn’t talk about it. A bit too proud I guess.” He clarified.
“Why tell me this?” asked Luna.
“Well, not three hours ago the springs began to flow like nothing had ever been wrong. And just before that we were woken up by some incredible ruckus.” He pointed to a patch of overturned dirt and snapped trees. “Thats all the damage caused.”
“Medulla did this!” Luna spat barely containing her anger.
“Well,” Ridge began to declare matter-of-factly, “That all depends on which one was this Medulla character.”
Luna almost seemed shocked. It was then she realised that she could just barely sense Medulla’s sleeping mind. She rushed towards the cottage on the other side of town where she felt he was. Ridge raced after her yelling things like, “Wait!”, and “You don’t understand!”. By the time she was nearer the cottage, he yelled, “Don’t let her into the cottage!”
Five earth ponies jumped in front of the door. “Stand aside!” Luna commanded, but her voice wavered a bit unsure of what was happening.
“Sorry, Princess.” One of the ponies said very sheepishly.
“If you let me explain for just a second, and promise to not do anything rash, I’ll tell them to step aside. Deal?” Ridge held out his hoof, inviting her to shake on the promise.
“Fine!” Luna said very flustered.
“I was about to tell you that there were two creatures fighting. Some of us came out to see what was going on. The bigger one came towards the town and stopped looked like it was concentrating real hard on something. The smaller one got between it and then shot some kind of beam at the other freezing it solid, just after the bigger one sent out some kind of wave through the earth that likely would have torn this town apart. The smaller one absorbed the power somehow, looking really beaten up after words. It was then that we heard it say something about the bigger one hurting innocents and wanting to see death. The smaller one then utterly destroyed the bigger one, it evaporated. Now the smaller one may have gotten violent at the end, but that was only because it wanted to protect us. It passed out, and we carried it here to help heal it. If this smaller one is that Medulla you were talking about then I won’t let you take it away, at least not until it’s healed up properly.” Ridge’s eyes held a fire as he spoke.
“I wish to see him at least. I promise I won’t harm him.” Luna said in the most reassuring voice she could make.
The ponies stepped out of Luna’s path. As she walked in, the she saw just how severe the injuries Medulla had sustained. Just from outward appearance at least one leg was badly injured if not broken, he might have suffered a concussion, and a variety of scrapes and bruises all over his body. “Oh my.” she muttered under her breath.
The mayor seemed to notice the look in her eyes, “You should have seen the other guy, looked like he’d gone a few round with an Ursa Minor before Medulla killed him.” He continued, “I don’t know when he’s going to wake up, so could you maybe enter his dream and tell him thank you from us.”
Luna scowled slightly, “He’s either not dreaming or intentionally blocking me out, but I would if I could.”
“We’ll send word once he’s healed, but he’s a not our prisoner, he’s a guest of honor, considering that not only did he save our town from immediate destruction, some believe his killing that bigger beast brought back the springs.” Ridge’s eyes gleamed with joy.
“I’ll inform Celestia of this. Please delay his leaving as long as you can.” Luna requested as she walked out the door, “I must return to Canterlot to make way for the sun. This has been... most informative.”
[Medulla’s POV a few hours latter]
Something felt wrong, I wasn’t passed out face first in the dirt anymore, I was in a bed… That’s when I remembered the last thing I saw before I fainted.
“Get your paws off of me you Damn, Durty, Flower Hedgehogs. ” I yelled as I thrashed around.
The thrashing was not a good idea; I hit my head against the headboard of the bed, and I felt something pop in my left leg, “Why must I be so stupid sometimes? ”
Ponies started rushing in, and the ones by the bed, stood up. They were very curious about me. I sat up to get a better look at all of them, and suddenly felt the need to vomit. “Is there a bucket anywhere? ”
An orange mare lifted a bucket on her foreleg. I quickly levitated it to my mouth, but by the time it reached my mouth I didn’t need it anymore. “Nevermind. it passed… is it okay if I keep this? ”
All of them nodded like bobbleheads. “Okay thanks… ” I stored the unused bucket in my inventory. All their eye’s widened when the bucket seemed to disappear in my hands.
“I just stored it away in case I need it in the future. I call it my bag, I can carry almost anything in it, but it does take some focus to pull stuff out. If I want to use something during a fight I put it in a special slot in my bag, I guess you could call it. ” I was having a hard time gauging the room even with reading their minds.
That was when a slightly larger, mud-brown stallion came into the room, He had a mountain peak as a Cutie Mark. The smile on his face was intense, as if the was the first reason he’d had to smile for a long time. “WELCOME TO SUREHOOF SPRINGS!” He moved immediately to my bedside, and began to shake my hand so vigorously, I felt my shoulder pop. “I can’t thank you enough for saving this town!”
“Well Ridge, it is Ridge right, It would be nice to have a little more space in this room. ” I was starting to feel claustrophobic with more than half the town trying to fit in this room.
“I know you all want to thank him, but you’ll all get a chance so go about your day until then, got it!” Ridge began to push people out of the room, a few still hung around. “How do you know my name?”
“Well everyone in the room thought it as you entered, I read your mind to verify, and when I first arrived found your name attached to the concept of 'authority figure' for most of the townsponies. ” There was silence for half a minute before I spoke up again, “Sooooo, the hot springs working again? ”
“They started working almost immediately.” There was so much happiness in his voice and mind, that I couldn’t help but smile a little.
“Good, ‘cause… ” I got distracted again, it was maybe ten seconds before I was able to remember and continue, “because I could use them to heal faster. ”
The ponies still in the room seemed a bit confused about the pause.
“Something on your mind?” The mayor said.
“No, not really, it isn’t even worth mentioning, unless a mare named Mountain Rose is a married or underage relative of yours. ” I couldn't completely lie to these guys, they had probably saved my life.
“No, but I do know her, how do you know her name.” Ridge eyed me warily.
“Like I said not worth mentioning, heh… but those hot springs, could I take a dip? ” I tried to make my thought as calm as possible to make sure the subject was back on track.
The mayor looked at me like that wasn’t even a question. “And why in the name of Tartarus and all the demons within would we not let you do that.”
“Awesome! lead the way. ” I started to move out of the bed, but the hoof of one nurse pony, I think she was the one that patched me up, pressed against my chest stopping me.
“You’re nowhere ready to to walk, I’m still not sure if your leg’s broken or not.” She barked.
I looked at her right in the eye with a smirk and said, “Who needs to walk? ” and proceeded to float off the bed and out the door.
Okay my left leg still sent waves of pain through me, but I knew that the hot springs would fix that right up. The Mayor walked ahead of me pointing out landmarks, we waved to ponies on the way. As I walked something very unexpected happened, a polaroid photo popped into existence through a butterfly shaped portal and hit me in the face. The moment it did so I heard a female voice say, “Time, the real final frontier. This is the token of Max Caulfield, the Master of Time. Its mission: to seek out those who would protect others and tear down tyrany; to boldly go before me so that I may be called when the time is right.”
I quickly bagged it, along with all my other tokens, I’d found quite a few over the hundred years of freedom before my stoning, but I never had any reason to use them until now. Most of the Pokemon I’d encountered before were either complete no-threats or so utterly docile that they couldn’t intentionally hurt anyone.
“What was that?” Ridge must have caught a glimpse.
“Think of it was a possible friend letting me know their mailing address. But ignore that for now, I need to get my chill on in those hot springs. ” I waved my hand to motion that we should hurry up.
I could feel the healing properties of the water restoring me to my full strength. As I sat there I mentally scrolled through all the summon tokens I’d found. A key blue keyring with gold dots, I had attached a key made of water to it along with a small dragon claw that had red, purple, and blue flames emanating from it, those three just seemed to go together in an odd way. Sam Aran’s badge thing that looked like the screw attack item from smash bros. A genji medallion. A perfect black diamond. And a blue coin with a tornado on it, just to name a few.
Over the course of an hour, I removed the bandages and wrappings, revealing that my wounds had fully closed, heck my leg was good as new now. As a dried myself off with a focused Sunny Day, the mayor walked in and said something that would have surprised me a lot more had he not rehearsed it in his head ninety time on his walk here, “The Parade in your honor is about to start.”
The only thing that really surprised me was how fast they prepared it.
Author's Note
All those tokens I mentioned are references to stories I would like to eventually do cross overs with.Wibbly-Wobble Timey-Wimey? Nope, Just Max Aura Blades Metroid, Displaced in Equestria For Glory! For Equus! For Epicness! Gravity of the Situation Land of Friendship and Magic
Those not in list:Yah, Not going to even try to type out the whole title Lord Regrence Buu, The Majin Of Harmony
And a final note: These past two days are not representative of my normal free time, While spring break rocks, I have been putting off a lot of homework, It shouldn't take me that long it's just that I've gotten super focused on this, so time has been flying by super fast. I'll still try to update as much as possible, but next few days sounds unlikely, maybe intermittently throughout the rest of the semester.
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Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 6 Pics, Pissed Dragons, and Pumpkin Chuckin'
[Medulla’s POV]
It didn’t feel like it was very long after I fell asleep that the door creaked open and Twilight called down, “Are you ready to answer some questions?”
I responded with my tone dripping with sarcasm, “Yes, the answer to that one is NO! ”
She closed the door in huff.
I could have sworn that it was only a few minutes before the door slammed open and Twilight yelled down, “DO YOU WANT TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS?!” Her tone suggested that the world might end if I didn’t.
I just moaned like I was half asleep.
The door slammed shut so hard dust fell from the ceiling. The room went silent for what seemed like only ten minutes. Again Twilight, intent on waking me up, opened the door and asked somewhat annoyed, “Are you even still alive down there?”
“Yes, Twilight, I’m alive. Can a guy get just five minutes of rest in this place? ” I shouted a bit angrier than I probable should have.
“It’s been three days.” She said flatly.
“Wut? ” My eyes shot open. I then noticed that Twilight was wearing a costume. “...Why are you dressed like Starswirl? ”
“It’s Nightmare Night. And thank you for noticing… Wait, how did you recognise my costume on the spot?” Twilight said with a mixture of pride and confusion.
“Had a run in with him in Transylmaneia. He died before I could call in the favor he owed me from that debacle. ” I stated, rather upset. “You said Nightmare Night? ”
“Yes, and you said you knew Starswirl the Bearded? ” Twilight asked, almost in shock at this.
“It’s long boring story, and I have no intent on telling all of it anytime soon. But. YOU. SAID. NIGHTMARE. NIGHT! ” I was getting very excited.
“But!” Twilight started to object.
“I’ll be up in a minute. ” I said, the joy was seeping into my thoughts.
“I’m heading out for the night. I’m not going to stay here and question you when I can be having fun with my friends. ” She was upset by the idea of staying here when her friend were out there.
“Who said anything about questions? If you couldn’t tell from what I said before, I’M EXCITED ABOUT NIGHTMARE NIGHT! IT MEANS THAT IT’S THE ONE NIGHT OUT OF THE YEAR WHERE MOST PONIES EXPECT TO BE SCARED! AND ABOVE ALL ELSE IT MEAN CANDY!!! ” My eyes were noticeably dilated.
“How can the thought of candy make anypony so manic?” She muttered to herself as she walked away.
Ooooohh, This is going to be fun. Candy, friendly scares, amusements, CANDY! , I thought as I floated to the bathroom. I don’t really need a costume, maybe a hat?
What I saw when I looked in the mirror made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. Someone had drawn as goatee on my face. If I had to guess it was the purple and green dragon that lived here. I couldn’t even be mad at the little guy, the craftsmanship was impeccable, and he would have had to use a ladder. It was the best ‘sharpie goatee’ I’d ever seen.
As I turned to float away, I noticed something something gray and gold flash past the mirror. I looked back but it was just a normal mirror. Just a trick of the light. Maybe? … I hope so.
But just in case… Blizzard, Ice Punch, Psystrike, and Shadow Ball.
As I walked through town, I began to realize just how hard it would be for me to get any candy on my own. Hmmmm, that Max seemed like she might be fun . I walked into the alley by Sugar Cube Corner, pulled out Max’s photo, and focused my thoughts into the selfie.
“Hey Max, This is Medulla, it’s Nightmare Night over here on my end want to mess around for a bit?” I hear as I hit the bed.
“Ugh, looks like we’ll have to continue this when I get back,” I said as Cadence pulled back.
She quirked an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”
“Some other Displaced is Summoning me and I don’t know how to reject them yet.” I pushed her off of me and stood up just as the portal opened under me. “Let ‘Tia know that I got summoned so she doesn’t get upset.”
Max’s butterfly effect portal appearing on the exterior wall of Sugarcube Corner was unexpected. The girl on the polaroid photo stepped out and floated to the ground like a dry leaf.
“Whoa, gravity’s off a little,” she said as she tried to stand, only to launch herself up a few feet and float down to land on her head.
“I can fix that if you’d like.” I said, trying to avoid laughing.
“Nah, I’ll get used to it. At least I’m not gravitating towards the sky this time.”
”You don’t need to say much more about that, the rest of that story flashed through your mind.”
Max looked at me and her mind became unreadable for a few seconds. “Yeah, I did go a little overboard with that. But their reactions were hilarious.”
”Sorry about my token, I had no idea it could hit someone that hard. And don’t worry, I’ll try to respect your privacy. But I do have to project my thoughts to speak to you,” I said with regret.
“Nah, I just never really got hit before then,” she said waving it off as she tried to stand again, this time succeeding.
”One thing before we go crazy here, I haven’t had the ‘Your entire world was a show where I’m from’ talk with anyone yet, so try not to obliquely foreshadow anything.”
Max dusted herself off as she said, “I haven’t either, but then again mine isn’t conforming to it exactly.”
I smirked, “ Mine is as well so far, and I’d like to avoid causality spoilers.”
Suddenly I got a very clear thought from Max. I wonder if this Celestia would mind a visit~....
I reeled back at the thought, “Dear lord, that image… That was intentional wasn’t it?”
She just looked at me with an innocent little smile on her face and a little halo actually dinged into existence over her head. “Might’ve been. But then again, you might’ve seen something you shouldn't have.”
“Probably, and I thought I enjoyed teasing people like that.” At that moment a pink pony wearing a chicken costume raced towards us, but Max intercepted her.
“Yay! Pink party pony’s here!” she said as she tackled Pinkie. ... I’m not even going to try to understand how she knows what Pinkie tastes like.
I sighed, “This is Max, she’s just visiting so no need to throw an impromptu party.”
The pony I knew was Pinkie just laughed, “Don’t be silly, It’s Nightmare Night! The entire night is one big party!”
Thanks for that, I want my first Pinkie party to be from mine. Max thought as she flipped off of Pinkie, lightly landing next to me.
No problem.
The pink mare spoke up again, “That reminds me, I still need to get your welcome to Ponyville Part ready.”
“Well miss, I’d love to help you come up with ideas for it tomorrow. But right now I need candy,” I declared.
Max, as flattering as that thought was I literally can’t feel that way anymore. Max turned to me and unloaded her thoughts about losing a reproductive system. Sorry for your loss I guess.
I gained something else.... I guess I can’t really understand your position, then.,
I like to think is was a small price to pay for a brain to match most supercomputers.
The pink one took advantage of the moment of silence to respond, “You can just call me Pinkie, and I need some candy too.”
” Pinkie hmm.. I’m Medulla, but could you just every once in a while call me Brain.” I was starting to have some fun.
“Okey, Dokey Brain.” Pinkie said in a sing song voice.
I squee-ed with joy internally, If only she actually sounded like Pinky. .
I picked up a thought from Max about not being a mouse before she said, “Glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that.” She turned towards the edge of town. “Come on, time’s a wastin’, and I can only affect it so much.”
“Where do you want to head first? There’s some games, and a hall of mirrors?
“Candy first, then eye-candy, maybe the hall last.”
”Alright, let’s head around and look for games with candy as the reward. I mean not many houses will hand out candy to beings like us. I said with determination.
“Says you,” Max scoffed. “There’s always more than one way to get chocolate. You just have to get creative.”
I contemplated that for a second, ”My methods of persuasion are less than honorable, and I deplore theft.”
“Please, I’m not talking about stealing -- I’ll only do that to thieves -- I’m thinking something like this.” Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a yellow polaroid camera and some film for it.
”Trade?” I asked as I tilted my head to the side.
“Oh yes, I’d give away my only camera for a few candy bars,” Max deadpanned.
”You’re just being obtuse now, you knew I meant pictures.
“... Oh. I was thinking of selling them then buying candy from foals, but that works as well.”
I thought for a second, ”You could do both, some ponies like most adults would pay money, but foals and some other could trade for candy. ‘Cut out the middleman’”
Max stood there for a few seconds before she said, “Okay, got the pictures. Just need a sign and a table.”
I almost forgot you had time powers of some kind. I said a little shocked. I can take care of the sign.
Pinkie pulled a folding table from out of nowhere, “And here’s a table! Thanks for giving me another night of candy!”
Max stared at Pinkie. “Um.... You’re welcome?”
As Pinkie skipped away, I thought,”Great! another anomaly I’ll have to check on later. Let’s set up shop on the side of the road.”
I snapped my fingers twice, the table levitated and set itself up next to the road. Then ghostly flames burst into existence above the table spelling out, “Max’s photography: We take bits or candy!”
“Don’t try to understand Pinkie, I’m trying not to myself,” Max said as thoughts of her licking what looked like whipped cream off of the pink mare came to me from her.
I snickered, “First off, who said anything about understanding her, I just need to make sure her awareness of this type of stuff can’t damage the space-time continuum significantly. Secondly, that’s unsanitary.
I suddenly got an image of Pinkie with a balloon coming towards Max, a sultry look on her face. “Had a fun time, though~.”
”Kinky! Let’s just sell these pictures and get some candy!”
We sat there for the next few hours selling Pictures and Max dodging questions of how she got them before she started selling some very risque photos when no foals were around. Unsurprisingly, no one asked about those. Once all the photos were sold, we had a huge pile of candy and bits.
“I think we messed up with not separating the bits and the candy,” Max said as she bit into a bit thinking it was a chocolate coin.
“Anything sour?“ I asked, with a little dribble on my chin.
“I think I saw some that looked like Warheads in there somewhere,” she replied as she pulled out a bar of chocolate and made the whole pile collapse on us.
”This will only take a second.” I licked my lips. I slammed both hands on the table, levitating all the candy and bits sorting them in a matter of seconds. The bits were on one side, the chocolate, sour, spicy, normal candy in piles on the other.
“Hey, I was about to eat that!” Max complained when her teeth closed on nothing but air.
“It’s right here.” I levitated it out of the pile of chocolates, and gave it back. “Any games you want to do before the hall of mirrors.”
Max hummed thoughtfully. “Well, they won’t be much of a challenge for me and there aren’t any where you can build your own catapult from scratch. The one with launching the pumpkins was fun, but could be better....”
“How would you improve it; fire, coller targets, stronger launchers?”
“Nope. Turn it into its own competition; introduce them to Pumpkin Chunkin’,” she said with a smile.
“Get me Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. This will happen!” If I had a mirror my smile would probably have scared me.
Max saluted then disappeared. In only half an hour we had the two most competitive ponies in town working together to build a catapult to launch a pumpkin farther than I could.
Apparently Max had told Pinkie to spread the word that a new competition was being made as the entire town watched and three fillies joined in the construction.
“So this is something from your world?” Rainbow asked as she set a board in place.
“Oh Yes! Normally the competitors have a decent amount of prep time, this is more impromptu.” I just stood there with a smug look on my face. “You almost ready?”
“Yeah, you have a whole year to plan, build, repair, and tweak your ‘Chunker,” Max said as she tugged the arm down, with help from Applejack. “ready for launch.”
As they launched the first pumpkin, the air began to shimmer. It was almost like looking into a mirror. The sky rippled and a gray serpent with black and red rings, gold spikes, and six black and red prehensile spines on its back. The gourd smashed right into the legendary dragon’s face.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Max cover her mouth with a hand, her shoulders shaking in mirth.
” Well, should have seen that coming.” I ‘muttered’ as I formed a pumpkin cannon with Psystrike, loaded the pumpkin and infused it with the power of Shadow Ball.
“He did!” Max exclaimed before falling over, joining Rainbow in laughter.
Facepalming, I fired it at Giratina’s main body. The ghost dragon was knocked out of the sky. As the dust settled Giratina rose to its feet that were now there in its altered form. He then roared so loud that Big Mac hid behind Granny Smith. Everything went silent. “You dare STRIKE THE MIGHTY GIRATINA WITH DISGUSTING FRUIT?!” “ His chest still smoking, from the empowered pumpkin.
“He doesn’t even know that they’re gourds?” Max asked when she recovered.
“The name matters not! What does is you have insulted me!” Exclaimed the dragon only getting angrier.
“The first one was an accident, mine wasn’t!” Getting his attention.
Max put her hand on her face. “Seriously? I thought legendaries....”
“Think of this one like a super violent Lulu.”
“So basically he’s like my Celly, except he has PMS.”
“Only it’s all the time, not just every month.” I seem to keep forgetting to pay attention when these big bads are around, because Giratina used Dark Pulse on me, sending me flying into the nearest building.
... Or it would have if it was moving faster than a snail. “This is what happens when you try to interrupt a conversation,” Max yelled as she shot the Pulse with a laser rifle, making it explode in the dragon’s face.
“Thanks, now let’s learn this brute some MANNERS!” I shouted in a super fake southern accent, as I called upon Ice Punch, and recreated Frostmourne from WoW out of solid ice. I charged at Giratina with a battle cry and the sword in hand.
“Yeehaw!” Max said as she stood on the edge of the blade. She pulled out an iPod and put on a song that was slightly familiar.
I ‘jumped’ just before reaching the confused dragon. Max leaped off and pulled out a second gun, firing both into Giratina’s back. While I quickly hovered around, slashing at him with my frozen sword and dodging his wings that had turned metallic wings, scratching me a few times. Giratina, being very lucky, hit Max square in the back of her head with a metal wing, sending her flying into a building.
Now I was pissed. I called upon the power of Psystrike to make a claymore again, now wielding two swords. “ DIDN’T ANYONE EVER TEACH YOU TO NEVER HIT A LADY!?” I was now slashing and stabbing Giratina with an incredible fervor. Until Giratina disappeared.
”MAX, YOU OKAY?” I shouted, but staying where I was to not get blindsided by the attack that was bound to arrive soon.
“Did someone get the number on that bus?” Max asked as she stumbled out of the wall she had been slammed through.
“Everypony stay back, and get to safety! Max if you're able I need you to turn back time once I get hit, and let me know when and where it’s coming, if you can’t I still might be able to take it.”
“It’s coming from below you,” Max yelled, still holding her head.
I was just barely able to dodge out of the way, my tail was still grazed though. Then Giratina decided that this was getting fun, ”None have been able to escaped that attack before, I’m impressed! But I tire of this, you defended a worthless town from my brother, why not do so again?”
Almost immediately the sky filled with an eerie red light. He had called down Draco Meteor. ”That’s a dick move bro!”
“And I won’t be able to do anything about it except slow it down,” Max said.
“Do that, please! Now Giratina, I’ll end this!” .The temperature of the air around me began to drop rapidly. Snowflakes began to fall. I channeled more strength I could usually justify into one massive blast of ice and wind. The most powerful Blizzard I’d ever summoned. As he became encased in ice sent out one last dark pulse, that hit me in the shoulder, leaving my left arm useless. I then turned my attention to the slowly falling meteorite. ”Here comes the fun part” I floated up to meet the hunk of empowered rock. I clenched my fist, and focused on the power of Rock Smash. I began flying around the rock, hitting it in strategic points and breaking off chunks, until the it was more of a meteor shower. Finally, I used Gravity to send them flying into the unpopulated mountains nearby.
I floated back to Giratina, letting him thaw. I then surrounded him with a barrage of Shadow Balls to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. ”Now Giratina, let’s talk about what you’re going to do now?”
”I serve Lord Arceus, You will never control me!” Giratina declare defiantly.
“Everything you do from here on out is your decision. But let me give you some advice. What has the high and mighty bastard ever done for you? He banished you, because you were a little too violent. That is bull shit, Palkia was almost just as violent you, and I’m pretty sure Dialga won’t be much better. You’re the Renegade! What do you owe Arceus? You should just leave here, take your Distortion World, and go anywhere in the multiverse you want.”
With that the Renegade dragon smiled and melted into the ground, as he said, “I’ve always wanted to see other worlds based off of TV shows.”
“You could come with me!” Max said after Giratina was gone.
”You’re hurt, Max, sit down.” I let my concern leak into my ‘voice’.
She sighed, “Yeah, I guess he wouldn’t want to hang with someone he hurt.”
”Look at me, please.” I said in a somewhat stern voice. She turned to me looking a bit annoyed. I ignored the stare. One of her eyes was slightly more dilated than the other ”Looks like a concussion but I can’t tell how severe. If you have any mental barriers I’m going to need you to let me through so I can see how bad the injury to your head is.” I started scanning her mind as best I could. Nothing life threatening. There were a few things that were off…
”Here, drink this.” I handed Max a glass bottle of Berry Juice.
"Thanks,” Max said before downing it. “Tasty.”
”Mixed it myself, should help you heal much faster.” I couldn’t help but smile at what I figured out about Max that even she didn’t know yet.
“Wow, must’ve been hard to find berries that you mixed.” Max reached into her bag and pulled out a tube with what looked like a blue double helix inside. “Here, I doubt I’ll ever need Nemesis’ raw power. You sure could use it, though.”
”At first it was, but then I made an orchard. Need to find some time to find it. Thanks, who knows when you might need the most deadly living biohazard. Max your contract is complete, you may return to your Equestria. Be sure to see a doctor once you get back… Oh, and congratulations! You’ll have to contract me again once the baby is born. ” I said smirking as her portal opened.
Her right eye twitched and she slowly sank into her portal. It was almost completely closed when I heard her scream, “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!”
Twilight and Luna both approached me then, with Twilight looking curious while and Luna was furious. "I'll explain everything relevant about today to Twilight tomorrow. Right now I need to eat five pounds of candy and sleep." Luna tried to protest but I sent a thought specifically to her, When has someone sleeping ever stopped you from getting information from them?
Once back in Golden Oaks Library, I happened to walk past a mirror. Something about my face had changed. Max got the last laugh of the night, she drew a monocle to match my goatee at some point and made sure I wouldn't remember. I'll clean it tomorrow.
Author's Note
First cross over done! This was a cross over with Wibbly-Wobble Timey-Wimey? Nope, Just Max .Runic_Soul
Misunderstood and Mutated
[Medulla’s POV]
I knew Lulu would come for a visit in my sleep, so I tried to make sure that I was in my mental ‘playground’ instead of a memory. But for some reason my subconscious mind decided that wasn’t going to happen right away. As I stood in the middle of Twilight’s basement and drifted into sleep I found myself floating over a forest clearing.
Which memory is it this time? Almost if to answer my question, I saw the the princesses and five royal guards flew towards the clearing as the old me aimlessly floated through it while eating a berry he just found. Well it makes sense that one event I truly regret is the memory I view from above and out of body. This was the first time I met the sisters.
“Halt, creature!” The guards yelled.
The other me stopped dead in his tracks. Looking up, “I was wondering when the locals would finally greet me, instead of running at the mere sight of me. ” He could sense the fear coming from them but was trying to lighten the situation before it got out of hand.
They were dressed for battle, the princesses gazes like steel. Celestia spoke first, her tone colder than I expected,“Creature, for driving an entire village to madness, and disturbing the peace you will be brought to trial. ”
“Listen, I have no idea what you’re talking about… well okay, the ‘disturbing the peace’ thing I get, but what village? ” He made sure there was concern on his face, this body didn’t express emotion very well.
“BEAST!!” Luna yelled, leveling her weapon at the old me, “You know what village! I could sense your presence in the minds of all those that lived there, YOU DID NOT EVEN SPARE THE FOALS!!”
“I still don’t know what you’re talking about. You need to calm down! This will only get worse if you keep yelling a- ”
He never finished that thought, because Luna was enraged, “WAS THAT A THREAT?! GUARDS SEIZE THAT MONSTER!!! ”
Too fast for them to react, he raised his hands and the seven ponies floated off the ground unable to move at all. The old me dug through their minds with surgeon-like precision to find what they feared most. For the guards he found what fear they held in common, while he found the fears the princesses wouldn’t even admit to themselves. It was only a few seconds before he spoke to them, the voice he use about half an octave deeper. He also pushed subconscious thoughts on the them to make sure that they might actually believe what he said, “Yes, you nameless guards, your precious princesses don’t care for you, they see you as fodder to throw at a problem until it stops. Ooooh Tia, I do feel sorry for you. Those ponies you see as your children, will not grow to love and respect you as a mother, but learn to f ear and revere you as a god because of your ageless nature… And pooor Lulu, those ponies mock your night. They dread dusk and hope for nothing but dawn as they sleep. Don’t come looking for me again. ” With that he threw them around like ragdolls until they lost consciousness.
For some reason during his diatribe, my vision blurred and my face became hot and wet. I wanted to scream for that him to stop but I knew it would do no good. It was awhile before I felt the hoof on my shoulder. “Oh, hey Lulu,” I turned around smiling weakly, rubbing the tears from my eyes so I could see, “When did you come in?” The surroundings faded and I realized I was shorter than usual. I conjured a table and chairs.
[Cadence’s Apartment 3rd person POV]
It was just past midnight and Shining Armor was sitting in Cadence’s living room, he didn’t have his own house or apartment. Even after he was promoted, he stayed in the barracks. “Why should he be treated any different than the ponies under his command?” He always thought. Cadence had similar thoughts, regarding living in the castle.
“Shiny, you coming to bed?” Cadence asked, some worry in her voice. He hadn’t been acting the same since his forced administrative leave.
He tried to give her a reassuring smile, “I’ll be up in a bit, I just called over a friend to chat.”
“That’s good,” at least he was reaching out now, “8-bit, or Gaffer?” She still thought he should talk this out with her.
“Nope, Stone Sentinel.” Shining said grimly.
“That hard-flank? Shiny, you know whatever it is that’s bothering you, you can talk to me.” Cadence said with concern.
“I know I just need to… confirm a few thing. Then I can talk to you about it I promise.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, he made Celestia and Luna swear that not even Cadence would know what had happened for him to get the suspension.
“Alright, we can talk about this in the morning.” She knew not to push too much, he’d come around eventually.
Shining was about to grab a drink when he heard a knock. He went to the door, and said just loud enough to be heard from the other side, “Password?”
There was a moment of silence, then a gruff voice shouted, “Celestia damn it, soldier! This isn’t some foalish game of Oubliettes & Ogres, and you never told me about a damnable password!”
That was him, alright , Shining thought , “Come on in, sir!” Shining stood at attention after opening the door.
A grey earth pony with dark brown eyes and mane, walked in, he was a good head and a half taller than Shining. His cutie mark was a stone tower. Sentinel looked straight at him, “You don’t have to call me that any more, son. I’m retired.”
“As you say, sir.” Shining still revered the stallion too much to call him anything else.
Sentinel just smirked, remembering when Shining was just a recruit, “You’ll never be able to see me as anything other than a legend, will you?”
“No, sir.” Shining said, still standing still as a statue.
“Maybe this will help,” He raised a hoof, and slapped Shining in the back of the head.
Shining was no longer standing at attention, but he was smiling a bit wider, “Not really, sir.”
“So what was it you wanted to talk about that you had to be so secret?” Sentinel took a seat, as Shining went to grab some drinks for them.
“Well,” Shining said as he poured the drinks and carried them over all without magic. “When you first joined the royal guard, did you start having dreams with some creature that would train you?”
“Damn kid, I can’t believe it took you this long to ask. I’m going to assume you never hear the legend of “the Voice in the Night”. It’s been around for longer than the Canterlot Royal Guard. You never did pay attention to gossip or lore that much, unless it was in your nerdy games.” He sighed taking a sip.
“I was too focused, sir.”
“And that helped you get where you’re at as fast as you did, but sometimes you focus on something too hard you miss the point. The gist of the legend is that any pony who rises through the ranks faster than normal, has been trained by The Voice in the Night. It enters their dreams and spars with them each night, taking a different form each time. The only constant is it’s voice.” Shining just sat there quietly, Sentinel continued, “But we both know that legend is real, almost every captain of the guard has been trained by it, with a few rare exceptions.”
“So it wasn’t lying.” Shining muttered.
“Son, what the hay are you talking about.”
“The reason I’m on unpaid leave is because I let it free.” Shining said somberly.
“Let what out, as far as I’m aware The Voice was a spirit, how else would it last so long and be real.”
“It wasn’t a spirit sir, it was a monster sealed away in stone, it called itself Medulla.” Shining looked down.
“Look here you dense foal. That Medulla may have been a monster once but has spent the last thousand some odd years training the best members of the military Equestria has ever seen. And how am I aware of this news and you're not? I actively avoid newspapers, for crying out loud! He surrendered himself, and is now in Ponyville being studied by and under the watch of the Elements.”
“WHAT?” Shining shouted accidentally.
“Wha-!!” then a loud thud and moan came from upstairs.
“Sorry! Caddi!” he yelled, then blushed a bit.
“You should go see Celestia tomorrow. Find out what’s going on and get yourself back in action.” Sentinel said, chuckling a bit as he finished his drink.
Shining sighed, “Thanks, sir. I really needed this?”
Sentinel headed for the door. “And you should never doubt your judgement, son, it’s the reason I gave such a glowing recommendation for you to take the captain position when I retired.”
“Thank you, sir,” Shining said as he walked up the stairs.
Cadence was standing in the bedroom doorway, her mane was pressed flat against half of her face and a strand was in her mouth, she also had a bruise on her left eye from where she hit the floor and didn’t look happy. Shining smiled sheepishly, “... Um, I’m heading to bed now.”
“You know I love you, and that will always be true, but you’re sleeping on the couch tonight.” Cadence said trying to hold back how upset she was, as she passed him a pillow and blanket.
“I’m sorry, and I love you too.” he said as he walked back down the stairs.
“I’ll make breakfast in the morning, Shiny.” she said as she closed the door softly.
[Medulla’s POV]
"I still do not understand; How can you regret that event so much as to disassociate yourself?" Luna said sipping the dream tea.
"Why do you only slip into archaic language when upset?"
"Well... It is very ingrained, but Tia took many steps to ensure I learn to speak as modernly as possible."
"So not quite the same reason. The way I grew to look at our first meeting as my greatest failure. I let my anger and fear act first. And because of this failure, I see myself as responsible for everything you did as Nightmare Moon." Medulla sighed looking at his undrunk tea, seeing his reflection as Gold from gen 2.
"How can you think that? You did not take my will." Luna interjected.
Medulla rubbed his temples, "Words have more power than most realise. Because they are how most beings communicate, what others say to and about us affects how we view them and ourselves. Thought on the other hand- hoof, has even greater power, just most can't see it. Hive Minds and telepaths know just how much damage a thought conveyed can do."
Luna frowned, "But that fear was already there, you did not create it."
"True, but it was so deep and small, you might have gone your whole life never having to deal with it. I forced it to the surface. I made you confront at a very bad time in your life. I gave you the push you needed." I still couldn't look her in the face.
"You did the same for Tia, and she did not fall." Luna stated very confused.
"That's just it. When faced with adversity or your greatest fear, you may as well flip a coin to see what will happen. Half will rise above and conquer their fears or break the cycles, the other half will sucum to fear and repeat the cycles." My fingers clamped tightly to table.
"You cannot blame yourself for another’s actions, that only leads to further shame and regret." Luna declared.
I shook my head, "I understand why you'd say that, but if you could see the chain of thoughts that lead to your fall, you'd see that first link was forged by me."
"You cannot continue to hold on to this regret. It happened, and neither of us can change it now."
"I know, but the only way I can do that is to tell myself that the me that did this isn't me anymore, he died not long after that encounter. When I realised what I'm capable of and the responsibilities I had to take." I finally drank some of the tea.
"Tell me, what do you do to pass the time imprisoned? I made sculptures out of moon rocks and meteorites."
I shrugged, "I personally trained the guards and military recruits with the greatest potential in their dreams."
"Really? I should hope you did not harm their minds."
"No, I made sure to not directly alter their cognition, just spar and teach tactics, just ask the last few captains of the guard, most of the current Wonderbolts, and Flame Razor." I chuckled a little.
"I feel odd about asking this, but why are you in the form of that 'Gold' individual from that card?"
"In my dreams, I take whatever form best suits my state of mind as the dream starts. I wasn't in control of me, so I took a shape that I see as not me. If that makes any sense."
Luna smiled slightly, "We should have more discussions like this, when I talk to Tia about dreams and ponies minds, her eyes glaze over."
"It helps that my only form of communication is through the mind. Would you like to know why I wanted to stay with Twilight?"
"Beside that you wanted to make Tia see you as more trustworthy by volunteering an alternative to another form of imprisonment."
"Yes. Twilight is one of the strongest minds to have ever grace Canterlot; beside myself, you, and Tia. As she and Shining Armor grew up, I couldn't help but watch as much of their lives unfolded., I tried to block it out for a while, but eventually I just stopped. It was more interesting that waiting till someone fell asleep to spar. Overtime I saw them both as family, as my younger siblings. Even though they never knew me until a few days ago, I watched over them. I made sure those who hurt them received a fitting punishment. Usually, it was bedwetting." I laughed at that.
“Is that why you surrendered at Surehoof Springs?”
“Lulu, I surrendered a long time ago. When you imprisoned my in stone, I had decided to stop running and fighting. You were chasing me relentlessly for over 100 years! It was just easier to stop. Of course the main problem is because I was force to be inactive for so long, things have been leaking into this world. And it’s only getting more frequent.”
“Those other beasts? Are there any more of you here?” Luna ask a little worried.
“Yes and yes. But some of them are good. A few were here long before I ever arrived. But the ones that have been coming recently have had help. Does the name Team Cascade mean anything to you?”
“It was a cult that claimed to have received a message from three otherworldly servants of a great horse god. They were violent and intolerant. They supposedly believed that this world belonged to their god, and he would come one day to cleanse the world with fire and rebuild a paradise for his faithful. Where did you hear that name? I thought we had ended them when they tried to rebel and make a theocracy.” Luna shuddered at the memory.
“Well I found the name in the mind of the first creature I defeated, though it seems there was some disgust connected to the name.” I barely hid the concern in my voice.
“I will ask Tia about them, and let her know what I’ve learned, unless you object to my telling her any of this… Then I will tell her only that.” Luna said somewhat mockingly.
“I need no secrets. Go ahead.” I said waving as she dissolved, removing herself from my mind.
“I think it about 3am now, so might as well get up and do something.” I said to myself wrenching myself from sleep.
[Cadence’s Apartment Morning]
Shining woke to the smell of pancakes cooking. He couldn’t hate Cadence’s pancakes, she literally made them with love. He flopped off the couch, shaking his head to wake up more. When he looked to the kitchen he saw Cadence cooking breakfast, I really need to try and be better for her, ‘cause there’s no way I can deserve her, he thought.
As he walked over to the table, he asked, “Anything I can help with?”
“No, it’s almost done.” Cadence replied, her voice was a song to him.
“You know, I’m sorry for yelling and startling you last night.”
“I know, but if that were the only reason for me sending you to the couch then I’d be a very petty filly-friend. I’ll help you figure out the reason; Is it possible that I overheard most of your conversation with Stone?” Cadence said warmly while still watching the cooking food.
“Was it me keeping secrets?” Shining asked.
“Closer, some secrets are fine, but what were you doing because of that secret?” Cadence could almost hear the gears turning in his head.
“... I was shutting you out, and beating myself up…” he said as he looked straight down at his currently empty plate, not wanting to look anywhere else.
A few seconds later, a heart shaped pancake was placed on his plate, and Cadence levitated his face up to look at her, “If this relationship is keep working, we can’t build walls between each other. We’re stronger together than will ever be apart, and there’s nothing that we can handle alone that wouldn’t be done better together.”
“Sometimes I feel like you’re too good for me.” Shining said, nuzzling her.
“I feel that way sometimes too, but then I remember that we don’t need to deserve each other. We just need to love each other.” She said after kissing him.
The two ponies then had breakfast reminiscing about their past, and wondering about their future.
Author's Note
Oh Yeah, Got this done in a short time. Screw homework! Especially when I'm physically incapable of focusing on stuff at the time.
The long(maybe) awaited follow up with Shining.
If you remember in ch. 6 Medulla talked about a Transylmaneia incident with Starswirll, If I find the time would you enjoy a side story of this series of events? Please let me know.
So big round of applause for my editor Runic_Soul , he really helped the character of Stone Sentinel come to life for the short time that gruff solder was here.
What's next you may or may not be asking Crossover, demonstrations of powers, and welcome to Ponyvilly party.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 8 Cake and Crossing the Void
[Medulla’s POV]
I’d been sitting in the library for a few hours when Twilight walk down the stairs at what would have been 9:30am. “Morning Twily! ” I said.
“Hm,” Twilight groaned as she walked to the kitchen to make coffee.
“I already brewed the coffee. ” I said smiling.
After about a minute Twilight walked back, with a fresh mug of coffee. She sat across from me and began to sip the drink. I brought out a slip of paper and passed it over to her, saying, “I also look the liberty of reorganising the library. You system made no sense. That paper is the ‘key’ to the modified system I developed. Top categories are obviously Fiction and Non-Fiction, then those are subdivided into each possible genre; Historical, Fantasy, Romance, Instructional, etcetera. The books that may fit in multiple genre’s go into their primary genre. Then they are sorted by author’s last name, series, title, and then edition or year of publication. Each one has a unique identification code I placed on the spine, the meaning of each part of the code is on that paper. I also wrote each book’s information on a scroll that I put on your desk. You should be able to enchant it to only show the book that someone is looking for. ”
She just sat their finishing her cup while staring at the paper. After a few seconds her mane started to frizzel. She looked at me then back to the paper then to the library. “Well… thank you Medulla… this was unexpected.” She said as her eye twitched.
“Calm down! You can always change it back to your nonsense system that has only alienated potential readers. I’ll show you how easy this system is. Spike? ” I said with a smug look on my face.
Spike walked in from upstairs. He seemed a bit worried when he said, “Yes?”
I levitated the paper to him, “Go find ‘A Natural History of Dragons’. It will be under Non-Fiction, Biology, Trent. ”
Even in his groggy state it only took Spike about thirty seconds to find the book. He look at it as if he’d found the largest gem he’d ever seen. Twilight protested, “There are no readily available books on the history of dragons.”
“It’s not about dragon history, it’s about their biology. Or at least it’s an attempt to understand dragon biology from 500 years ago. Field studies mostly, a few dissections here and there of recently dead dragons with the consent of their families. For it’s time it was revolutionary, of course most of the conclusions are completely wrong in retrospect, but the work up to that point is great. ” I said as I gave Spike an encouraging smile.
“B-but.. but how?” Twilight stammered in shock.
I looked back to her and smirked as I said, “My system may not be perfect, but it make your job easier. ”
“Fine. I’ll try it out for a few weeks.” she said calming down but still obviously upset. “Let's get to work, I have a lot of questions,”
“I may have the answers but no guarantees, in some ways I’m just as much in the dark as you. ” I said tapping my fingers nervously. “You may want to get a notebook and quill. ”
Twilight got up trotting over to her desk. As she opened the drawer and pulled out a fresh notebook a pink blur shot out of the drawer. I barely managed to catch the pink cannon ball before she started to ricochet.
“Sorry everypony, I was just so excited to start planning Medully’s party I couldn’t wait till later.” Pinkie said somehow still bouncing with excitement in my telekinetic grip. "When-"
“No need to even ask your questions, I’ll just answer them now to save time. After sunset, chocolate with raspberry filling, yes, no, surprise me, surprise me, and yes. ” I said as I set the pink party planner down.
“YES!” Pinkie yelled as she hoofpumped then ran out the door.
Twilight just stared at me surprised.
“It never ceases to amaze me that even though I have to project my thought to communicate no one seems to realise the connection goes both ways, but I do try to limit it. ” I sighed.
Twilight started taking notes, “Let’s start with what powers you have.”
“Not yet. I need you to agree to some terms first. These sessions will only last four hours max, but I reserve the right to end them early should I need to do something else. We’ll start out with questions and demonstrations, later we’ll move on to actual lab test. I’m setting these terms because some of my instincts are related to the history of the creature my body is copied from, I also want to have a social life of some kind. ” I said sternly
Twilight looked upset as she asked, “What would constitute a need?”
“Well… Stuff starts blowing up somewhere, I get a call from another Displaced, or I’m afraid I might hurt someone in a feral rage because the last time the only creature of this species was in a lab it was being made and it killed everyone there. ” I said flatly.
Twilight now looked confused, “Displaced and made?”
As I rubbed my temples, I said, “Displaced are individuals like me, and Max from last night, we’re from another world originally, but have been brought to your’s by some being or another and given powers from our entertainment. I’ll tell you about the history of this body some other time okay, the story is very long and involved. ”
Twilight signed, “Agreed…”
“I’m a high level telepath, if I don’t limit myself I could read every thought within a 50 mile radius or even farther. So I try to limit myself to just passively reading nearby surface thoughts. Unicorns and Alicorns are much more susceptible to my telepathy, their horns seem to amplify their thoughts, the more powerful their magic the stronger the effect. I could have a conversation with Tia and Lulu on the other side of the world if I wanted. I can also go deeper into the minds of other, but I only do so if they let me, or there are extenuating circumstances. Heck, last night I could feel the minute hormonal changes that indicate very early pregnancy. And when someone shuts me out from reading their thoughts I don’t push through their barriers, even though only the most ridiculously strong barriers can truly shut me out, because if I push too hard and they resist they could end up brain dead. I can implant ideas into the subconscious of others, or take over an individual completely, but I hate doing those. ” I let out a sigh after saying these things.
Twilight look confused, “What about your other powers, like that purple energy?”
I gave her a tired smile as I said, "I have created self imposed limits to my telepathy, my other powers are limited against me. Those powers are best discussed with a demonstration, so I would suggest me go somewhere where I can blow stuff up without damaging anything anyone cares about. "
Twilight smiled a bit, nodded and flared her horn. We were surrounded in blinding magic, and after a second or two we were in a rocky gorge. Twilight winced a bit seeming to strain from the effort, Oooh, why did I do that? Even when I’m just taking myself Ghastly Gorge is almost outside my range, she thought.
I held out my hand offering her a Leppa Berry, “This should with backlash like that, though I’ve never actually had a chance to test how my berries effect ponies. ” Only a few more of those left… and all the others as well…, I thought to myself dourly.
“Thanks,” she said as she levitated the berry and eat it. After a few moments, her eyes almost radiated with renewed magical power. She stared at me with hungry eyes contemplating whether to ask for more.
“NO! You can’t have more, you don’t need more understand. I thought this might happen! ” I said rubbing my temples.
“Bu-but, you don’t understand! I nee-”
I cut her off before she could fully express that thought, “No, I understand perfectly, but eating more of these now could actually make you addicted and overload you with magic. See for me these renew my stamina, but now I know that for ponies it replenishes magic and can be addictive for them. Can we get to the reason for this trip now. ”
“Alright,” she said taking a deep breath and set a quill to her notebook, “Are your powers only capable of destruction?”
“For the most part, yes, there are a few exceptions. ” Then I raised my hand straight up ghostly fire leaping to life from my fingers, it drifted through the sky changing color and shape and forming patterns. “That is called Will-O-Wisp, conventionally it’s used for lighting an enemy on fire, but I figured out a long time ago how to break convention. I also have a move that lets me see what cannot be seen, and another I very rarely use to see the future. Normally these powers have strict rules for their use, that was the first mental block constricting my power that I broke through. I can now use moves in ways they weren’t originally meant for, and increase or decrease the power they use. ” As I finished I shot one Aura Sphere and one Shadow Ball at two boulders, the Aura Sphere turned its to dust but the Shadow Ball barely left a mark. I continued, “Of course the more power I use or the less it conforms to the original use of the move, the more likely I’ll reach my limit and experience some psychic backlash. ”
Twilight’s quill was smoking from the friction at this point. She looked up realising I had stopped talking. “Erm… How many of these “moves” can you do?”
I scratched my chin as I said, “Well, I haven’t really taken the time to count them all, it’s likely several dozen, but I regularly use thirty-ish because some are simply weaker versions of others. And originally I could only use four in any situation, now the rule of four only applies to battle so I can do more than harm. ”
“How do your powers work?” Twilight inquired.
I chuckled, “And now we get into the dark areas… The specifics about how and why my powers work are something I’m not entirely aware of, but essentially I choose from a list a move that would work best, will it into existence, and shape it to fit my needs. Any more info than that would either fit better in a later conversation or I just don’t know. ”
Twilight tapped her quill thoughtfully, spilling some ink in a corner of the page, “How did you combine those two moves earlier?”
I looked at her confused, “I didn’t. I just used two at the same time. That’s different than combining them. I can’t combine movesss… ”
There was an audible click and all of a sudden Twilight was in my face freaking out about me being dead. There was something hot running down the lower part of my face.
“I’m fine, I’m still alive. ” I said as I wiped my face, it was blood dripping from my nose.
Twilight jumped back, yelling, “GAAAAH!!”
After a moment, she recomposed herself, “I thought you just dropped dead, you stopped talking, stood completely motionless, and wouldn’t respond, then your nose started bleeding.”
“Two things, ” I held up two fingers as I spoke, “one general and one specific to me. If someone dies, nose bleeds will not happen afterwards, blood can’t move much without a heart pumping it. Also I won’t continue to float if I’m dead or have been knocked out or am pass out. ”
“Then what just happened there?” Twilight demanded.
“What you said gave me an idea that coalesced into a revelation that broke through a mental block I didn’t even realize I had, I can now combine attacks. ” As I said this I formed Shadow Ball in one hand and Fire Blast in the other, I then brought my hands together, the fire turned black, and I blasted a very large boulder. The bolder shattered and the fragments caught fire and began to be coated in frost. Even though I spent energy to fire the attack I felt slightly stronger now, and not just because I could make two moves one.
“That’s not good… ” I said, as I focused on make the fire fizzle out.
“Why is that so bad? I did more damage when I first learned the Blink spell.”
“It’s not the damage it did, it’s the fact that that rock, which should be inflammable, caught fire, and that said fire emitted no light and sucked in heat. ” I let the fear suffused my voice.
“I’m still not sure why you’re so scared.”
“I guess you’re not that advanced in science yet so allow me to enlighten you. Most universes run on certain sets of laws, there are two that seem very common to ones with life, I know them as the laws of Thermodynamics. ” I sighed, “The first one is, matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed only changed forms, even though magic seems to defy this law it does not. The second states that the total usable energy in a universe is always decreasing. Now there are workarounds that involve accessing other universes or the Void itself, that’s what that black fire did. It used my innate connection to the void to tear apart that stone, sending what it could into the void, and absorb the light and heat. I acted as a filter absorbing a small portion of the energy from the light and rock. ”
Twilight gulped, “That is fairly frightening.”
I looked up, Not quite midday yet, “Twilight let’s head back I need to talk with Pinkie and somepony to make me a piece of clothing. ” I said. I really can’t wait till I can stop acting ignorant, I thought to myself.
“Alright, I’ll take us to the outskirts of town at least that’s closer than the library. Rarity owns Carousel Boutique she could make you something. Tomorrow we’ll go longer. ” she said defiantly while flaring her horn. A moment later we were just outside Ponyville.
“You know I should name that combo move I made back there… ” I said lazily floating into town.
“Why? It’s not like you’re going to use something that dangerous again, Right?” Twilight said with a hint of fear.
“Giving something a name can help me wrap my mind around it better, then I might be able to control it better. But I’m not going to use it every day, just when things get a bit more intense than usual. ” I assured her. “Carousel Boutique isn’t far, is it? ”
“Just head down this street, turn left before Sugarcube Corner, then head straight until you
We parted ways, her back to Golden Oaks to write a report, me to get an awesome cape.
[3rd person Canterlot throne room]
Shining Armor waited and impatiently paced just outside the throne room. He didn't need his old position back, but he need the princesses to know what he had learned last night. The guards seemed to be on edge from his pacing, so he stopped and gave them a reassuring smile. They were still a bit tense. Storm Bolt trotted over with a half grin.
"Come to beg for your job back, or did you just want to see how well I replaced you?" Bolt asked letting his face show some worry, letting Shining know that the pressure was killing him.
Shining chuckled, "Naw, giving my official resignation, and I'm going to recommend you as my replacement."
Bolt's face blanched, "Don't even joke about that, I'm horrible under pressure, and these guys don't respect me like the Razor."
Just then the door opened, "Celestia will see you now."
"Don't worry, they probably only put you as interim chief to test you." Shining said as he walked into the throne room.
Celestia smiled, "I was about to call for you when I heard you wanted an audience."
"We need to talk about Medulla." Shining stated flatly.
[Medulla’s POV]
My eardrums almost burst from the shriek the diva pony let out. “Oh come on, Ilana’s fashion sense and Mabel’s sweaters are endearing. ” I said.
“Those sweaters were hideous.” Rarity hissed, “And only a few of those ensembles were salvageable.”
“So I’ll need to give you something else as payment, ” I guessed.
Rarity took a breath before answering, “That would be correct.”
“Alright… This one is supposed to be simple and let the wearer’s beauty shine through. ” I said before projecting an image into her mind.
“Hmm.” Rarity pondered.
“Now you can work on that latter, my order is this. ” I said.
“Something that simple is hardly a challenge. Are you sure you don’t want me to add anything?” She asked.
“NO GEMS! ” I declared.
Rarity huffed, “Fine, it will be done in four hours, I need to find a brown fabric, I don’t usually carry boring colors.”
With that I left and head to Sugarcube Corner for food and to talk to Pinkie.
As I floated around I noticed two things; the ponies here were still getting used to my more than normal stature and and less then normal appearance, and even by pony standards most of the ponies here were really weird. I think it may have just be that pony physiology allows for a larger variety of sable deviations from “normal” cognition . I was also thinking up a name for that combo I had created, Shadow Flare, no… Shadow Burst, no... Night Fire, no… Umber-Nova… yes, Umber-Nova .
As I floated into the Sugarcube Corner, I could hear Pinkie making the preparations for my party. I drifted up to the counter, and ordered a strawberry cupcake. I had barely sat down when Pinkie rushed out from the kitchen to say hello. She was covered in flower, and smiling a little too wide.
“Soooo, did you come to see how super your party is coming along?” Pinkie asked with the enthusiasm of twenty toddlers with sugar rushes.
I looked at Pinkie, “No, just wanted a snack and to talk. ”
“Can’t talk for too long, only only twenty-six thousand, nine hundred and forty-five seconds until your party starts.”
“I just want to know if your ‘special’ awareness could be harmful the this universe, so if you’d let me take a closer look into your mind, I’d really appreciate it. ”
“Alllright,” she said incredulously, “ but this better not just be a trick to peak at some of you presents early.”
After a few moments of silence and concentration on my part, I said, “So that how it works… but you’re not a reality altering threat. ”
Pinkie laughed at this a little and itched her forehead as she said, “I think you only scratch the surface though.”
“I didn’t need to go any further… ” I was about to discuss the particulars of her abilities when something above me caught my attention, “Do you live on the second floor? ”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, cocking her head to the side.
“Is there anyone up there right now? ” I asked.
“Only Gummy, my baby toothless alligator.”
“I’d like to see Gummy, if that okay? ” I might have let some concern into my voice.
“It fine, just play nice.” Pinkie said as rushed back to the kitchen.
I made sure to tell Mrs. Cake that Pinkie has said it was okay to go to her room to see Gummy. She seemed very nervous, likely because she was very pregnant and wanted to keep her home safe. The closer I got to Pinkie's bedroom the more uneasy I felt. In my millennium of existence as a telepath I’d never encountered a mind such as this "Gummy". Predictably Pinkie’s room was a mess of party decorations, but the little alligator was nowhere to be seen.
I felt something moist clamp down on my tail. Lifting my tail to my face I found an alligator chewing harmlessly on me.
“It’s very difficult to sneak up on me like that. What are you? ” all I heard was static in response.
I levitate the toothless creature off my tail and placed it on a table, “That was new. ” I said, “Okay let’s just agree not to bother each other ever again, deal? ” again only static.
“I’ll take that as a yes and be on my way.” I said, as I floated away, trying to restrain my discomfort being near a creature beyond my understanding of the mind.
I floated back out of the eatery, ignoring everypony and just trying to get away from that “Gummy”.
I decided to head back to Rarity’s to check on my cape when I heard a voice, “Hey Medulla, I don’t really need any help, we’re just chilling right now if you want to hang.” I shrugged and mentally shouted, “ALLONS-Y!! ” leaving behind an imprint of that thought, and let the portal carry me to my token.
Traveling the void isn’t instantaneous, for me it felt like hours. Most of the void dwellers aren’t that bad, but the ones that sing or read poetry really strain my sanity.
Approaching the new universe I made sure to say, “-Alonso!” , as I entered.
“Huh Mewtwo, I was expecting Diancie... I should have paid more attention to the mega stone colors,” The man said, getting to his feet. He moved over to me, holding his hand up, “Sup?”
“Not much, was about to have my welcome to Ponyville party, but I think I should be able to get back around the same time I left. How does the name Medulla relate to a crystal... thing.” I retorted as I shook his hand.
“Oh I meant the mega stone. They all kinda look the same,” Jason said, shrugging a little. “I’m Jason and these are my wives, Chrysalis and Rarity.” He gestured to the mares.
“Hello,” Chrysalis said with a friendly wave while Rarity grimaced, for some reason Rarity had changling wings, Meh , I thought, she’s still the same pony.
“It’s a... pleasure,” Rarity muttered, looking away unhappily.
“Rarity, It’s always a pleasure to meet a pony of such refined tastes, but please you talking to the only of my species so don’t comment too often on horrid appearance,” I commented, trying to get her to air her real grievance.
“Oh, no, no!” Rarity said, her eyes wide, “I have nothing against your appearance it’s just...”
“She’s just pissy that we called you here on our honeymoon,” Chrysalis explained, earning a glare from the pony. “Serves her right, getting us stuck in this smelly place for a week.”
“Where are we anyway? The minds around here don’t ‘feel’ like those from the main portion of Equestria.” I said, scratching his chin.
“We’re in Prance, the pony version of France,” Jason said, pointing out the window. “We were only supposed to be here for a day but... things happen.”
“Prance… That’s almost as bad a pun as Transylmaneia,” I hissed, my hand firmly slapped to my face. “So I’m guessing Rarity is the reason for the prolonged stay, based on the looks and thoughts she keeps getting from Chrysalis.”
“Yup,” Jason said with a nod.
‘Oi! Who's the new guy?’ another male voice asked from inside Jason’s head.
“So is there another telepath around or something?”
“Uh... no, that's Hodgepodge. He’s kinda sorta an alternate personality,” Jason explained with a shrug.
‘I feel so exposed!’ Hodgepodge lamented while another groaned.
‘Shut up Hodgepodge, and block our thoughts you goon,’ he ordered.
‘Oh fine Hughes. Why must you be so mean?’ The sound of a door being slammed was heard and their voices fell silent, Well he seems stable enough, disregarding the multiple personalities.
“If you called me here to pass the time then let’s have some fun!” A sly grin crept across my face.
“Let’s crunk it!” Chrysalis declared, buzzing her wings excitedly.
“Fine, you three go have your fun, ‘ll be heading to the shopping district.” Rarity huffed before grabbing her saddlebags and trotting out of the room.
“I’ll show her some of the worst fashions I’ve ever seen when we get back, because she’s being so rude to a guest.”
“Eh, she’ll get over it,” Jason said, shrugging a little. “Before we go, you know what this is?” Jason asked, holding up his arm, showing off the Omnitrix.
“Well, Well. I haven’t thought about that series in a long time.”
“Oh good, you know what it is,” he said with a smirk, “May I get a scan of you?”
“Go ahead! I’d like to see what happens.”
Jason held his arm out, causing the Omnitrix to chirp and pass a yellow light over me tickling a bit. “There, now I have a Mewtwo form,” Jason said with a smirk.
“You should try going ultimate with it some time, who know what could happen!”
“Ultimate is mega-evolution.” Jason said, “At least that’s how it works with Gengar, not sure how it’ll work with Mewtwo having two megas.”
“Sooo… What’s the best bar in town!”
“I have no idea, so we’re just going to go bar hopping,” Jason said, pulling his hoodie on, “You should be fine appearance-wise, the ponies are mostly used to my weirdness.”
“Then let the debauchery commence!” , I shouted with glee.
“We just had to pick the bar that doubled as a poetry club didn’t we?” Chrysalis asked with a frown as she sipped at her drink, barely listening as the pony on stage rambled on in Prench.
“It could be worse, could have walked into a brothel,” Jason countered, fiddling with the Omnitrix, “Could always leave.”
“And miss the second verse?” Chrysalis asked, letting out a mock gasp, “Perish the thought!”
“It’s not that bad, I’ve heard the poetry of the void dwellers, Vogon poetry can’t even compare.” , I said shuttering.
“I try to stay away from the void, it’s nothing but trouble,” Jason frowned, “Like random invasions from weird sentai monsters.”
“Trust me it wasn’t by choice,” I said while thoughtfully sipping some random pony’s wine when they weren’t looking. “Though most of these ponies are so far up their own asses, I can vicariously smell their colons.”
“I’m just glad you already know about the Displaced, saves me a whole lot of time on the subject,” Jason said with a smile, “Did you know there’s a Team Rocket Displaced?”
“No, at least I don’t think I do. What’s the token? ”
“A Meowth head coin with a bright red ‘R’ on the front.”
“Nope, don’t have that one yet.”
“Who have you met?” Jason asked, turning his full attention to Medulla.
“So far, personally I’ve only a time manipulator called Max, but I have a few other tokens that I found before I was stoned. I have a genji medallion, a blue coin with a tornado on it, a key and key chain set that look like they go together, a black diamond, a Metroid badge, a Plumber’s badge, and is this yours,” I said, making a unitrix core appear in his hand.
“Yup, thats mine alright. Built it using some of Twi’s machines, she wasn’t happy about it at all,” Jason said, a faint smile on his face. “That feels like it was so long ago...”
“Do you know any of the others?” I started pulling out the other tokens he mentioned and placing them on the table.
“I...” Jason said, his eyes locking onto the Plumbers badge. He sighed shaking his head, “I know some. The diamond belongs to Kat Shifter, and I think the medallion belongs to Gilgamesh but I have no idea when he switched from gauntlets to a coin.”
“Could be an alternate, for those who don’t like or need armor. ”
“I dunno, that’s just not dad’s style to be honest,” Jason said with a shrug, downing the rest of his drink and ordering another.
“Oh and Max gave me this one,” I brought out a glass vial with a blue double helix inside. “She said she didn’t need it, and that it could summon Nemesis from Resident Evil.”
“Oh Nemmy’s a great guy,” Jason said with a nod. “He’s a bit busy fighting the pony version of Umbrella but he always helps when he can.”
“You referred to Gilgamesh as ‘dad’?”
“In the adopted sense,” Jason started, “He helped me a lot when I first got here and well... he’s the closest thing to a dad I’ve ever had.”
“Didn’t really have a father figure, can’t even remember my family from earth. Most of the relationships I’ve been making are more sibling-like.”
“Yeah, I got adopted into the Apple clan... hey where did Chrysalis go?” he asked looking around. He groaned, spotting her on the stage, starting to sing “Real Slim Shady”, replacing Slim Shady with herself. “Why did I let her into my CDs?” he asked, letting his head slam into the table.
“Everyone seems to like it,” I chugged the rest of the other pony’s wine and replaced the glass. “Bartender, You have anything stronger?”
“I apologize sir, but that’s the strongest we have,” the bartender said, shaking his head.
“Here,” Jason said, tossing a flask to me, “That’ll probably do it, if you don’t mind your alcohol from the teat of a goat.”
“Booze is booze,” I toasted, and downed a very large swig. “That my friend is ungodly strong. If I drank two of those flasks I’d have to sleep for a week.”
“You just don’t know how to hold your booze,” Jason teased, letting out a laugh, “Hell, the ponies handle it better than you.”
“I’ll have you know I drank the better part of a small town under the table, and was only slightly tipsy. Of course most of my internal organs were on the verge of shutting down, and I had to sleep it off for three days straight.”
“Allow me to one up you, I had the T-virus,” Jason said, leaning back in his chair with a smirk.
“Obviously you got better or you’d be eating my brains right now. All I’m saying is even if this was straight alcohol, it shouldn’t affecting me this much this quickly… Question, could this be considered magic alcohol?” I said eying the flask suspiciously.
“We milked it out of a goat, I’m pretty sure it’s magical.”
“I thought it was fermented goat’s milk or something… Magic alcohol affects me VERY differently than normal alcohol. This will be the first time I’ve actually gotten drunk in a millennium.” I tensed a bit, I hope they can handle my brand of drunk.
“You one of those ‘turned to stone’ guys?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrow, downing his drink.
“Yep, Still in the beginning of season 2, just had Nightmare Night yesterday. But before I start to get too thoughtless, please hold on to this.” I brought out a paper and a pen and began to write. After writing a single word I gave Jason the paper. “That is the thought I need to find my way back to about the proper time.”
“You got it,” he said with a nod, putting it in his pocket. “You know... I went home a few months ago... apparently the show started up while I was gone.”
“ Time’s weird sometimesssss... ” My eyesight went unfocused, here comes drunk me, I blinked and suddenly everything was too bright and loud.
“You alright?” Jason asked, frowning. “Your eyes just went weird.”
“GET OUT THE CAMERAS AND HIDE THE PEANUT BUTTER, SHIT’S ABOUT TO GET WEIRD!!!” I shouted as he bolted out the door.
“Great... drunk Mewtwo..” I hear Jason groan from somewhere behind me.
I was moving fast using Mud Slap on anything clean, throwing around Payday, and streaking everything with a coating of purple psychic residue. “So much energy so little time! ” I exclaimed.
I eventually came across a group of ponies, a few were jaywalking, This is going to be fun , I thought.
I tackled the ones jaywalking to the sidewalk, yelling “Saved your life! ” I proceeded to tie all the ponies in the area down with Grass Knot, and lecture at them for a few minutes about the dangers and joys of jaywalking ending in me floating thirty feet in the air and saying, “... And that’s why jaywalking is fun, but veeerrrry DANGEROUS” I then belched a jet of fire into the night sky. “Excuse me… I don’t remember having curry…” I then notice Jason and Chrysalis had arrived, and floated back down to them.
“Do I want to know Medulla?” Jason asked, running a hand down his face.
“Probably not! But you guys are just in time for the parade! ” I said a bit too cheerfully. I then snapped my fingers, music began playing and short bipedal crocodiles made of fire began to march.
“Seriously? How many of us can just make spontaneous music?” Jason asked with a groan, “You should release those ponies. I really don’t want to test out my diplomatic immunity.”
“Alright, this will only take a second… ” Fire from Incinerate lit my hand. I then sprayed fire over the area.
“Seriously?” Jason asked with a groaned, putting said fire out with a blast of ice. He pulled his sword out, cutting the ponies free, “Ok Medulla, we’re never getting you drunk again.”
“It just Incinerate, It can’t actually hurt living being it only destroys things. ” I said pouting, “I’ll only be like this for a few more minutes considering the amount a drank. Then I go into stage 2. ” That one is so boring , I thought to myself.
“There are stages?” Chrysalis asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Three to be exact. I’m in stage one currently; Manic, right now I burn of the magic energy. Next I get conventionally drunk. Then finally I pass out. At least that’s how it happened the last two times. ” I shrugged while throwing mud from nowhere on any walls.
“At least you last longer than Dash,” Jason said with a sigh, “Come on, let’s go chill in a park or something,” he said, heading down the street.
“Fine, but I reserve the right to fire lightning into the sky until this stage is over. ” I followed dragging his tail.
“Just don’t hit any pegasi,” Jason instructed, “I don’t need any international incidents happening on my honeymoon.” We came to a park and Jason sat down on a bench, looking up at the sky.
Suddenly, ghostly fire appeared thirty feet in the air, “Any request? ” I asked, moving and shaping the fire as he sat next to Jason.
“Hmm? How’s about Deoxys and Rayquaza going at it?”
“Good choice! ” I said as the fire split and took the form of the legendary creatures. Beams and blast shot between them, they even grappled on occasion. ”If you had asked for anything with Palkia I would have been pissy about it. That guy was a real bastard. Tried to flatten a village, and overwrite my Equestria. ”
“Yeah, sounds like a bastard,” Jason said with a nod
“And all the lenendaries have been really cool until I was imprisoned. ” I sighed thoughtfully.
“You should call to your world, I could use some more pokemon scans. Really throws people off when they just expect Ben’s aliens.”
“Might be hard, Mew’s been in hiding. Celebi has been sleeping deep in the Everfree. Rayquaza, Groudon, and Kyogre have likely been asleep for millenium. And I still can’t find Darkrai. ”
“Damn,” Jason said with a whistle, “If it makes you feel any better, the ‘gods’ here are dead, well except for my grandmother Hel.”
“The norse goddess of Niflheim? Wellll… aren’t you special. ”
“I’m also one of the last four jotun so, it evens out really,”
“Oi, you two are depressing,” Chrysalis said with a snort, “You know... Luna really does make the most beautiful night skys.”
The fires flickered out as I lost control of them, and I coughed out black smoke, “Ahhh, nothin’ beats it… ”
“Hey, you want me to send you home before you pass out?” Jason asked, looking at the smoke with a slight frown.
I turned to him, “Nah, I’ll just pass out there. And I don’t want to miss my ‘Welcome to Ponnyvile” paaarty just cause I couldn’t stay awake, Pinklie would kill me. As long as you have that paper, I should be able to get back with an hour or twoo off leafing. ”
“Well then I guess you can crash with us,” Jason said nodding his head, “Just don’t puke on anything.”
“Before I do passout event.. eneventuallly, I need ta tell you my code off telipass...telepath ethacs. ”
“Ok, whats the code?”
“In yur Mewtwo form, yu’ll be the stronkest telepath this planet will likeli ever see. Soooo you need to limit yurself. When in a crowd or group don’t passively read more than surface thoughts at most. Iff someone shuts ya out, don’t push cause you could tear their mind ta shreds. ”
“I’ll keep that all in mind,” Jason said with a laugh, “Though I have two other personalities to keep me in line.”
“Awesome! Now what else ya want ta dis- -hic!- dis- -hic!- talk about. ”
“How are the changelings in your world?” Chrysalis asked, looking at me, “Have they shown up yet?”
“Last time I saw one wass over a thousand years ago, wasn’t fun. But no, you haven’t crashed the wedding just yet. ”
“Please... try and steer me away from... that...” Chrysalis said with a sigh, “I swear Gilgamesh’s Chrysalis and I are the only good versions of me out there.”
“Tell ya what, if I see ya before everything goes wrong, I’ll do everything I can to get ya to stop. But I wont take your will or fight ya, I’ll only use words. That okay? ”
“Agreed,” she said with a nod, giving my a smile, “Thank you.”
“Let’s head back to the hotel room, I’d rather not eat dirt or cement when stage three hits. ”
“Alright let’s go,” Jason said getting to his feet. “This was a fun night,” he said, offering his hand to help me up. I took the proffered hand with a weak smile.
“NO!! I DON’T FIT INTO TINY BALLS!!!! ” I shouted, waking in a cold sweat on the bathroom floor.
“Oh hey you're awake,” Jason said, peering into the room, “I was wondering if you were going to wake up at all today. Need any meds?”
“Water, and some motrin if you have any. ” I said holding my head. Then stood up and floated to the main room. “Would you mind reminding what happened after I took that accursed dink, it’s mostly a blur except for the promise I made to Chrysalis. ”
“Meh, we kinda just chilled in the park and shot the shit,” Jason said, pouring him a cup of water and passing him a few pills, “That should get you up to snuff.”
“Thanks. ” I levitated the pills into my mouth and chugged the water. “I should probably give you something. ” I pulled out a black oblong shaped berry with white question marks on four sides, “This is an enigma berry. If you’re hit with an attack that would normally do significant damage, it’ll heal you most of the way back. ”
“Oh hey cool,” Jason said with a smile, storing it away, “Now if only I had something... would you like to get your DNA spliced?”
“As nice as that sounds, I’m already a genetic abomination, unless you have a way to break through some of the last mental barriers I have. ”
“Sorry, I got nothing for that,” Jason said with a shrug, “Oh wait, think you can use magic?”
“Haven’t tried, I’m more of a Psionicist, but I’m willing to try. ”
“Here,” Jason said,, pulling out a rather ornate book, “This is a copy of a spell book Twilight bought a while back. It’s got the most powerful Final Fantasy spells in it, so be careful when you practice.”
“HUUUUUMMM!” Medulla grunted as he focused on the power held in the book, then handed it back to Jason. ”Done, I learned Ultima.. feels like a bit like Psystrike but... different. You still got that paper I gave you? ”
“Yeah, “Jason said with a nod, pulling said slip out, “ You ready to go home?”
“Yep. Just so you know the whole theory I’m working with it is if I create a psychic beacon, I should be able to track back to close to the point in time it was created. Send me home whenever you’re ready. ”
Jason stared at the paper, sighing. “ALLONS-Y.” he glared at the paper, frowning, “I hate that show.”
“Sorry I had no idea, next time it’ll be something else, I just picked it at random. ” Medulla shrugged apologetically.
“Eh, it’s fine, you just enjoy your party ok?” Jason asked, tossing the paper other his shoulder and giving a smile.
“Will do, I’ll set aside a piece of cake for you guys for next the time we meet, food never spoils in my inventory. ”
“Sorry about my attitude before,” Rarity said with a frown, rubbing her arm, “It wasn't very kind of me.”
“I forgive you, and now I won't put laxative in your piece .”
“What?” she asked, blinking.
“Aaanywhooo, we’re burning irrelevant time, go ahead and send me back. ”
“Medulla, our contract is complete.” Jason said, watching the pokemon intently.
“Goodbye, and ALLONS-Y ” I yelled as I passed through the portal focusing on the word to guide me home and to the proper time.
As I tumbled through the portal into my Equestria I realised that sunset was only about an hour away now and I remembered something that happened while I was drunk. How’d I make music? I thought, Well, however I did that I can figure it out on the way to Rarity’s.
While floating down the road towards Carousel Boutique thinking about what happened when I visited Jason, a song started playing in my head . Everypony started looking around to see where the music was coming from, most enjoying it.
I just let the song play through even though I knew how to do it now. By the time I entered the building the music had stopped playing, Rarity looked at me like I had a frog taped to my face, “The boring cape is done.” she said pointing to her desk, where the fabric was tossed haphazardly, “Do you know where that music was coming from?”
“It’s not boring, it’s badass. That music was from me. ” I said with a mix of frustration and pride.
“Well that seems to fit, loud and obnoxious.” She said pointing her nose skyward.
I levitated the cape over my head and wore it proudly, “The music wasn’t even physically playing, I just made every sentient mind in the area perceive that they heard that music. If you had a recording device on during that, it wouldn’t have recorded any music. See you in an hour. ” I said as I left her store.
The sun was setting and most of Ponyville was gathering in front of town hall, I hid on top of town hall waiting for my cue. Just as the last rays of sunlight faded I started playing a great intro song . I slowly rose high enough to be seen by everypony, I stretched my arms to either side and fired a ball of electricity from one hand and a ball of ice from the other. The balls arched quickly up and moved in a spiral pattern upward until the collided twenty feet above me in a spectacular display of blue powder and yellow light. I timed all of this so that it ended before the lyrics cut in.
Everypony in the crowd cheered, as I floated down.
The next hour was spent being introduced to all the ponies that decided to show up. I made sure to grab three pieces of cake for Jason, his Rarity, and Chrysalis. When I decided to grab some punch, I notice a plum colored earth pony mixing a separate batch of punch with a label saying “NOT FOR FOALS”.
“Hello!” She said as I approached. “My name’s Berry Punch.”
“I’m guessing that’s the alcoholic version. ” I could tell this was pretty strong.
Her eyes took a wild shine as she said, “Absolutely, I hope you enjoy it, I’m the local brewer. I make everything from the berries I cultivate in my orchard.”
I poured myself a glass and sipped it, something was way too familiar about the taste. I sipped it again, there were two pokemon berries were used bluk and pecha. I gave Ms. Punch a sevier look as I asked, “Where exactly is this orchard? Has it been in you family, or did you buy the land? ”
“Just outside of town...” She said a bit too nervous.
“It’s in the Everfree, isn’t it? Why do beings try to lie to me? ” I asked.
“Sorry I’ve just been trying to keep it a secret, not many ponies trust stuff that’s from their.” She answered sheepishly.
I sighed, “These berries were originally mine, I started that orchard over one thousand years ago. ” I held their for a second letting her process that claim, “But you seem to be taking great care of it, so I’ll let you keep it under one condition; every time you harvest I take five percent of berries, I’ll even give you some berries to plant that aren’t part of that crop and some recipes I’ve come up with, Deal? ”
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
“Simple, the two berries used in this drink, one looks like a blackberry, the other like an overly pink strawberry, both are far to big to actually be those berries. There are some berries that I’m going to have to ask you to not use, they might be addictive and potentially harmful. ”
“Deal!” she said, knowing no one knew what her berries looked like.
The rest of the night was fun if a bit uneventful, well as uneventful as a Pinkie Welcome to Ponyville Party can get.
Author's Note
The book referenced near the beginning of the chapter is "A Natural History Of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent" by Marie Brennan. It's a good read, imagine Jane Goodall in a low fantasy setting with dragons.
The crossover part of this chapter was with shagohad12's story And Then There Were 10 ... Er... 67 . The chapter it happens in is here . If you haven't checked out that story then do so, it's really good.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 9 Why am I Getting a Job?
[Medulla’s POV]
By the time Twilight had come downstairs, I had been staring at a single page in a book on the Blink spell for half an hour. Once she had woken up enough to form coherent thoughts she asked, “Why are you always up so early?”
I looked away from the page as I said, “Only need about three hours of sleep a day, but I can go three days on no rest before my cognition is noticeably hampered. ”
“That’s impossible?” she said aghast.
“Yes, for a pony, but you’re not talking to a pony. This body was engineered to be the greatest living weapon, at least in the universe it originated from, and that includes efficiency. That’s why I don’t need to eat ever much unless I exert myself. ”
“So what have you been doing for the last couple of hours?” Twilight asked.
“Trying to figure out how to adapt the Blink spell to my powers. ”
Twilight almost laughed, “That spell shouldn’t be that hard for someone as powerful as you.”
“Well, I figured out I could adapt spells to my powerset last night, although the book actually held a sample of the spell I was trying to emulate. This book does not, so I had to build my knowledge of how pony magic work from the ground up. And now I stuck on something… ”
Twilight eyes widened, “It took me years to get to the point where using that spell was viable, and you did the same in a few hours.”
I set the book down and looked her in the eye as I said, “Twilight, I could never truly cast magic, I was just trying to understand the principles behind the spell so I could use a version of it. It’s not like I actually had to show proficiency in the more basic stuff before somepony would let me try using it, I either can use it or I can’t. ”
Twilight let out a relieved sigh, “So what has you stuck?”
“That’s just it. I’m not sure. ” I pointed at several key points on the page. “It all makes perfect sense, but when I try to conform the principles to how my powers work, it’s like there’s something saying, ‘I already know that move.’ but I don’t. ”
Twilight looked very confused, “But you said that there were a lot of moves you didn’t use regularly, is it possible that there's one like the Blink spell?”
“That would be Teleport, but as far a I’m aware Mewtwo could never use Teleport. ” I said scowling.
Twilight smirked, “Isn’t it possible that there was one rare instance where it could, one that you didn’t know about?”
“Let’s test that theory… ” I said and focused on the 'list' of moves deep in my head, most I didn’t care about, they either were either weaker versions of other moves or I didn’t find them every useful. As I ‘scrolled’ around I noticed that one section was almost like a blind spot. Focusing on that section, I saw a small sublist of the TM and HM moves Mewtwo could learn only in the first and second generations of Pokemon. Among this list was Teleport. I was so happy, my eyes shot open and I exclaimed, "This day couldn't get any better! "
I began to rapidly pop around the room and Twilight looked on in shock, taking notes, and asked, "So what are the limits to this power?"
I stopped for a moment standing on the ceiling, scratching my chin. I responded, "In combat it's usually used for escaping, but I think I can use it for maneuverability like this and it takes very little concentration. Outside combat I could use it for instant long range teleportation of a small group to someplace I know the exact relative location of, but this takes a great deal of focus. It does use quite a bit of energy either way. "
Twilight then muttered, "Interesting." as she scribbled in the notebook.
Just then a loud burping sound could be heard from Twilight's room, followed by a Spike rushing out of the room yelling, "Letter for you, Twilight." He fell down the stairs in his excitement. This time Twilight caught him before he hit his head too many times.
Twilight levitated the letter out of Spike's claw, she then began to unroll the scroll but she had only opened it a few inches before stopping. She then stared at my, "It's for you."
I took it from her and read it quickly. Celestia was requesting my presence and was sending a carriage to pick my up in a few hours. I was going to have more fun now. I told Twilight, "There will be a royal guard coming for me in a while, offer them tea or something. By the time they get here the reason for calling me will be irrelevant. "
Before she could protest I teleported to Canterlot, but not into the throne room I was a few hundred feet above the castle. I then teleported into the throne room, making sure the was an explosion of light and sound as I did so. Once the dust cleared, I asked, “You called? ” The guards, including Shining Armor, had of course already surrounded me at this point. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t trained them so well , I thought to myself. The sisters seemed to like my showmanship better than the guards.
Celestia spoke first, “Welcome Medulla, but we we’re not expecting you for a few more hours.”
I smiled and responded, “What good is there in arriving at the expected time, best to be early so you might be able to do something useful. ”
“That wasn’t like you teleportation last time, I didn’t see a gate to somewhere else.” Shining noted.
“The power that you saw before overexerts me. I made what scientist from my old world would call a wormhole, but how I did it would be comparable to knitting a tapestry with pine needles instead of weaving it with a loom. ” I said exhausted, “What I did just a few seconds ago is new to me, and it’s much easier. But why'd you call me here? "
Celestia seemed a bit upset if slightly amused as she spoke, “This was meant to be a more formal event, but seeing how early you are we may as well do the ceremony then once everything is prepared we can proceed to the banquet.” Celestia signaled to Luna, Shining, and the guards. In only a second the guards lined the walls as best they could standing at attention. Luna levitated a very ornate saber to Celestia. Celestia unsheathed the sword and trotted up to me. She raised the saber touching my left shoulder then my right while saying, “In recognition of your one thousand and one hundred years of service to Equestria, you are hereby given the title and position of Equestrian Grand General.”
"... What? " Was all I could say.
Celestia must have expected that response because she ignored my shock as she explained, “Well, seeing as there is no higher military office, and you did serve as a trainer for some of the most decorated officers in the last thousand years I see no reason not to give you such an honor”
I still didn’t understand, “But I’ve never made any official oath of office, and a few days ago I was public enemy number one. But most importantly how can I get a promotion if I never held a job? ”
Luna responded, “There is precedent that civilians can gain military honors if they have shown they have shown leadership and valor in a crisis. And the private journals of Starswirl the Bearded attest to these in you.”
“... He wrote about that debouchel in Transylmainia? ”
“His account of the events was a bit vague, but a consistent theme was how incredibly you help up under pressure and handled the unexpected.” Celestia smile was almost impish, she knew something from those journals and wasn’t going to share any time soon.
“I’d rather not relive that insanity just yet. Fine on that part I guess, but what about the oath of office. ” I said trying to hide the desperation that I could avoid getting tangled up in any obligations right now.
Celestia retorted, “No need the ceremonial saber places a spell on you that will inform me if you should do anything to that directly conflicts with your duties as General.”
I knew there was no arguing at this point, so I said, “Fine, what are the duties? Since I have no say in the matter at this point. ”
Celestia’s mother smile faltered, “You do have a say in the matter, the spell can still be removed. The position of Equestrian Grand General has been empty for over eight hundred years. It is has been mainly a war time role, so unless war is declared you really don’t have much in the way of obligations. Mainly training and maintaining the chain of command.”
I was trying to think of any excuse to not get tied up in Canterlot bull shit.
And luckily at that moment I heard a feminine voice trill, “Heeeeey, Meduuuuuulla? Come out to plaaaaay-eee-aaaay?~ "
“Well that is convenient ,” I said, “because I’m have sort of pledged to help others like me, and one is calling now. "
“A WHOLE NEW WORLD!!! ",I shouted as I let the summon drag me to my token. I barely heard Celestia yell something as about not being finished before I was fully gone. Travel through the void was as annoying as ever, this time one eldritch horror tried to set me up with its sister, "NO JEFFFFF, I WILL NOT DATE YOUR SISTER!!! I'M NOT ATTRACTED TO ANYTHING LET ALONE EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL TENTACLE MONSTERS!! ” I tried to focus on the world I was entering. Whoever is summoning me must be pretty new to the whole Displaced thing , I thought, they didn't even say who they were .
As their universe approached, I tried to think of what to say upon entry. I know, I'll go along with the horror theme of their reference.
As the I fell to this world I said, "Heeereee'sss Medulla!! "
"... the hell is that? " I heard mentally from nearby.
"That... I think... Are you... A Mewtwo?" A confused voice asked, the mental voice seemed to come from the same place as the actual voice but was too different.
"Yes, I am a Mewtwo... Why do your clothes talk? " I asked, as I stared at the yellow pegasus, wearing what could be considered a somewhat revealing black sailors outfit, with an eye on part of the scarf.
"Uh... he's a soul attached to a substance called life fibers?" she offered unsurely. She was obviously confused about me.
"...You can hear me? " The sailor uniform asked amazed.
I chuckled at that, "Of course I can here you, anything with thought I understand. 'Life Fiber' that sounds familiar... " I seemed to recognize the outfit and appearance, "'Kill la Kill'? Never actually saw the show, but I was interested and I know bits and pieces from reviewers. " Something else was off, "Oh. You got genderbent, funny thing is you're not the first of us I've met that got turned female. "
I could just see the cogs turning in her head, "Are you... Were you a human? " she asked hesitantly. "Are there others here? How many? And, ” she tossed my Mega Stone towards me, “What is this? Senketsu said it felt like life fibers, but after... well, meeting you, that doesn't seem like that likely of an idea. "
I levitated the Mega Stone as she tossed it to me, "This is a Mega Stone, it enables me to become even stronger. Taps into my true power, as it were, so no it’s not life fiber... I was right, I'm the first Displaced you've met. I hate to front-load this information, so suffice it to say, there's lots of humans that bought stuff at a con, and got teleported to a version of Equestria and given powers based on what they bought. " I looked around sensing something like hostility and ponies searching. "Is somepony after you? " I asked.
"No! Why? Okay, so maaaaaaybe Rarity might be after me for yoinking a bunch of her gems. Or to find out more about Senketsu." Ryuko answered.
I started concentrating on the source more, "No, it's not that per say, Rarity is there with Twilight. Rarity want's to go full designer mode on you and 'Send Cat Soup', and the name 'Cheshire' keeps bouncing around in Twilight's head. You need a distraction? " I offered.
"Twilight? Yeek. It is too damn early for her to find out about me. And fuck no to Rarity getting her grubby mitts on me. I hereby ask that you please kill me before she can get me into a dress. Please, yes please, and holy god please yes please to the offer of distraction. If you could just lead Twilight and the others away from the castle, and meet me at the portal? It's a mirror thing in the middle of the castle." She paused for a second "Can you take a peek inside Twilights cabasa, see what all she's done to the portal and the portal room? I just wanna know if she's booby trapped the room, with magical sensors or something."
"Naw, she just knows when individuals go through the portal. She wants to make a spell that places a tracker, but that hasn't worked yet. " I said reassuringly. "You head that way, I'll start making explosions to get the princess's attention. " I said with wry smile.
With that I teleported to an empty field in-between town and Sweet-Apple Acres. Then I started firing Thunderbolts randomly, making sure they were really loud and did less actual damage. I also added in a few brain rattling cackles to be on the safe side.
It wasn't too long before Twilight and the gang were standing in the field staring at me. Rainbow Dash was the first to say something, she flew right up to my face and asked, "Who the hay are you?"
Thunderbolt, "I am an enchanter, " two thunderbolts, "but there are some who dare to call me... Tim. " five more thunderbolts.
Fluttershy was barely able to squeak out, "Could you please stop that, if that's okay with you."
She was so cute I just had to break character, and I teleported over to her, she squeaked again as I hugged her super tight, "Ooooh, you are just tooooo cute. " I said. Everypony there was very confused. I dropped to yellow pegasus gently, "Well I’m off, if you want answers you better be able to keep pace. " I said rushing off out of site, and teleporting to the room the other displaced and Senketsu were in, I really should ask her name so I don’t freak her out too much , I thought.
As I appeared in the room I poked Ryuko on nose, she responded as expected, yelling, "Stop that!" and swatting away my hand.
I felt a bit bad about tricking Twilight, so I levitated a piece of paper over and began writing with psychic residue, "I really like Twilight so I'm going to leave a note? We probably only have a few minutes before they realize I nowhere to be found. Never caught your name, I mean I could have found out I just try not to pry too much, beings tend to find it a bit disturbing when I know everything about them in less than a second. "
The note said, "Dear Twili, sorry about the whole 'Tim' thing, I was just distracting you while a friend of mine was getting away. Please don't take this personally, -Medulla" and dropped the note on the table.
"Can you write a note for me too? " Senketsu asked suddenly, "I can't explain this desire... but I really want to leave a message saying 'I really like your mane', for Twilight. Would that be alright? "
As Ryuko looked at him with a confused gaze, he asked in a genuine tone,"What? "
"Nothing. Just... a weird request." She responded.
"Sure, " I added, "PS: Senketsu likes your mane".
"Now we really should get going through that looking glass. " I said a little too flatly as I stepped through the portal. The portal tried to apply an ingenious polymorph spell, changes the individual to an appropriate form for the side their entering, and removes it if it’s already there. I could have stoped it, but the spell didn’t seem to know what to do with me and I wanted to see what would happen. During the short trip through the mirror I was able to figure out a way to use convince it I was supposed to turn into a human. As I stepped out of the portal I saw Canterlot High, but the place seemed fairly deserted. Looking back at the statue, I saw that I looked like an aged up Gold, yellow and black hat, jacket, shorts, black hair: The whole works. Completely human, everything was normal-ish. I could tell that my powers still worked, but they were going to take a lot more out of me in this form. Stupid eighty percent inefficient human metabolism .
A few seconds later Ryuko came rolling through, and bounced up on her feet. She looked around, probably for me, but didn’t seem to think I was me in this form.
"You... wouldn't have happened to see where my friend went, would you?" She asked. "He's... well... he might be wearing white... and purple?"
I couldn't take it, I fell on the ground laughing, after I composed myself I said, "Nope this is me. Do you have any idea how nice it is to be able to talk again." After standing back up and dusting off my shirt I said, "So, anything I can help you out with on this end?"
“You're... but you..." She stammered. "You look so... normal." she poked at my back, making me a bit agitated.
"You.... you're psychic!" she exclaimed, jabbing a pointing finger in me face. "I know this is a bit much to ask," she clasped my hands together almost begging, "But do you think you could probe the minds of the student body, see if anyone actually knows where Rarity is?" I gave a pointed look behind her, at the empty parking lot.
"Okay, yeah, it's Saturday. I bet if we waited a couple hours and headed into town we'd be able to find at least one of the main six. Wanna catch a movie? All the actors are weird colors, but an action movie is still an action movie."
I scratched my chin and said, "What movies are playing? It's seems sad to say but all I remember from before I was Displaced was all the media I ever consumed, nothing about me... Oh you should take this back." I said as I tossed Ryuko the Mewtwonite X back, "That is my token it's how you summoned me and how you can do it in the future. Sorry I tend to ramble."
She tucked the orb into a puke green fanny pack, and pulled out the smart phone. A few taps and she was obviously disappointed.
"Five different romance movies... The Drifting Bottle; A woman visiting the beach discovers a note in a bottle. Over the course of a year she grows to know the castaway intimately. Love R Us; a couple working at a toy store go through emotional backlash. Grime, the Movie; A remake of the 1978 classic Grime, it's a classic boy meets girl love story, updated to modern times! Ever White; While visiting a ski resort, Braided Guide(played by Biceps Mc Muscles) encounters the love of his life(played by Fair Hair). Landscaping; in this quirky comedy follow the exploits of Picture Perfect, a model who must decide on her career... or at a fleeting, distant chance of love." she screwed up her nose in disgust. "Any of that sound interesting to you?" she asked in amusement.
I snickered, "Have you ever heard of MST3K or riff-tracks? Which one is the oldest and sounds the worst?"
"Don't know the first one but I have heard of riff-tracks. Lets see," she flipped through the menus. "Seems like Grime's been out the longest... Holy crap I think it's this world's version of Grease. Do you remember what year Grease came out? You have access to 'all media' or whatever, right?"
I knew what we had to do, "Way before my time, I just watched in on TV and stuff, and it's not all media just the stuff I saw and played. But none the less we must riff on that movie. Even if our references go over the heads of everyone else."
“They may not appreciate our input," she said deviously, "But really, that's half the fun! Quick question, how much of your powers still work? Like, if they sent in their staff to get rid of us could you 'jedi mind trick' them into leaving us to ourselves?"
"The only thing that's been affected by the transformation is that I need to eat more often." I said rubbing the back of my head like an anime protagonist.
“Oh. Well okay then, wanna go get brunch or something? The first showing for Grime is... eleven thirty five. We got plenty of time to kill."
"Hope you have some money cause I could eat like Goku." I said blushing a bit.
"Find, breakfast food," she said statically into my phone.
"I found FOURTEEN places near you that match," a synthetic voice intoned.
"Chinese is not breakfast food. Neither is Spicy's Steak & Grill. God, you are bad at this, Gari. Hey, there’s a Danny's about ten minutes away, that sound good to you? Also, you don't have a problem with motorcycles, do you?" She asked.
I stared at her blankly, "Show me the map and I'll have us there right away."
"Nuh-uh. I'm not leaving my bike here, it might get stolen. I've had it for less than a week, I'm not going to let something happen to it just because I was too lazy to take care of it," she argued.
I sighed, "Fine, plus might not be such a good idea to teleport around in a non-magic world." I said as I walked over to the bike.
"I've been wondering about that honestly, " she said as she straddled over the seat. I got on behind her, hooking my arms around her waist. "Magic can be used here, so who's to say that there isn't a few wizards running around screaming 'magic missile' while being chased by some eldritch horror? " she kicked the ignition, and we rode off. A cop across the street gave us the stink eye, I wonder what the crime rate could actually be in a place like this , I asked myself.
I savored the sensation of wind flowing through my hair, it really the small things you miss the most , I thought to myself. "All I meant was that the average person is either unaware or incapable of magic under normal circumstances. " I hummed absentmindedly as I skimmed the near by minds, "Though it does seem that most of them do think that something odd has been going on the last couple of months. "
"The two movies have already happened, " she then preceded to recap the first movie, then stuff from a second movie I never saw. Singing baddies and she seemed fixated on Sunset Shimmer’s hair resembling bacon, Oh how much I miss bacon, not even one thousand some odd years could make me forget your taste you delicious pig flesh .
"Didjoo get all that? So yeah, everyone has a very good reason to think odd things are going on. They are, after all. " I didn’t really care what she was saying at this point, my mind was in a more bacon-y place.
I was drooling a bit, "Mmmmmm, baaacoon. " I said. I snapped out of it quick, "Sorry, it's been over one thousand years without most meats, and my metabolism isn't as efficient as a human. "
"Sorry for focusing on that word then, " she said, turning left onto a street. "She just has bacon hair. Gotta say, it's nice actually being able to talk to someone while riding. That’s the main reason why I got rid of mine in favor of a car, they don't exactly allow for pleasantries. Still, a car can't compare with the freedom a bike grants you."
I looked behind us but I couldn't confirm with my eyes what I was feeling mentally, "Something’s are tailing us, not too closely. I can't really gauge a threat level. At least some of them don't seem hostile, and one definitely is not from this town. " I told both Senketsu and Ryuko.
"Not local? " she asked, taking a few choice turns that would lead us in meandering circles for a few minutes. "Probably someone from the Kill la Kill highschool. Ouran or something, I can't remember. That might be something else entirely. Whatever, they can follow if they like. Senketsu and I'll put a pounding on them if they try anything. If you don't end up mentally bitch-slapping them out of irritation. "
I laughed at that imagery, "There are two ways to deal with a tail; try to shake them off if you think you can’t handle them in a fight, or if you think you can handle them make them think you don't know their there and let them make the first move. I like the second because I always like to work with more information. "
"Okay then, can you create a doppelganger in their minds for our tails to follow? " she asked. "I'm going to turn left up here, just make them think I turned right and lead them on a merry little chase for a while. "
My smile probably looked crazier than Pinkie's at this point, "That's actually more intensive than I usually allow myself, but not even an issue. Just one or would you like two? "
"No need to let them know exactly what's going on, Let them wonder what the hell happened. " she stopped at the stoplight. I felt that the driver was getting antsy and wanted some action. I made the real us invisible to those inside the car following us, and simultaneously replaced us with an illusion, I made sure that the fake me pointed back at them. As the green light lit up the real us turned left but the fake us went right and swerved through traffic, driving manically as it was followed closely by a van.
Ryuko looked back, surprised by the chaos, "The heck did you make them see? Us being maniacs? I hope they don't figure out no one else can see 'us' before we can get away... "
If it was possible, my smile went even wider, "The most powerful illusions are the ones we want to see. They wanted a high speed chase, so I gave them that. "
"Bully for them, " she stated, finally pulling into a parking lot. "Danny's..." she let out a low groan while looking at the sign above us. "It’s a freaking Denny’s. Not that I'm complaining, but someone should be suing. They better not serve instant eggs."
I face palmed, "I don't think IP laws hold for cross dimensional infringements. I think this is this universe's version of Denny’s. At least I can get plenty of food here. Plus I can get you up to speed on being a Displaced."
"About that," she started, as we walked into the restaurant. "This... marble thing. It's what let me call you, right? If I had one of these, yes table for two," Ryuko confirmed with the overly happy waitress.
"Anything I can start the happy couple off with?" she asked, a grin that was obviously trying to hide her hatred for this job.
"We're not, whatever. Can I get an iced tea?" she said.
"Just some milk for now" I said to the waitress without looking away from the menu. After the she left I said, still browsing the menu, "Yes others could call you for help, the trick is finding something that represents you to send out. After that you hold the item, say something like I did, ‘I'm blank, I do blank because blank, If you need help blank,’ then you let the void take it and send it to multiple universes. Of course the message is very flexible. You can add titles, or say what type of person you want to help and if they are against you morals you'll fight them, or you can say you'll help out anyone for a price, it's really up to you."
"So it's basically an answering machine on a dimensional string," she stated dryly. The the light bulb metaphorically lite up over her head, "Thread... so it should be something that represents me?" she asked as I returned a nod.
The waitress came back shortly, Ryuko's tea on tray and a short glass of milk for me. "Have you two decided what you're going to get yet?" she asked, her voice trying to hard to sound nice to veiled her contempt for this place.
"I can't say for my friend, but I'm not going to order anything off the menu. If at all possible, I'd like a pound steak, cooked medium."
"Uh," her smile faltered for a fraction of a millisecond. "Well, would you like a side of hashbrowns?"
"No, just the steak," Ryuko responded.
"Would you like anything on it? Our marinara sauce is simply-"
"No. Just the steak, PLEASE," Ryuko reiterated.
"Anything for me? " Senketsu joked.
"Actually, excuse my rudeness, can I get..." she paused thinking, "A fruit bowl, mostly kiwi, pineapple and... banana slices?" The waitress wrote down furiously in her little pad thing, smiling all the while.
"And for you, sir?" she asked, turning to me.
"Let's see, I'll have the The Lumberjack Slap, The French Toast Slap, and extra bacon and hash browns on the side," I said, I then realized who large that was and added, "I'm... ah... running a marathon tomorrow."
"That all?" the waitress said sarcastically, obviously convinced I was not going to finish it all.
"No that should be all." I said rubbing the back of my head and smiling shyly as I handed her my menu.
"Well then, just sit tight, and we'll have that out for you two in a jiffy!" she sashayed away, humming to herself.
"You, me, bathroom, now?" she asked, getting up and making my way to the public restrooms. "It's not like our food is gonna be ready any time soon."
"I don't think that will help people's perception of us as a couple." I said with a chuckle getting up.
The thought clearly had just now occurred to her. "I... whatever. Let them think what they will. I need to give Senketsu some blood, and while I'm in that state you can run me through the marble making process. If I'm right, I should be able to make it from one of his strings and some of my blood, right?"
There was only a single unisex bathroom, that struck me as a little low class even for this place. She pulled me in after her, and locked the door so we could have some privacy.
"You really need to stop saying 'marble', it's called a token. Mine is just a round stone that looks like a cat's-eye marble. " I said mostly mentally.
"Oh. Okay. Token... that does sound cooler." she placed a hand to the knob on her gauntlet, she seemed to hesitate. "Okay, so you've seen snippets of Kill la Kill, right? So you know full well what’s going to happen. If you utter even one wise crack regarding Senketsu or how he looks on me or how I look wearing him, I will probably hit you in the face, just for principle's sake." Immediately she pulled off the knob, transforming into a very revealing outfit, I mean there was not very much left to the imagination.
"Okay, so how do I do this?" she asked.
"Well you said you were going to make your token. I might be able to help shape it if you'd like. Also, I don't see what the big deal is, if you think about it I'm almost always naked." I said with my hand in my hoodie.
"Hey Senketsu?" she asked, "Can I get a single string? I'm going to cut it off, but you should be able to regrow it from my blood..."
"Gimmie a sec, " he said, his fabric squirmed around on its own, then a single read thread appeared between Riku's fingers "There, you got it? "
She pulled on it and cut it off after about a foot. "Okay, so I just... concentrate on it and it happens?" she asked. "And Senketsu, try to draw as much blood from me as you can safely at the moment, I ordered some grub to help replenish what you take."
A blast of air came out of some vents on her back after a few seconds.
"Well you need to say something while concentrating on it to let the Displaced on the other end knows who you are and what type of Displaced you are Good, Evil, or Neutral." I clarified.
"Okay." she held the string up to her mouth, biting her lip to let a line of blood fall into her hand. She stare intently at it. The string and the pooled blood glowed, slowly solidifying as she closed her eyes in concentration. She opened them again and said, "Hey assholes! Apparently there's a shit-ton of you guys out there, so if you ever need someone with super strength -and a sword that can cut through anything, give me a call! I will of course be expecting compensation, I'm currently living out of a motel and every little bit helps... "
In her hand was a red scissor identical to the one she used earlier. Senketsu had also reverted to his normal state.
"Now what?" she asked.
"Drop it, or throw it, the void will do the rest." I said leaning against the sink.
She threw it at the wall, to my surprise it didn’t disappear and sunk deep into the wall.
"Did I... do something wrong?" she asked concerned.
I was still shocked, "Never seen this before, not that I've seen every Displaced make their token. If I had to guess I'd say push it down or in, or which ever way it naturally goes."
She pushed on it but it wasn’t going anywhere and was just physically in the wall nothing special.
"Shit... let’s get out of here," she said hurriedly, thrusting the scissors into my open hands. "Even if it is my fault I don't want them blaming it on us."
We made our way back to our table, the waitress obviously giving Ryuko a dirty look. Mostly the waitress was thinking about having to clean up after what ever we did in the bathroom, blaming Ryuko mainly, using some unflattering language. Time to have a bit of fun , I thought.
I smiled darkly as I walked over to her and said, "You know it takes two or more to tango." I winked at her and walked back to Ryuko. "I love messing with people like that." I said to her as I sat down.
"Oh god," she moaned in embarrassment, cupping her face in her hands. "Please don't tell me, I don't wanna know." She quietly sipped her tea, wondering where the food was to avoid certain types of thought.
I chuckled, "If The Chef is to be believed, it should only be three more minutes before the waitress can get it."
"The first portion, I assume?" she asked, obviously worried the sheer amount of food I ordered.
My eyes lit up as inspiration struck, "Well how ever much it is, we still have some time, so would you like to see a magic trick?" I said holding Ryuko's token in one hand.
"Sure. As long as it isn't a magic trick from the Joker. I don't think they'll bring us any more food after that," she joked.
I waved my other hand in front of scissor and it was gone, "Ta da, you're now officially summonable by other Displaced... Man that was way easier now that I know I can actually use Teleport."
She grabbed my hand by one finger, examining it in mock amazement. "Nothing up your sleeves, I presume?"
"Nope... You just wanted a look at my muscles, admit it." I said jokingly.
"I got more muscles than your skinny ass," she shot back. "Seriously, are your arms string spaghetti? They better hurry up with that food, if we don't get some in your state you might shrivel up into nothing."
I couldn't help but laugh, "Finally another person who can turn my jokes back on me. You should know that how strong I look has nothing to do with my true strength. And not even considering that, physical strength alone can only do so much, knowing how to use it is more important."
"My body can literally lift a thousand pounds... theoretically. According to the show's logic. Anyway, the girl on the show was shown doing impossible things regardless of her body size, so I know precisely well enough to not 'judge a book by the cover'. I mean, pretty much every big bad guy in the show can throw around buildings, eat them with a side of gravy, and digest them to create homemade projectiles. Somehow. The show gets crazy."
"I haven’t stress tested myself yet, but I took a hit meant to level a small town and still had enough juice to take that guy out and tear a hole in reality with a move not even intended to do something that complex. I did pass out afterwards but the point still stands.”
"Well, you are a Mewtwo," she said, "Isn't he like the most powerful pokemon in the mythos? I'll be honest that I don't know all that much about it what with all the other legendaries they kept pumping out for movie sequels, but he was the first one to top everyone else. That makes him canon in my book, and everything that came after him just money grubbing corporate sell outs. I mean did you see the abominations they made for White and Black? Giant ass white retardo chicken."
"For the longest time Mewtwo's stat total was the gold standard for highest potential, then they made Arceus and then he set that standard for a while. Now Mewtwo's mega evolutions are right on top with Mega Rayquaza." I sighed, "Though like I said in game stat total is more of a measure of potential then it is raw power."
"You can still basically rewrite reality, right? God tier," she was cut off as the waitress arrived with our food. She plopped down my steak, and three others laden with Medulla’s food. She then went off to get more of it. "At least in my opinion," Ryuko said, cutting off a piece and stuffing it in her mouth.
"I wish, " I said mentally as I scarfed down my food, "I'm not quite strong enough to wipe something from history as an example, but that's mainly because it seems that every legendary has its domain. And in that domain they are almost unmatched, for me that's the mind, but to avoid the temptation and stigma surrounding total mind control and other such high level psychic stuff I prefer to stay within certain limits. " I had already finished half my plate, " Although combat wise, I did go toe to toe with what might be considered a god of space. I don't think he was actually at full power, the stuff he was doing was very draining on his powers so he was fighting with his hands tied so to speak. I'm not even sure I killed him, it felt like he was about to die, but the universe ejected him before it actually happened. "
"Damn. Would you have though?" she asked, "Killed him, I mean. If you had the choice."
I actually stopped eating for a moment to consider that question, "I still would have, but you decided for yourself. He's the reason the Crystal Empire disappeared in my universe, Sombra going insane just happened to occur before hand, he was trying to override my universe in a way that was slowly degrading it, and in his desperation in the fight he decided to try and completely flatten a nearby town full of innocent ponies who were already suffering from some of the effects of his metaphorical raping of the universe, and getting rid of him before he was finished would allow the universe to repair everything he did. Would you do anything to stop something from doing that and undue the damage already done?" I immediately started pigging out again.
"I'd kill someone like that in a heartbeat if it meant protecting someone innocent," she stated resolutely. "Honestly I'd prefer to stay within the 'grey margin' of violence, but I like to think that if I had to I could do what needed to be done. If I continue following the events of Kill la Kill, I'm going to end up leading someone to their death," she paused, she seemed to study my expression. "Spoilers. The main character's mother is the big bad evil guy. Final episode, instead of accepting defeat she reaches into her own chest, and tears out her heart. If I want to save this world, I'm more than likely going to have to go directly down that exact same path, and do nothing as she kills herself."
I gave her a reassuring smile, "The nice thing about being a Displaced is that sometimes you surpass the character you became. Many times knowledge of the future, or at least too narrow knowledge, leads to creating that future, like in the old myths. But other times, and these are very rare, and the future can be changed. In the first type the 'prophecy' sometimes takes itself into account and shows what will happen when it is acted upon, the second is when knowledge of the mostly likely future without intervention. The problem is figuring out which one is in effect, if it's the first you could drive yourself insane as you create what you tried to stop, if it's this second you could sit idly by while everyone drives the world into the ground when you could have stopped it. Honestly, I'd just do what comes naturally to me and damn the consequences, I live the way I want so I'll take whatever life throws at me because of that. Sorry for the lecture, I just think about this stuff a lot. "
"So what you're saying is, I don't have to play by the script?" she asked, reaching around one of my plates to get to her salad bowl.
"When you boil it down, yes!" I said before really digging into my meal, I even used some subtle telekinesis to aid me.
I surprised myself with how fast I actually ate everything, the bill was larger than I expected, and Ryuko did tip generously.
We left and got back on Ryuko's bike, she took a moment to check the location of the theater on her phone. A ten minute ride later, and we had paid for our tickets and had entered possibly one of the most poorly maintained theaters in existence, I made a small barrier between my butt and the seat because it was almost coated in a slime from years worth of fluids of several varieties, I hoped the theaters from my earth weren’t this bad.
"Not exactly the cleanest place, is it?"
"No, but I'm pretty sure even the cleanest theater would look horrific under a black-light." I said trying to ignore the filth.
The movie started, and the main character showed up on screen. "Oh god it IS Grease... guys a poor substitute for Travolta, though," she griped.
"Oh my, and their replacement for Olivia Newton-John... They do understand that she's supposed to be an sweet girl who's never metaphorically let her hair down."
We spent the next hour and fifty minutes mocking this movie, and just as the credits rolled I said, "Well the one thing that stays the same, the lesson: If the person who you find the most attractive currently doesn't like you the way you are, change everything about yourself."
"You know there’s actually a fan theory they're dead at the start of the movie? People speculate that they both drowned at the start, and them flying off into the clouds at the end represents them both escaping from purgatory. I know you're not supposed to try and apply logic to a musical, but if you did it would kinda explain why everything was so weird and... 'not making sense'. Then again..."
"I can't think of a greater punishment than being in high school into your thirties." I said laughing as I got out of my seat.
"Being stuck in kindergarten?" she suggested, following me out. "Although with that option you get afternoon naps. Anyone who doesn't appreciate a good nap is crazy."
I sensed someone that was obviously looking for us, "Someone is waiting for of outside the building, want to run or confront them?" I asked.
"What's their intention?" she asked curiously.
I focused on them and said, "I think information, but they seem violent."
"Violent? Is it the same people who were tailing us?"
"Maybe, but the person waiting is just one person, before it was several." I said.
"Can you get a name, at the very least?" she asked. "Male? Female? I'd rather confront them than not, but every little bit of information helps."
"Male, definitely male. I can give you a title, 'Boxing Club President'." I said shivering from the guys fervor.
"TAKAHARU FUKURODA!!!" she bellowed out, waving her arms above her head dramatically really shocking me from that seeming randomness. "I WILL MAKE YOU BLEED YOUR OWN BLOOD!" she turned back to me after her little outburst, "Did he hear that? If yes, how's he taking it?" she asked with.
"Yes, mostly confusion about how you knew his name. They won't let him in so let's go say 'hi' to our new friend." I said.
"Yeah, let’s!" she chirped. And then stopped. "Or I can just stop acting like a little girl. Whatever, don't care. Let’s go beat up a boxer!"
We made our way to the front of the theater, where a certain diminutive boxer stood waiting for us. They weren't letting him in, which was quite apparently starting to piss him off. This guy clearly had a temper to match his stature, oddly short.
"Oh, Haruuuuuuu?" she trilled, drawing his attention, "Didja get my text message?" she turned to me, "Or would that have been considered a voicemail?"
I smiled and said mentally, "Let's go somewhere less public, unless you want what comes next to get more attention. "
"This shouldn't take too long, this guy's a pushover," she stated confidently.
Takaharu didn't take well to that, his cheeks burning red and his mouth twisted into a scowl. "You?Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you DARE to insult me so? Do you know who I am, little girl?"
"Takaharu. Nicknamed Shortstack because of... problems revealed one time at a public bath house," she said, simply trying to rile the shrimp up.
"It's not true, she's lying!" he yelled frantically, turning to and fro to tell as many people as he could, "It's perfectly normal sized, she doesn't know what she's talking about!"
"Boxing club president and part of Satsuki Kiryuin's hit squad. Not important enough to receive a three star suit, as evidenced by your lapel," she said, pointing a finger at the collar of his coat, where two angry red stars swam with blackened lines.
"Shut your mouth, little girl!" he yelled back at Ryuko.
"Wasn't that also one of your nicknames?" she probed.
"No! It isn't! Shut up! It doesn't matter who you are, I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget!" he dashed forward, calling out his attack like an idiot, though it is fun. "He moves into a right straight! But it's really a corkscrew!" he crowed. "TEK! KEN! FUN! SAI!" he called out, his glove seeming to blur into a twisting movement faster as it moved closer to Ryuko. There was something wrong, why was she wasting time this move that left him wide open. She flinched, I realized that she had nothing without her transformation, so I stepped it. Holding my hand towards Takaharu’s glove holding it in place, he struggling with his glove motionless in midair less than a couple inches away from Ryuko's face.
"What? I..." she turned towards me, and noticed what I’d done. "Uh... thanks?"
I pushed Takaharu back a few meters and told Ryuko, "This one's on the house." I brought Future Sight, Focus Punch, Mega Kick, and Aura Sphere to my battle list, as I walked between them. I then said to Takaharu, "I'll end this in three moves, then you'll be in a crater unconscious. But after all this is over, make sure to give a message to you boss, I won’t be here for long but Ryuko has me on speed-dial so play nice."
"I'll leave you in the dust in one, TEK-." the short boxer said.
But before he could finish talking, I teleported in front of him and yelled, "Mega Kick!", and kicked him in the crotch, calling out your moves is more fun when your opponent does it and waist time with the wind up. As he flew into the air, I teleported to where he would be in a few seconds, "standing" horizontally in the air. I closed my eye's and focused my strength in my right arm. Just before he reach me, I shouted, "Focus Punch" slamming him in the chest so hard the he almost broke the sound barrier. When he hit the ground there really was a crater. I landed next to the crater he was barely able to sit up, he asked legitimately scared, "How much life fiber?"
I laughed manically, "None, and to answer you next question, I'm not human." I showed him my Mewtwo form in his mind, and with that, I fired an Aura Sphere at him, knocking him out cold. I finished by teleporting his uniform off of him and giving it to Ryuko.
She took the shorts, shoes, and helmet in one hand throwing them up in the air and unfolding her scissor with her other hand in one fluid movement. She held it down to the side, as if she was holding a sheathed katana. She popped the knob from my glove, and before the transformation was even finished she had struck upward, rending the fabric into nothing more than broken threads. They were quickly absorbed by Senketsu, and she returned to her 'normal' self all in the span of five seconds.
"Nukitsuki, Sen-i-Soshitsu!" she exclaimed, turning back to me. "A movie and a quick bite to eat, you really know how to show a girl a good time, huh?" she joked.
I made sure to take a few important looking pieces of info from our naked unconscious friend. "I should hope so," I said then I realized that people from the van were back. "You can come out from wherever you’re hiding ." I said in their minds
Before our old pursuers appeared I told Ryuko, "Rule one of fighting; Never underestimate the opponent, sub rules include; don't get caught monologuing and if you're going to get them angry be ready for them to fight stupid."
"Right, got it," she snapped, blushing. "Don't do stuff the bad guys do in cartoons. Otherwise I might end up in the same boat they find themselves in. Got it."
"I've had trouble with that rule sometimes, but I'm working on it. Anyway our friends from the van are here." I said as the five individuals came consciously around the corner.
"Listen up, missy!" Applejack spouted, coming to the forefront of the group. "We all wanna know what the hay is goin on! What's with the imaginary you that disappeared when we caught up with it? Who the hay is that," she pointed an accusing finger at our newest little friend, the boxing troll who was still sprawled out on the ground. All the girls averted their eyes in unison, seeing as his willy was still waving in the breeze.
All of them except Fluttershy, surprisingly enough. She took one look, then looked straight back at Ryuko and me without batting an eye, not even a touch of red on her cheeks.
"Who the hay is he," Applejack thrust a finger towards me, "And how the hay did he do that?" she flung her arm back towards the naked shrimp.
"Don't mind Applejack, she lives around a lot of hay," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "But we still wanna know what's going on! Spill the beans, girly!"
Pinkie Pie was practically bursting at the seams, jittering about with a nervous energy and a smile that threatened to break her jaw.
"Don't you see Dashie?" she asked, bouncing in place, "It's so obvious! Ryuko is-"
"-From Equestria," Sunset suggested, her face brimming with determination.
"Nope!" Pinkie Pie chirped.
"She's an alien from outer space!" Applejack contributed.
"Noooooooope~"
"A robot?" Rainbow Dash asked uncertainly.
"...no."
"A transfer student?" Fluttershy hesitantly proposed. Her’s was the most boring proposal, get creative.
"Nope, well actually I guess she kinda is, but that's not how she can do the outfit thing~," She dug deep into her pockets, throwing a cloud of confetti above us. "Sheeeeeee's a magical girl!!"
Ryuko and I shared amused glances, before she started again.
"And he's... well, closest I got is he's a Super Sentai. Telekinetic powers, the ability to make us see a fake Ryuko on her bike, it's the only thing that really fits." She took a long hard look at me, taking it all in from my hat to my shoes. "Guess he isn't like the physical fighting kind, though."
"That's... I'm sorry Pinkie, but that's kinda dumb," Dash berated.
"I dunno," Ryuko looked to me, "I have an outfit that transforms, and with it I fight the forces of evil. Kinda loose on the description, but you have to admit it fits the character sheet pretty well," she admitted.
I was barely able to hold in my laughter, "I would have gone with generic shonen anime protagonist, buuuut..." I then began to alter the polymorph spell that I let the mirror place on me. I reasserted my normal form on the spell instead of the human alternate. I grew back to my full height, regained my tail and pink and purple skin, "I'm a monster of the pocket variety. "
"But you look all big! There's nothing pocket about you!" Pinkie chirped happily, inspecting me from about three inches away. “He does kinda look like a digimon though, wouldn't you say?" she asked, turning to her friends. Each of them had varying expressions plastered across their faces.
"You mean that weird television show that was all the rage way back in elementary?" Rainbow scoffed.
Why must this world lack something so essential to me?, Not that I hate digimon, the anime was way better than the pokemon anime.
"I remember I had to get a pack of the cards, ma mom and pop said it were nuthin but foolishness," Applejack supplied, "They were right, of course, but back then ah wasn't as smart. I guess he does kinda look like that one... Agumon?" she asked.
I couldn't help but laugh even louder, "I could eat Agumon like a snack cake. So the word Pokemon means nothing to you... Meh, I've heard of and lived weirder. Ryuko can explain what we are if and when she feels like it, I've already given her the basic info on it." I scratch my chin, thinking if their was anything else important to do here, "Well unless you need anything else, I could hang around for a bit or you could send me home. As I understand it, if I leave now there's usually an exchange of gifts, but I don't think that's necessary this time."
"Oh, but I do so love gifts!~" she trilled playfully, punching me softly in the shoulder.
"Fine," I sighed as I pulled out a highly polished claw, "You can have this Quick Claw. If you keep it on you, you'll be able to attack slightly quicker."
Somehow Pinkie managed to swipe the claw from my hands before I could react.
"Ooooooh, shiiiiny~" she cooed.
"Pinkie you don't need that. You're speed is already stupidly high." I monotoned.
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiny~" she retorted, waving it in front of my face.
I groaned, pulled out the Amulet Coin holding it out of her reach, I had no use for it anyway, and said, "If I give you this, you give Ryuko the claw, understand?"
"Does this mean we're dating?" Pinkie asked, a look of complete innocence stamped across her mug. "A boyfriend gets their girlfriend jewelry, right?" she said with a wide, trollish smile.
I set my head in my hands and responded, "No, for three reasons. I'm over one thousand years old. I am physically incapable of feeling that way. And this is more like a trade."
Pinkie pie responded by fake crying, throwing her hands up to cover her face as she started to blubber, "We haven't even gone on one date and you're already breaking up with me? I thought we had somethiiiiing!"
"Why me?" I muttered. I then turned back to Ryuko, "Want me to stay a bit longer, or should I just go and let you explain everything?"
"Actually, if you could teleport my motorcycle and myself back to my hotel so that they can sit here and stew," she asked as she snatched the claw out of Pinkie Pie's hand, "That'd be wonderful. Nothing against you girls," she said, cutting off Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer before they could get a word in, "Today has just been such a relaxing day, and I really don't want to spoil it any more than it has been."
"Done," I said snapping my fingers, and we were suddenly in a hotel parking lot.
Pinkie Pie managed to steal the amulet coin just before I teleported... somehow. "Well fuck me if that isn't uncomfortable," she complained, holding her stomach, not used to the sensation of teleportation. "Thanks for that, by the way. Wouldn't do to give them all the answers right off the bat, where's the fun in that?"
"Now I need to get back to the throne room, all you need to say is 'Medulla our contract is complete.' I also hope you find a way to go against the script." I said as I smiled.
"Script?" she asked, holding out a hand. "Screw the script. I'm going to turn everything on its head, make it go crying back to its momma... if metaphorical sheets of paper with ink on them detailing a plot line can actually have a mother..." she broke out of her musing and thrust her hand at me, for some reason. "It truly was a pleasure having you. If you ever need a friend to talk to, feel free to give me a call. Seems like you don't really need any help on the combat side, but if you ever want any all ya gotta do is call me up and ask."
"I enjoyed this too, if I need you help I'll call. You feel free to do the same. Oh and the transformation spell from the mirror is gift enough."
"Wait, you still have that?" she asked, still holding her hand out, awkwardly . "I thought it wore off at the movie theatre..."
"What? No, it's a spell that the mirror applies to you every odd number of times you go through, and removes every even number of times. I just alter its perimeters and I can shapeshift between human and Mewtwo, I'll test it more later. But it takes more concentration than I could afford in battle, and it doesn't change my powers so it's not even close to what Transform should do."
"Are you just avoiding the handshake?" she joked waving her hand up and down in front of me, I was somewhat surprised that I forgot about handshakes. "Don't make me go Pinkie Pie on your ass, I will find some way to annoy you to death."
I laughed, "Sorry, here..." I held out my hand.
The handshake was vigorous but friendly, "Again, it was good to meet you. I'd be more than willing to call you a friend. Medulla," she declared, raising her other hand above her head in a dramatic gesture, "Our contract is complete!"
"A little melodramatic but works fine," I said as the portal began to swallow me. "I almost forgot, the boxer knew that Rarity was in Japan, and something about rumors of working five-star's," I said just before the portal took me completely.
As I traveled I focused on the thought, “A whole new world” and trying to ignore all the insanity of the nothing around me, I did get a little distracted when I thought about the other parting gift I left her, Sweet Dreams, Ryuk o, I thought to myself.
Surprisingly, I actually arrived back at my home Equestria as I left, I was aiming for a few minutes after but the shock on their faces was glorious.
“Sorry, but until I’ve dealt with the threat I know is already at our doorstep, I must decline the position. Even if I could build an army over the next few decades, there is no way I could prepare them for what’s coming. This threat is too powerful and too different from anything you know. ” I started and teleported away before they could argue.
This feels like the calm before the storm. Arceus may have some reason for doing this shit, but he is going to pay. I thought as I returned to Golden Oaks Library and continued on with what was left of this day, visiting Berry Punch’s orchard, high gravity training with Rainbow, and doing a bit of intense practice on my own away from anyone I might hurt.
Author's Note
Okay another chapter down, sorry for how long this took. I'll just leave it at shit happened and writer's block.High School Just Ain't Cutting It Hope you enjoyed.
And another new personal record for length and it's another crossover, so many people want crossovers which is cool but weird for me.
Misunderstood and Mutated
That night, while I meditated, I walked through all the legendaries that had yet to appear and developed plans for dealing with their powers. I started by creating some blackboards, one for each legendary. I began to talk to myself as I levitated imaginary chalk to write notes while I vocalized to noone.
“Most aren’t much of a physical threat on their own, but a few have unique abilities that could be very detrimental. Jirachi’s pure reality warping abilities could do some incredible damage in the wrong hands, though he has too good of a heart for the most part. Dialga could really screw me up if she blasted me into the future. Any of the dragons from the fourth generation could deal plenty of environmental and collateral damage. Yveltal could be a true extinction event if he chose to be an enemy. Hoopa would be one big unknown if he would show up.“
The last blackboard was still blank as I turned to it. “Arceus is the real threat. If the anime can be believed Judgment is not only a powerful single target attack, but an efficient way to carpet bomb. Containing him and myself would be the best way to avoid massive collateral, or if that’s not possible locking us both out of highly populated areas. Even then, any shielding spell might only last a few minutes under the strain of a battle that intense.”
Just then, I heard a soft cough come from behind me. I turned around to see Luna again standing in my mind. She smiled and said, “For someone who claims to have such incredible mental powers you certainly seem to have few mental barriers.”
“I have no secrets, and I’d like to see someone try to control me. Also I have a pipeline straight to the deepest parts of your mind just by you being here.” I said bringing up images of her of her life as a child.
She shuddered a little at the thought of me having such access but after a moment stated with some resolve, “I’m here to inform you of what I have learned about Cascade. They ceased being a religious cult many centuries ago, but they have slowly developed into a ‘secret’ organisation whose members are among the rich and influential. Though the only thing truly secret about them is the exact nature of their leadership structure and what they do. There have been some attempts in the past to connect them to organised crime but those investigations always come up empty.”
“So they have no current connection to the big bad, good.” I signed in relief.
Luna walked around looking at my blackboards, “What are these notes on? I’ve never heard of any of these creatures.”
“All of these haven’t appeared yet. At least six different ones like appeared here before me, three near the dawn of pony civilization, those ones have been asleep longer than I’ve existed. The other three are nice but I only know the location of one of them, and I know better than to disturb his sleep.”
“And these outlines for plans?”
“Contingencies, Some of these beasties have reality warping capabilities and I need a way to mitigate or subvert those powers.”
“Some of these just seem impossible. Are you capable of such things?”
“I think so. I need to make sure, so tomorrow I’m going to do try to stress test my powers, so you might hear some complaints about explosions coming from the Badlands. Now please I need a some privacy while I develop plans B through Q for each of these.” I said, waving my hand as if shooing a fly, and Luna disappeared.
I woke up not long after that and spent the few pre-dawn hours organising my thoughts and lists, I made sure to find the most detailed map of Equestria and the surrounding land so I knew how to get to the Badlands. So much to do, and no idea what the next threat will be or when it will appear. Luckily Twilight had a picnic with the others and brought along Owlowiscious, so no lab tests yet.
I exited the library and slowly floated straight up, orienting myself towards the South-West. And here’s the fun part, I thought as I focused a great deal of strength into pulling myself forward. The first stage was to see, from standstill, how fast I could get in ten seconds. I couldn’t feel an upper limit on my speed within that timeframe, but Ponyville was almost a half-mile behind me at that ten second mark. I then decided to see if I could break the sound barrier. By my estimate I made Mach 2.5, but I could only maintain that for a few seconds. That really strained me and I had friction burns all over, so I downed a potion and continued to my destination at a jaunty Speed of Sound. It took about two hours to reach the Badlands and another few minutes to find a particularly desolate place, far away from any Changeling hives.
I then began testing each of my moves, pumping power into them and trying to amplify the different secondary effects. At last I came to Umber Nova and Ultima. Ultima I could only use once a day before it soaked up too much of my power, and it drained me like nothing else, it’s power eclipsed any move that didn’t instantly K.O. the user. And Umber Nova was still frightening to me because no matter how much power I poured in to it it gave me back more.
A good half square mile of land had been reduced to smoking craters by the end of this little experiment and I had worn myself out repeatedly and drunk two Elixirs by the end. The sun had past it’s summit and was falling slowly to the west, when I heard, I wouldn’t mind meeting this Medulla guy.
Crap! this guy triggered my token, I thought, I could resist it but that would be no fun.
Just as the portal began to pull me to this new displaced I screamed mentally, I’ll Be Back! Setting a beacon. It felt like someone might have heard that, but I wasn’t sure.
[Ace’s POV]
Twilight returned a few minutes later with two Alicorns right behind her, both taller than herself. The first was a deep, midnight blue, an ethereal mane that shone like the night sky atop her head, unmistakably Princess Luna. She wore a simple, light blue button down shirt underneath a black bomber jacket, with black jeans covering her long, slender legs that ended in a pair of dark grey combat boots. She rocked the rebel look, if I do say so myself.
The taller of the two, a stark white sporting a tri-coloured pastel mane that flowed in a nonexistent breeze whom none could mistake for any other than the illustrious Princess Celestia, walked just behind and to the left of her younger sister. She wore a simple, red spaghetti-strapped top coupled with a yellow knee-length skirt and matching sandals. A hair clip of her Cutie Mark sat just above her right ear.
I got out of my chair, grabbing Core Strike as I did, before dropping into a ‘Swordsman’s Bow ’, as I liked to call it. Of course, I mean I dropped to one knee and presented Core Strike’s handle to the diarchs, eyes to the ground. I heard Twilight gasp a little and Spike sigh, but nothing from the Princesses until Luna took the sword from my hands. I risked a glance up to see her staring at the blade in awe.
“Could…” Luna began, one hand flying to cover her mouth. “Could it truly be?” she asked. Celestia also seemed to recognise the sword, and I was sure I saw tears in her eyes before she turned to me so fast I swear there was a mini sonic boom. With eyes full of anger, she levelled an accusatory finger at me.
“Where did you get that sword?” she asked with the kind of anger that was invisible to anyone but her target. Which, unfortunately, was me.
“In your old castle, your highness.” I replied, suppressing my fear for now. I could soil myself later. “It called to me when I crash landed in the old dungeons, and I found it in the armoury.”
“It’s true, Celestia.” Core Strike said, causing the mare in question to turn back to him. “I was dying, and called to him in my desperation. Whilst cautious at first, Ace gladly accepted me and allowed me to feed upon his courage.”
“Is this true, creature?” Luna asked.
“Yes, Princess Luna. Core Strike has since helped me to defend both Ponyville and my own psyche.” I replied.
“What do you mean?”
I proceeded to explain what had happened when I witnessed Spike’s flame, as well as the connections I had made from the book. At some point we had all decided to once more sit around the library’s central table, and Luna had returned Core Strike to me, much to Celestia’s chagrin.
“So,” Luna began. “If what you say is true, then Spike is a descendant of two of the creators of Equus? And he possesses one of their powers?”
“I believe so, yes.” I replied. “Considering how powerful it resonated with me, I’d say he may even have the potential to follow in their footsteps.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
I stood up, leaving the sword on the table, and began pacing. Pacing always helps me think about things, and I’d need to think to be able to come up with a way to explain it. During my pacing, something small and hard impacted with my head with enough force to knock me over, but not enough to hurt me. Looking around, I saw a fist-sized cat’s-eye marble looking stone, the ‘eye’ being composed of a deep purple and blue. It seemed familiar, though I couldn’t quite place it. I reached over and picked it up, preparing to glare at whoever it was that threw it, but as soon as my hand made contact a voice rang out in my head - not unlike when Core Strike was talking, but it did block out all other sound.
”Let those who value the freedom of all sapient life and the beauty of nature call upon the name of Medulla in your hour of need and I will lend aid… Or if you want to hang out or whatever that’s cool too.”
I wouldn’t mind meeting this Medulla guy, I thought.
The moment that thought ended, the stone seemed to glow for a second before a portal opened in the air.
A pink and purple form fell slowly through the portal, as the same voice from the orb said, ”So we got another newb here.”
“Oh. My. God,” I said, awestruck by the bipedal feline in front of me. “A freakin’ Mewtwo.”
“What’s a Mewtwo?” Spike asked, eyeing the visitor. He cracked a smirk before adding, “And where’s Mew One?”
The Mewtwo looked directly at Spike and said flatly, “Yes, but his name is just Mew. That cagy ass has been in hiding for quite some time.”
“Spike,” I growled, gritting my teeth in a nervous smile. “Have some respect. He’s got the power to turn your brain into a pile of mush if he wanted to.”
“And he has no affiliation to the Elements,” Core Strike added from his position on the table, rattling slightly. I walked over and picked him up, and the blade jolted forwards, forcing me to point it at the Mewtwo. “I do not like him.” the blade stated, and the mental image of furrowed brows filled my head, brought on by his tone.
”Slow down Mister Pointy, I’m not going to hurt anyone unless they attack me first. By the way my name is Medulla.” He said holding out his paw. I forced Core Strike down, keeping him pointed at the floor as I shook Medulla’s hand.
“I’m Ace, nice to meet you,” I said, smiling. “The sword is Core Strike, and these are Spike and Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight.” I paused, running back over the encounter for a moment. “What’d you mean by ‘another newb’?”
He smiled at that, ”Let’s see, you called me here on accident and said nothing about who you were or why you needed me. And I’ll ask you one question to prove my point, What does the word Displaced mean to you?”
“Displaced? Sounds like Misplaced, gonna assume the ‘D’ is from ‘Dimension’ or something.” I paused for a moment, frowning. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with that jerk off that sold me this damn thing, would it?” I asked, pulling the amulet from the inside of my shirt and holding it up for Medulla to see.
”I don’t know about the Misplaced thing, Displacement is a physics term for a change in physical location. And yes the guy who sold you that sent you here. There are many of us scattered throughout the multiverse, mostly from earths to Equestrias.”
“Oh, wow,” I said, baffled. “That’s… that’s… actually a huge relief. At least I’m not alone in this. So what other Displaced do you know?”
Medulla scratched his chin, ”Well I’ve met Jason Hughes, he uses an Omnitrix; Max, she’s a time manipulator; and Ryuko, from Kill la Kill. They’re nice people. I know of a few others, Gilgamesh is very helpful from what I’ve heard; Typhon another great person apparently, a few other too. I can’t really name any to stay away from, but you’ll find out about them on your own more than likely.”
“I’ll have to keep my eye out for those guys, and I’ll be sure to be careful around any new guys.”
”You’ll also want to make sure that Core Strike doesn’t offend anyone. Some people can be very sensitive, I knew that he was just being protective so I didn’t mind it too much.” Medulla said giving Core Strike a grave look.
“... I shall abstain from insulting any other visitors …” Core Strike ‘grunted’, and I chuckled at him.
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t,” I promised. “If he does, I’ll let his blade go dull.”
“You will do no such thing!”
“Try me.”
”So do you need anything, I’d hate to leave without helping you first. You do still need a token so others can summon you if needed.”
“Hold on,” I said, closing my eyes in concentration. “I’ve got an idea. Core Strike, I’ll need your help with this.”
“What do you need?”
“I need to focus my Elements into an object,” I explained, pulling off the amulet. “How do I do that?”
“Just focus on the power and envision it being pushed into the amulet.”
I strained for a minute, pushing a small part of each of my Elements into the trinket. After a moment, I felt the final Element - Dark - slide into place, and let out the breath that I never realised I was holding.
“D-done…” I stammered, holding it out. “Someone… Someone get me a chisel.” A chisel appeared in my hand with a flash of purple light, and I carefully carved my message onto the back of the amulet. When I finished, I held it out to Medulla, who took it and read the message on the back. I smiled at my creativity.
‘I raise my blade in honour of you, the Displaced of the Multiverse. Place this amulet around your neck and call for Ace, and my blade will pierce the hearts of your foes!”
After a second Medulla tipped his hand dropping the amulet, but before it could reach the ground it disappeared. I smiled, nodding in appreciation before stumbling backwards. Apparently forcing fragments of your power into an object takes a lot out of you. Who knew? I was just getting my breath back and was about to ask if there was anything else we had to do when a massive explosion shook the building, sending anyone not already on the floor - or floating - tumbling down.
“What was that!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet and grabbing Core Strike before I raced out the door, Medulla hot on my heels. We shot through the halls and out the main door, coming across a tiny green gremlin with razor sharp teeth that immediately tried to eat my foot alive
”Guess I should have told you most Displaced have to deal with the baddies from what they're based off of.” , Medulla said swatting away a group of Chompies with a blast of psychic energy.
“Well isn’t that just awesome!” I shouted, slashing through a forest green elven spearman that tried to sneak up on Medulla. “I have to deal with Skylanders villains!” I shifted Core Strike into Kaze no Ran’na, the katana blade ripping cleanly through a line of large crow-like creatures in leather armour. I looked back to see Medulla throwing a huge tank armed with an oversized chainsaw with his Psychic, frowning at the sheer number of enemies around us. “Who’s behind this, anyway?” I muttered, blocking a charge from a dog-like creature that seemed to be made of rocks and plants. That was when a huge shadow flew over, casting the battlefield in darkness. I looked up, seeing a huge airship flying over the town. I frowned, looking around and spotting Medulla slamming two large tanks that looked like faces together.
“Medulla,” I shouted, catching the Mewtwo’s attention. “I’m going for the ship. You gonna be okay?”
”That depends, is it okay if I outright kill these things?”
“Go ahead, they’ll just sort of poof into smoke.” I demonstrated this by decapitating a bomb-throwing turtle, watching as it turned into a cloud of purple smoke and dissipated.
”Okay so no need to hold back then.” Medulla said enthusiastically as jets of fire sprang from his hands. I smirked before slicing at the air, creating a staircase for me to to climb up to the airship with.
When I came level with the deck atop the airship, I saw something that made my blood run cold. The Doom Raiders, with two extra members.
Chef Pepper Jack, a huge, walking red pepper in a chef’s outfit, one hand covered with a massive oven mit and an oversized egg beater strapped to his back. Fire Element.
The Gulper, a massive blue slug monster that grew exponentially whenever he drank ‘soda’. He clutched a large golden trident in his barnacle-encrusted hand, a tiny golden crown atop his head.
The Chompy Mage, an old, white-bearded man with an unhealthy obsession with the tiny biting monsters that were his namesake. A chompy hood, a chompy staff and a tiny chompy puppet were just a few things that made this guy a wacko.
Dreamcatcher, a massive, blue-skinned, disembodied head with the power to enter people’s dreams and hurt them from within. She almost looked like a small child, with the massive pink bow and the braces.
Doctor Krankcase, a troll mechanic that replaced his own legs with four wooden spiderlegs. A red leather duster and top hat, as well as a pair of emerald green goggles, further labelled this guy as the ‘mad scientist’ type of villain.
Wolfgang, a punk-rock werewolf that wielded a harp made of bone. He had discovered the musical note for pain, and exploited it as a way to get what he wanted.
Night Shade, the best thief in Skylands, dressed entirely in purple leather with a mask covering the top half of his face. One of the new guys, he stood to the side, clearly not a part of the ‘true squad’ yet.
Luminous, the ultimate sufferer of Scotophobia who wished to rid the world of all darkness - in the literal term. His bright yellow face was framed by stark white headgear, robes of the same colour adorning his body. It was almost ironic that he was in a team with a Dark elemental.
And last, but not in the slightest least, was the Golden Queen, a woman made of pure gold, dressed in a golden dress with golden regalia. She saw all of the world's gems and trinkets as hers, even going so far as to use her powers to turn people and subjects into gold.
"Oh, no..." I whispered, sweating in fear. "I-I can't… I can't believe it!"
Golden Queen looked to me, and her pure crimson eyes locked onto mine.
"Ah, child. Have you come to kneel before the one true Queen?" the golden woman asked, smirking sinisterly. "Or perhaps you wish to put up some form of futile resistance?"
"I-I…" I stuttered, before slapping myself and dismissing the solid air below me, causing me to fall towards the ground. The cackling of the Doom Raiders rang in my ears, haunting me as I fell.
[Medulla’s POV]
After cutting through the third swarm of Bob-omb looking things with shark faces, I realised something. These individual monsters were basically so weak that any attack was a waste on them, groups were a bit harder simply because they would all make a beeline for me or any civilian. I was still rather exhausted from earlier and couldn’t continue fighting this battle of attrition. So I decided to go the top of town hall and break one of my rules and take direct control of some of the beasts and stir up some chaos. Their minds were so weak I knew I would feel no guilt about taking over these things. They had a level of intelligence even a poodle would mock, and the survival instincts of lemmings. They followed orders of the more powerful blindly even if the saw dozens of their own die, so I saw no difference between what I was doing and whoever commanded them.
My plan worked better than expected, there was infighting even among minions I didn’t control. Just as the invading force had been drastically reduced I heard the noise of something falling very fast, I looked up and saw Ace plummeting back to earth. He was falling completely out of control. I didn’t even think about what to do next, I rocketed up to catch him, cushioning the force with my telekinesis.
“What’s happening?” I asked, as he woke out of his stupor. The boy stared at me for a moment before replying.
"D-d-doom Raiders…" he muttered, still not completely with it.
I knew it would still be a bit before he could respond clearly, so I searched his mind for relevant information. What I found was not good news, individually they could be a decent challenge - all of them together and me not at one hundred percent meant this was going to end horribly if we didn’t help the evacuation.
”Wake up!” I yelled in his mind. I began to descend back into the town as Ace became more aware of the situation.
"W-wha…" he stammered, quickly pulling himself together. "Oh, dammit! Medula, quick! We have to get the civilians out of here, we're nowhere near ready to face something like the Doom Raiders!"
”They’re already working on that, the best we can do right now is speed things up. Twilight seems to be leading the evacuation, she really is the most organised out of the bunch.” I said, letting some pride into my voice.
"Well if the show holds any merit here then yeah, she is." Ace paused, glancing around before pointing to a large group of mummies with stone hands, feet and heads that looked almost Mayan. “Grave Clobbers at eight o’clock!” he shouted, quickly diving out of my grip and running across the air towards the hulking beasts.
I wanted to go after him, but I knew my energy would be best used by getting as many ponies out of town as quickly as I could. I teleported over to where I sensed Twilight, of course my sudden appearance startled her, but I quickly asked, ”Where are you evacuating the ponies to? I can teleport small groups almost immediately.”
“There’s an old castle in the Everfree Forest that we’ve been fixing up, they should be safe there.” the Alicorn replied, gesturing in the vague direction of the forest.
I nodded, and replied, ”I know the place.” I then teleported away to gather as many of the towns ponies as I could.
[Ace’s POV]
I dropped to the ground, sprinting towards the gargantuan golems as Kaze no Ran’na shifted back into Core Strike. To my horror, I spotted a white mare with spiky, electric blue hair through a gap between the beasts, backed into a corner as they closed in. Narrowing my eyes, I put on an extra burst of speed and dropped to my knees, raking my blade across one of their legs.
I slid to a stop beside the mare, spinning around and slashing out at the remaining Grave Clobbers. To my dismay, the strikes only seemed to annoy them, and I now found myself trapped with the mare. I merely stood between them, holding Core Strike in a defensive manner.
“Are you okay?” I asked, glancing back at the mare. A small trickle of blood ran down her forehead, slipping behind a pair of purple shades, and a few bruises adorned her bare arms, but otherwise she seemed fine.
Before she could answer, a Grave Clobber attempted to smash us into the ground, and I raised Core Strike in an attempt to deflect the blow. The massive force behind it’s fist cracked the ground below me, and despite having held it back the rebound of the force sent Core Strike flying from my hands. I grunted in annoyance, putting my fists up and preparing to go out swinging.
“Well,” I sighed, ducking under a high - to me, at least - swing from a Grave Clobber. “For what it’s worth, it was nice coming to Equestria.”
“You ain’t leaving yet, muchacho,” a scratchy, feminine voice sounded from behind me. I turned back and immediately felt my jaw drop.
The mare was stood there, a massive, black and blue rifle in her hands that ended in a large speaker framed by a golden gear. She swung the rifle around, aiming it at the nearest Grave Clobber and squeezing the trigger. A soft, thumping beat sounded for roughly two seconds before gaining more energy, pulses of energy erupting from the rifle's speaker to the beat of the song and causing the creature to explode into a pile of glowing purple, green and yellow orbs.
I stared, slack-jawed, as the mare turned her song of destruction to each of the other Grave Clobbers, laughing madly as her hair whipped around. Time seemed to slow down as I watched, the light reflecting off her glasses.
I snapped out of it when I heard Medulla say, “You’re welcome” , before another voice cut in singing before a chorus burst in. I felt my face heat up, spinning around and glaring when I saw the Mewtwo smirking at me from afar before he teleported away.
I sighed, turning back to see the mare leaning casually on the rifle and grinning at me.
“So,” she said, adjusting her shades and paying no mind to the blood still trickling down her face. “What’s up with the freaky sword? Turned into a… thing… when I grabbed it.”
“Yeah, he does that.” I replied, coughing awkwardly. “I’m Ace, by the way.”
“Vinyl Scratch. Now, what’s going on around here?”
“See that ship?” I pointed at the airship, waiting for Vinyl to nod before continuing. “That belongs to the Doom Raiders, the worst villains imaginable from a time before Equestria even existed.”
“So it’s just like a normal day in Equestria, then?”
“Eh, pretty much. But these guys might actually be tougher than Tirek.”
She paled at that - if you can believe a stark white anthropomorphic Unicorn can pale, that is. She wordlessly handed me the rifle - which converted back into Core Strike as soon as she let go - and sprinted off,heading towards a large house on the outskirts of town.
“Wait!” I cried, chasing after her. “What was that?” I asked Core Strike, striking away a Drow Elf Spearman as I ran.
“She possesses an abnormally high affiliation with the Tech Element, Ace” he replied, amazement in his voice. “As much as the Skylanders did, if not more!”
“Uh, where’s an Animus when you need one?” I groaned, sliding to a stop in front of the house I had seen Vinyl run into. The sight of a destroyed door greeted me. I crept forward, shifting Core Strike into Kaze no Ran’na as I passed though the doorway. The inside had fared no better, as the entire room - which appeared to have been split into two in the first place - had been ransacked. A piano, smashed to bits. A sound system, sliced in half. And on the back wall, a massive whole, the debris have fallen inwards.
I found Vinyl rummaging through a pile of rubble. When I walked up to her, I saw her pulling a small pink bow-tie out, tattered and torn. She held it as though it were the most precious thing in the world.
“Uh… Vinyl?” I asked, placing my hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”
“O-Octavia…” the white mare muttered, shuddering as tears ran down her face. “Sh-she can’t be…”
“I’m sure Octavia’s fine, Vinyl.” I said, trying to reassure her. “She’s probably been evacuated with the others. We can ask Medulla when we see him.”
Just then Medulla appeared in front of us, ”Time to go, kids, you’re the last and that Airship will be landing in a few seconds.” he said just before teleporting us to the Everfree Castle. Vinyl didn’t waste any time, dashing off with the bow still in her grip, calling out for Octavia. I turned to Medulla, wiping some sweat from my brow.
“You wouldn’t have happened to see a grey mare with a charcoal mane, would you?” I asked.
Medulla pulled a glass bottle full of water from nowhere and drank deeply from it while saying, ”Not that I remember, Octavia might be working her way through the forest right now. I could only grab those that were still in town.”
“Right,” I sighed, looking around. “Thanks for the help, Medulla. I should be able to handle things from here.”
”All you have to do is say, ‘Medulla, our contract is complete’ to send me home.” Medulla said clearly exhausted.
“Medulla, our contract is complete. Keep youself safe, buddy.”
”You too, call anytime you might need some help.” He declared as a black portal swallowed him.
[Medulla’s POV]
Just as I had planned I arrived fifteen minutes before the summon actually happened and about half a mile away. I cloistered my mind so I couldn’t sense myself. This took a great deal of concentration on my part. This confirmed my theory that I could effectively use my beacons to travel back in time as long as I avoided interfering with myself. I used this time to observe my powers from the outside, my weather effecting moves had a larger area than I thought… and Rain Dance looked so stupid. After past me had left, it was time to head home.
Twilight was back much later than I expected, something about Rainbow getting injured in Ghastly Gorge during a pet contest. ”So that’s what episode I’m on now.” I said accidentally.
Twilight just stared at me slack-jawed for a few seconds before exclaiming, “WHAT?”
”Shit… Well... might as well let you know now. In the universe I’m originally from this universe is a TV show. Mostly it deals with you friends and this town and all the insanity here.” Twilight was starting to hyperventilate,”This doesn’t invalidate your existence or anything, I’m simply aware of certain events that might happen in the future,but this world has already been diverted from the path the show was on simply because I’m here and all this stuff related to me has is here as well.”
Her only response was, “What’s going to happen? When will it happen? And how can we prevent anything bad?”
”First off relax, you’ll learn what you need to in due time.” She started to calm down, it might have been because I was slowly forcing her to sleep, ”Now just go to bed and don’t worry about what I said here, just sleep and everything will turn out alright in the end.” She walked up the stairs looking like she was about to drop at any moment.
I really should have held that information until after ‘It’s About Time’ I thought to myself as I floated downstairs.
[Somewhere else in the Multiverse]
A booming voice called out, ”So the Renegade abandoned us, no matter there is more than one way to infiltrate a universe.”
”Master, send me. I can end this upstart’s interruptions so easily.”,The dragon of time pleaded.
”I see no reason to go for the throat just yet, we need to be patient. I shall send the Empty One, there shall be no resistance if they are all frozen solid.”
Author's Note
Another crossover done. This one with The Emerald Nightingale's Core of the Champions . This was very enjoyable to write.
Misunderstood and Mutated
The next morning, Twilight woke up surprisingly quick, she didn’t even need coffee to fully wake up. She cantered right up to the table where I was studying a book.
Before she could say anything, I cut her off, ”I could have erased your memory you know. Would you like to guess why I didn’t?”
She was obviously caught off guard, but thought about the question none the less. “Because such drastic alteration would be obvious to the princesses and they would punish you for it.”
”Wrong but understandable. I didn’t do it because I morally hate doing such things to truly sapient beings. Every mind is unique, I think of them as songs, but every time I alter a mind by taking control, erasing or changing memories, or altering perceptions the mind becomes less itself and more like mine. Subconscious nudges don’t make other minds like mine, but they can change it drastically over time, but it remains itself.” I said, then looking her in the eye, ”I’m not worried about the knowledge but how you’ll react. I wont tell you about what your future might hold, but just trust your friends and it should turn out alright no matter how bleak things might seem at times.”
“I’ve known that for a long time now.” she said giggling. She then looked at the book on the table, “What is that? I don’t recognise that book or the symbol.” Pointing to the eye on the center of the cover.
”I think it’s a token, haven’t touched it to find out. It was just sitting on the table when I came upstairs. I feel some type of psychic resonance I’ve been trying to understand… Screw it!” I said as I grabbed book. An instant later I heard, “To those who seek knowledge and maybe a bit of chaos on the side, call Bill Cipher.”
I’ll keep this on hand. I thought. I then told, ”Yep it’s a summoning token.”
Just then I felt the presence of Celestia approaching the town with intent to hire. ”See you later, make sure to tell Rainbow training will be delayed. And Tia the answer is still no.” With that I teleported to a small lake across from Canterlot.
They still don’t get it. Then I guess once all the ‘Teach Rainbow to be less self obsessed’ crap is over I better explain it to all of them. As I sat there thinking, I felt an unfamiliar mind. It was fractured, dissonant, and pained. Only seconds later I was hit square in the back by radiant darkness. I went flying off the mountain towards Canterlot. I landed in the wall near the city gate. after my vision cleared I was what had attacked me screaming through the air headed directly for me, Cresselia.
I rushed forward stopping her Giga Impact with Protect. Her face mere inches from mine. ”What the hell is Arceus thinking, sending a healer to kill?”
”Father did not send us, we came on our own!” she exclaimed before blasting me in the face with a pink ball of energy I think may have been Moonblast.
As I fell back to Canterlot a took out Bill’s notebook focused on it and just before I hit the ground I called out to him, ”Hey Bill, I’m Medulla and I might need some help with a fight and possibly restoration of sanity” and ”Ow” as I crashed.
[3rd Person POV]
Bill slouched in his chair. He was done fitting gadgets into his new body, and was designing bodies for the others at the moment. Not only that, but he also had to help build up the kingdom. He had more of his notes there were still a fair amount of bunkers left to clear out. He was currently residing in his mechanical body, which he was just about to leave.
”Hey Bill, I’m Medulla and I might need some help with a fight and possibly restoration of sanity.” As he heard the voice he felt a light envelop him, as well as an ”Ow.”
“Awesome, I’m getting summoned. This should be fun” He cheered, and decided to take his body with him; it’d make for a nice test drive.
Once the light died down, Bill found himself standing next to a Mewtwo, with what appeared to be a Cresselia up in the blue sky staring down at both of them with pure rage but also slightly confused about his presence.
“Okay.” Bill yelled out, so Cresselia could hear him. “Which one of you two is Medulla? I’m getting the feeling that it’s you.” He pointed to the feline Pokemon in the small crater.
”That would be correct...” Medulla said telepathically before tackling Bill out of the path of a Shadow Ball. ”And it would be a good idea to stay very alert here.”
“Sure.” Bill replied before looking back at Cresselia. “So you’re a Mewtwo displaced? Why are we being attacked by Cresselia? Isn’t she supposed to be nice?”
”No idea, haven’t had the chance to ask yet.” He replied firing back with his own Shadow Balls.
“Alright; shoot first and ask questions later.” He turned to face Cresselia. “Let’s see how well this body works.” He flew up to the opposing Pokemon, barely avoiding an Ice Beam and grabbed onto her by her neck. She instantly tried to shake him off and didn’t notice the electricity dancing on his forehooves. The power increased and he gave her a huge electric shock. Through all the painful electricity, her eyes lit up and Bill suddenly found himself being lifted off of her and caught by Medulla. “Psychic. Figures.” He grumbled.
”Time to try a new combo move...” The Mewtwo said crushing a Shadow Ball in his hand, and appearing behind Cresselia shouting, ”Shadow Break!” and slamming his fist into her back. She crashed into a market street that had been abandoned early during the fight. ”I just want her unconscious so we fix her mind without any distractions. And please let’s try to keep collateral to a minimum I have a new nice guy reputation to keep.” He said floating down to where Cresselia was.
“That’s fine. I fight better when someone’s unconscious anyway.” Bill shrugged before launching a freeze ray out of his mouth based off of his cryogenic chambers. Cresselia responded with a Moonblast. The two collided, causing smoke to form in the markets. Bill took it as an opportunity to attack head- on with his electric hooves again, finding Cresselia and slugging her in the face after seeing a pair of blue eyes. She crashed into a wall while the demon in the robot’s body advanced, but found his body being heavily damaged by a barrage of Psychic energy. After recovering from the Future Sight attack, he followed Cresselia up into the sky, wobbling slightly at the damage and lack of flying practice in a long time.
“So what’re you doing here space duck? I’m pretty sure Darkrai was the evil one last time I checked.”
”We came here to destroy that which has caused our father pain.” She retorted firing another Moonblast.
“You mean Arceus? I don’t really know anything about this Equestria, so elaborate on that. What did this world do to hurt him enough and want to destroy it?” He evaded the Moonblast before firing his own electric attack.
She paused, a very confused look on her face before she simply roaring and charging Bill with a Giga Impact.
“Crap.” He thought before trying to fly upwards to get away. “Gonna need some help here Medulla! I doubt this body will last against that attack!” He yelled while she gained on him.
Medulla moved between the two of them and fired a Psystike at Cresselia knocking her out of the sky again. ”I think she means me, but I know she isn’t thinking clearly. I’ve already fought off Giratina and Palkia, but I have no idea what Arceus wants here.”
“All the more reason to go into her mind.” He said. “You have any sleeping moves at all?”
”Nope, but I could paralyze her.”
“That could work.” He looked and saw the Lunar Pokemon incoming. They moved out of the way and he shot another unsuccessful freezing blast.
”Here goes nothing.” The mutant said, snapping his fingers as a wave of electricity raced towards Cresselia. She tried to move away but it was too late. The paralysis already had her. She started to fall to the ground but was caught at the last second by Medulla. ”I’ll set up a barrier. I don’t trust the guards to get to close while we’re in her head.” Cresselia glared at both of them.
“Okay, time to invade her mind.” He stretched out as his mechanical body shot out small sparks from the damage it had received. Soon his body went limp and fell down. Without missing a beat, Medulla took a meditative posture as they both entered the Lunar Pokemon’s mind.
Inside they saw Crescent Isle, but it looked as if it had been ravaged by years of war. The vegetation was charred, and craters marked the landscape.
“Wow, what happened here?” Bill wondered aloud in his true triangle form. “It looks… lifeless.” He stared at the surface of the island. “Any ideas why she’d be thinking this?”
“If I had to guess, she’s conflicted. When I first sensed her she was… broken… like looking through a kaleidoscope but sad and horrifying.” Medulla now in the form of Gold from the second generation.
“We should probably go deeper.” Bill said, eyeing the only place to go through the only trees left. “Unless you think taking the boat back to the city will help.” He floated in front of the entrance.
“Through the trees, that’s where you would encounter her in the games.” He replied walking confidently forward. They went through the trees and everything went pitch black for a single second, before they could see again and saw Spear Pillar but looking like it had been built the day before. They could hear the wind blowing through the freshly made pillars.
“Spear Pillar? Why would she be thinking of this place?” Bill cautiously looked around and formed blue fire in his hands in case something was to attack them. “We need to find her memories. They’ll most likely have the answer to all of this.”
As they walked a door appeared between the pillars. The door was made of marble, it opened as they approached and a blinding light washed over them. The light cleared and they found themselves in some sort of ethereal plane. Everything around them had an indigo colour, with bright stars shining above and below them with the crescent moon as the crown jewel of it all. Around them were plenty of doors leading to different memories. However, there were dark cracks everywhere, plastered on everything from the doors to even the crescent moon. Every crack seemed to emanate from a single door. It was metal but appeared to have been broken open from the inside. It read “Father’s Pain”.
“... I guess I know where we have to go.” Bill stared at the door, preparing himself.
“Trauma like this might not be remembered fully or correctly, but I don’t see any other options.” Medulla stated as he grabbed the handle. He took a breath and pulled the door open and stepped through. Inside the door, there were no cracks as everything was the exact same shade as those cracks. There was a small number of doors, but each was larger than both of them and some had been infected with that same darkness.
“These are not her memories… They’re Arceus’s, which makes sense. She is a self sacrificing healer, to help Arceus she took these away from him and onto herself. But she couldn’t handle them and they broke her.” Medulla said suddenly looking very distraught.
“...Which should we open?” Bill asked reluctantly.
“I can look at them later, the best thing to do would be to remove these. She should recover once these are gone, it’s like excising a tumor.”
“Step out for a second.” Bill said firmly. Medulla nodded and exited the room. Bill looked at all of the doors, debating whether or not to open one. He decided to leave it be in the end and went back to the main door. He floated to the top, grabbed it and pulled. The door creaked and whined as the cracks around the entire room disappeared and reappeared, as if someone was flickering a light switch. As he pulled, the door got heavier as he tried to take it out, almost like the door itself was deliberately trying to stay in place. Bill’s body became inverted as he tried even harder to remove the infectious memories. He kept on trying, but the door kept on going back. Seeing Bill struggle, Medulla floated up next to him the door began to rise even more, and with one final pull, they removed the series of memories. Bill panted momentarily before shrinking the door and making it small enough to carry.
Bill stared at them. “You might wanna be careful with them, they are the memories of a God after all. The remaining cracks should clear up shortly.”
Medulla took the tiny door, and in a flash it were gone, “I’ve seen into the depths of the mind of a void dweller. My mind has already been shattered before, I just built myself a new personality. But I’ll put some extra security on these.”
“Sure.” Bill shrugged. “Just be careful. I imagine it’d be a pain to keep rebuilding.”
“It sure was, but let’s get out of here. The Canterlot royal guards are probably freaking out over this.” Medulla said before disappearing, with Bill following suit.
Medulla awoke and Bill stood up in his body again, with the royal guards still pointing their swords and spears at all three of them.
”Back off, they’re with me. Shining, there won't be any more destruction today.”
“Yeah, all of you looked really friendly up there a few minutes ago.” A red unicorn stallion commented.
“Yeah and you seem terrific too, Streak.” Bill said, reading the stallion’s mind. Meanwhile, Cresselia was opening her eyes slowly. “Now if ya don’t mind, we have to get to the nearest hospital; it’s really noisy here.” They all looked confused as the majority hadn’t said much.
”I’ll explain this later.” Medulla said to Shining Armor before teleporting all three to Canterlot Hospital. ”Thanks for the help. Is there anything I could give you? I could teach you Psyshock, it might allow you to effect the physical plane even without that body.”
“Sounds interesting, but I doubt I could learn from a TM. Right now I’m just focused on finding my Alicorn Amulet.”
”Depending on when you are, you might have to wait until Magic Duel. I would suggest searching for some kind of signature it leaves, I could give you Miracle Eye to help with that. I don’t have TM’s, but I just implant the knowledge in your mind.” Medulla passed around a few potions while they waited.
“Well if you can do that, then sure. I’d have to say no to Miracle Eye, though. I’ve seen futures before and I repressed it for a reason.”
“That’s using Future Sight, Miracle Eye can be used to see things that are normally invisible.”
“Meh, then it couldn’t hurt.” Bill shrugged.
With that, Medulla connected to Bill’s mind and gave him the knowledge for both Psyshock and Miracle Eye.
“Well there we go.” Bill said. “What do you do here, anyway, out of curiosity?”
”Mostly I’ve been training some of the Elements, and just hanging out. Not that much outside of the plot has happened other than incursions from Legendaries. Though back about a thousand years ago I did accidentally cause a lot of Lulu and Tia’s problems. ”
“That sounds funny. You should show me your memories of that sometime.” Bill commented. “Me, I’ve been working with the changelings and continuing to do what I do best; make things. There’s a lot to do with all this knowledge, it really overwhelms you a lot, though I guess you know what I mean. What’s going to happen to her by the way?” He pointed at Cresselia in the bed next to them.
”I don’t know, but I think she’s been through enough for now. I’ll make sure that nopony tries to harm her. She has a good heart, and any idiot could see that… at least when she’s thinking straight.”
“Yeah. I hope she recovers okay.” Bill stared at her before looking back to Medulla. “You have a lot to ‘look forward’ to in those memories.”
“Something you’ve got to understand, even with the extra thousand years, I’m still infantile to these guys. They’re ancient beyond measure, anything that could break her… let’s just say I’m lucky that I had that thousand years to master my psychic powers.”
“I guess you’re right. I just can’t resist knowing something anymore. If it’s anything I can’t handle, I’ll just repress it.” He left out the fact that he did repress them. “But still… take care of her.” He looked down at the ground then back to the Lunar Pokemon.
”I’ll do my best, it was great meeting you. Stay safe and our contract is complete.“ With that, Bill vanished.
Bill ended up back home, with his ‘children’ waiting for him.
“Hooray, Bill is back!” Giffany hugged him in the mindscape.
“About time; when’re you going to finish our bodies already?” Lumber crossed his arms.
“Don’t be so impatient, I’ll get to it.” Bill shrugged them off. His contract with Medulla had inspired yet another experiment.
[Medulla’s POV]
It’s wasn’t long after Bill left that I felt the presence of not only the princesses, but a large portion of the royal guard. Of course only Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, and a few of the guards were even allowed in.
”Before you say anything, that is Cresselia. She’s not a threat she’s a healer.” I said taking a defensive posture.
The same red unicorn from before came scoffed, “That sure was an incredible amount of healing she did to your face.”
Surprisingly, Cresselia looked him straight in the eye and responded, ”I’m sorry for any pain I may have caused. I was unable to think clearly and do not remember what you are talking about.”
”Celestia, Luna, I would like to speak with you privately. Cresselia, this concerns you so you should stay, too.”
Author's Note
Another crossover, but this should be the last for a while. Not to imply that working on this wasn't fun. I really enjoyed making this with WezzaHD for their story Lots Of Things...
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 12 What You Need to Understand
“Why all the secrecy?” Celestia asked after the guards had left.
”Because I believe you are the only ones who could handle this information.” I said giving the princesses a dark look, ”Why I’m the only being on this planet capable of handling what’s coming, and why we’d be royally screwed should they decide to attack all at once? ”
Cresselia interjected, ”They cannot do such an attack, it would attract too much attention from much more powerful beings. Father believes that any of the main legendaries should be able to make this world pliable enough for him to take over.”
“Wait, you’re protecting a child of the enemy?” Luna growled flaring her horn.
”Technically speaking, I’m a child of Arceus as well. So let me explain.” I said taking a defensive posture along with Cresselia. Luna paused for a few seconds before stepping back, letting the magic fade from her horn. ”Cresselia and I, or at least my body, are from a world a creature know as Pokemon. We are numbered among them. Pokemon are capable of killing dozens of creature like the ponies here with ease. They can turn boulders to dust and pebbles with a single strike, changing the weather with just their presence, or calling down meteors upon the heads of their enemies. The capabilities I have described are available to some of the weakest amongst us. The term Cresselia used earlier ‘Legendary” is a term given to the most powerful and ancient of these creatures. We shape the continent, tear holes in reality itself, and our fight have destroyed entire civilisations as collateral. I can only be counted in their ranks because of my strength, even with more than a thousand years of consciousness I look like a child to all of them.
”I am a few million years old, though I have lost the exact count.” Cresselia added.
I simply continued speaking after Cresselia’s statement, They are older than most other forms of life, they are the gods and titans of pokemon. One literally so, in the form of Arceus; his birth was simultaneous with that of the worlds he inhabits, and his power surpases any natural pokemon’s.”
”We all view him differently; I see him in a paternal light, while many of the others think of him as a feudal lord, whose affections are easily swayed and grant the recipient power and freedom to do as they please.” The lunar healer explained.
Celestia looked at Cresselia as she asked, “You said that they would not risk a full scale invasion, for fear of beings of greater power noticing.”
”Yes, there are many beings out in the void between worlds that would notice so many powerful creatures moving in a single direction. The ones that would act are those tasked with the maintaining some semblance of order in the Multiverse, and those beings are far too powerful to fight and could undo anything we did, even erase us from existence.” She replied.
”But a single one could sneak by and do some damage, allowing Arceus to merge the two worlds.” I said, impressed at this exploit.
”Good, so you already know Father’s plan, I only wish I could tell you why. All I remember was that for some time, he was so crushed by something that none could console him. I chose to take his pain and sorrow upon myself so that he could continue to do what needed to be done. I remember up to when the plan was formed, but by then I could not control the mental damage; I became unstable and violent so Father had to cast me out.” Cresselia stated.
”You took the pain of unfathomable loss. That’s all I can gather from these memories.” I then turned to Celestia, ”I think you’re the only one that could come close to understanding these, and I’m experiencing them now. I’ll explain a little scenario for you, that might come close to a weaker form of this loose. Imagine you go to another nation for a diplomatic meeting with for a few weeks. Upon your return you find that not only has everypony, you the only exception, been brutally slaughtered, but it was by the nation you went to.”
Celestia’s face blanched, “I don’t even know how I would react, I can’t even imagine such an atrocity.”
”We are dealing with creatures so ancient and powerful that individually they could destroy everything we hold dear. Cresselia’s talents lie in healing through self sacrifice, and there are very few like that in the worlds of pokemon. We discussed and she is willing to stay and help as long as she is not harmed by any ponies under your command.” I gave them an evil look, to let them know the stipulation was mine.
Just then, a white stallion with blond hair came sauntering in, with nurses and guards yelling at him that he couldn’t enter, “Aunty Cele, I thought that today you were going to gi-” he paused clearly confused by the scene, “What in the name of Tartarus are you doing in a hospital with these hideous creatures instead of killing them like the monsters they are?”
My death gaze was now fixed clearly on him, I didn’t care who else was doing the same. I teleported so that I was standing only an inch from his face, well my crotch was, considering the height difference. Before he could back away or even flinch I grabbed his throat with my telepathy and brought him up to look me in the eye, his hind legs just off the ground. ”I could care less what you call me, but to barge into what was supposed to be a secure meeting and suggest cold-blooded murder before you have even learned the situation is utterly stupid. You truly are an idiotic piece of garbage in a royal suite, aren’t you. Don’t worry Celestia, I’ll take this thing where it belongs: the royal dump.” With that said, there was a flash and Prince Blueblood was gone.
”Sorry about that, I just hate that prick. He really needs to learn some manners.” I said, slamming the door shut in the faces of some guard-ponies.
Cresselia turned to Celestia and said, ”I chose to assist Medulla in finding the legendaries that had fled to this world, before Father’s plan was enacted. They were all seen as deserters and traitors, I am now likely seen as one of them.”
”The three that arrived during the dawn of pony civilisation to be precise, they even helped teach some of the abilities earth ponies and pegasi take for granted. They could be almost anywhere in the world, I intend to wake them and convince them to take some responsibility. It could take a while and I still have to protect the ponies here from any legendaries that show up. So Cresselia will scout them out and tell me their locations, I’ll then take emissaries for the relevant pony species to awaken and consult with them.” I explained to the three, ”This will also keep Cresselia out of the eyes of any external threats, so we don’t become a bigger target than we already are.”
Celestia and Luna just stood there in shock, both of them were unsure of how to respond to this.
”You two have no idea how to handle this, what do you think would happen if everypony in Equestria learned this? Nation wide riots, mass hysteria, utter chaos that Discord himself would envy. ” I said resolutely. ”There’s a lot Cresselia and I need to do. Just make sure this stays between us.” With that said, I teleported us over the Everfree Castle.
”Let us get to work, then.” The lunar legendary commanded as we rocketed off in different directions.
Author's Note
Sorry this took longer than the length would imply it should have taken. I've been enjoying what little summer I have left before the fall semester kicks in. Next chapter will be a bit more fun.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 13 Just Finishing the Day
Knowing that I couldn’t do much more useful today, I decided to do another search of the minds of this world while on top of Ponyville's town hall. I closed my eyes and and focused on the psychic fields that suffused the world unnoticed by all but a lucky few. It was a world of colors and sounds amongst a vast void, or at least that’s the best I could describe it without making someone experience it. In this state I could see the general state of the minds without going very deep. I could receive basic empathic feedback, general rationality, and what kind of mind it was. I could not know the exact location of any individual mind, and sleeping minds were too dim to glean any information when reading on such a large scale. Of course the ancient sleepers were easy to find, the were massive blobs of green, red, and blue, but completely unreadable.
Most of the minds were very stable, pun not intended. It’s always good to see this world so clear of truly dangerous psychoses. I’d seen too many sociopaths and paranoid schizophrenics one thousand years ago, I guess Celestia did a excellent job in that respect. As I expanded my range, three similarly powerful finds came into view and they immediately vanished. I knew that they didn’t die, if they had they would have slowly faded from my awareness. I searched some more, but couldn’t find them; Whatever they were, they were incredibly skilled in the psychic arts. They had sensed my presence and shut me out, something that would only work from a great distance or when I’m scanning this broadly. I was only going to keep an eye out for these three, because they weren’t a priority right now.
All in all, not much of significance. , I thought just before I heard a crash. I looked around see the source and it was a construction project falling apart. Surprisingly, it used what appeared to be steel girders, something the workers likely had little experience with explaining why it couldn’t even stay up under its current weight. I was about to intervene when a multi colored streak, primarily blue, and a streak of darker purple ducked through the falling wreckage to collect the workers. Perfect I thought with unfathomable sarcasm, This trainwreck of a lesson.
I spent the next few hours watching as Rainbow Dash became more obsessed with this Mysterious Mare-Do-Well and began to create crises to make herself look better. What surprised me the most was that she couldn’t see the inherent flaw with her friends plan: Where the hell did a new Alicorn come from and how did she hide her wings for so long? If she took five seconds to think it through she’d realize that it has to be more than one pony doing this. Of course being Rainbow, it took right up until the final chase to start raising these types of question.
I simply waited until the laugh that would lead into the closing credits to float above them giving them all a disapproving glare. ”A valiant attempt at teaching a friend to keep their ego in check, and deal with praise better, but it ultimately falls flat.” I said darkly.
They all looked at me different levels of fear plastered on their faces for a few seconds. Oddly Fluttershy mumbled the question in all their minds first, “What do you mean?”
”I glad you asked. See when you were discussing the not-so-Mysterious Mare-Do-Well’s exploits, you each praised your contribution inflating and showing your own ego problems. I would have had Fluttershy praise Rarity’s costume, considering she has decent ability when it comes to being a seamstress. Pinkie could have extolled Fluttershy’s graceful flying. Applejack, Pinkie’s speed and reflexes. Rarity, Twilight’s magical prowess and dedication. And Twilight, Applejack’s strength. As it is you failed to address the problem, giving others the recognition they deserve. And all this because Rainbow Dash was showboating a bit, you could have waited until tomorrow where I could have crushed that ego down to size.” I sighed and shook my head before lazily floating away. I didn’t even turn back to add, You all are going to join her in high gravity training tomorrow, no excuses will be tolerated so be at the racing field by sun up.
“Why should any of us show up?” Twilight asked as she chased after me.
”Because I gave them all nightmares that will show them what could happen if they don’t show.” I said looking directly ahead.
“Wouldn’t Luna get upset at you about that?” Twilight’s voice now rife with concern, mostly about a friend upsetting a princess.
”I should hope not. There is nothing wrong with a few nightmares. They’re how our brain teaches us to cope with the worst live has to offer. The problem comes when we don’t cope and it we only having that same dream. That means the natural fear has turned into an unhealthy phobia or obsession. Luna’s job is to help in these cases, to help the children cope with the fears they can’t understand and aid the obsessed to let it go.”
Now that she was satisfied with that explanation she continued, “I thought tomorrow we could do some lab experiments, check for magical resonances, figure out how your powers actually work.”
Still looking straight forward I responded, ”No, I couldn’t stand to be strapped into that torture device you call an EEG. The library would likely end up a smoking pile of rouble.”
Pinkie shouted from somewhere, “It wasn’t very fun when she made me do it either!”
”I will teach you a bit about energy density tomorrow though. Think of it as one of the differences between the magic of a unicorn and that of an alicorn.” I smiled as I thought of the lesson.
Just then I heard Cresselia contact me psychically, I am closing in on the Sky Guardian, but it would appear that his dwelling moves very erratically on it’s own.
We’re not in that much of a rush, but try not to wake him up yet. I responded.
Twilight seemed to notice my focus shift to somewhere far away, “Are you okay?” she asked.
I looked at her affecting a warm smile, ”I’m fine, I just got an update from a friend… I let my smile return to a somber frown, ”I also feel that I should inform you I won’t need to stay with you much longer. I feel uncomfortable living in what comparatively feels like the lap of luxury, I’m used to living in the wilderness. I’ll still be nearby, there’s a cave in the Everfree that I used to stay in when I was in this area.”
Twilight’s face became the epitome of fear as she froze mid stride, I just responded, ”I never met a single creature from Everfree Forest that was anywhere near a match for me. Once I move back in, I doubt anything would be stupid enough to come close to my cave.”
She still frozen from fear so I just dragged her back to Golden Oaks and made sure she and Spike got to be early, she was going to have a long day tomorrow.
Author's Note
Another short chapter done, next will be more character interactions and one last lesson for Twilight. Then a few more chapters of character stuff with a hint of action.
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Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 14 Isaac Newton, The One That Always Has The Drop On You
I woke up what would have been stupidly early for most humans and ponies, and went to the race field to watch the night fade into morning. I got one full hour of untainted night sky. I might not have been able to name the constellations but I still saw the beauty and possibility of the starlight and darkness. Looking straight up, I almost didn’t notice Luna appear beside me.
”I really is a shame how few really take the time to watch the stars. Big cities, even in a low technology world like this, drastically reduce the number of visible stars.” I said as a shooting star rocketed past my eyes.
“True, but more ponies find the beauty now than they did.” She nodded, barely in my peripheral vision.
I sighed, ”That’s confirmation bias. Back then, just as many saw the beauty, but just couldn’t enjoy it for as long. It was way more dangerous back then, they had to go inside whether or not they wanted to. You saw what you wanted to back then, and even if you hated it, you wanted to see them as hating your night.”
“The Elements were having similar nightmares, about you.” She tried not to show her anger.
I looked her in the eyes and said flatly, ”I made sure it was nothing that would cause permanent scars, just enough to get them here so I could do a bit of training. Maybe help them understand that they might need a bit more than just the Deus Ex Harmony Canon to fix everything.”
She just nodded in response, “Truly, they do seem to rely on the Elements of Harmony a bit heavily in my opinion. My sister and I only used them for the most dangerous beasts that threatened our ponies.”
”I don’t think I could make them use it less, I just want them to stay alive long enough so that they can use them if needed.” I turned back to the sky.
We sat there in silence for the next hour or so, until Luna said, “Sunrise will begin shortly, I must be off.”
Red light from the east began to melt the cool blues of night as the sun began to climb over the horizon. Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy were the first to show mostly because their routines tended to require waking up early( for Rainbow Dash it was more an occasional choice so it was a fifty fifty shot either way).
By the time the sun finally hurdled the horizon, Twilight and Rarity came stumbling up, still half asleep. Rainbow now anxious to start the training shouted, “Where the hay is Pinkie! She should have been here way before Egghead and Beauty Queen.”
I just shot her a questioning look, ”What do you mean? She was here all night in anticipation.” I then pointed under the bleachers where a sudden loud explosion and burst of confetti shocked Twilight and Rarity fully awake. Immediately from a puff of pink pony shaped smoke Pinkie emerged acting like her blood was ninety percent caffeine, which it likely was.
“Ohmygoshgirlshe’sgonamakeusallgoslomowhilwerunaroundandstuff!” Pinkie said in one breath.
“Wait, you have a time slow spell?” Twilight asked.
I shook my head at her, “No, I can’t do magic, remember. I’ll actually-”
“He’s gonna make us heavier while we exercise. It’s sup-” Rainbow interjected before I clamped her mouth shut with telekinesis.
”As I was saying I’m going to increase the effect of gravity on all of you. This will have a similar effect to runners putting on leg weights while the train. The theory is that when they take off the weights during an actual race they’ll be faster.”
Twilight raised her hoof like it was some type of class. I pointed to her letting her know it was okay to talk. The only reason I shut Rainbow’s mouth was because she interrupted me.
“Why do you keep using gravity as a noun? I remember you used it that way before but I’ve never heard it used that way before.”
Derp! Geocentric solar system, no reason or way to figure out basic gravitational laws when the sun and moon are LITERALLY moved by magic. I rubbed my temples in irritation, ”I forgot that you never really had an Isaac Newton and physics never caught on here because magic. Basically gravity is the attractive force between two objects with mass, it’s why thing fall down… No, not like Magnets, that is Electromagnetism and can be repulsive not just attractive and is a completely different set of equations and is actually a unified theorem, gravity was still having some kinks being worked out last I heard.”
Now Twilight was really intrigued, “Who was this Isaac Newton?”
”Sorry I don’t have time to answer all your questions, but I’ll say this: He developed the basic formula for gravitational force, and his law of movement give him the title ‘Deadliest SOB in Space’” Now Rarity had a question.
“But won't doing that making us heavier also mean that even normal movement could be…” She lowered her voice as if the next words were some kind of tabu, “a workout?”
”Yes, It’s only temporary though. And I would encourage all of you to have some kind of workout routine.” I new she was just doing this to try and get me to make her leave.
Rarity’s face became a grimace and she whined, “But workouts make you sweaty and smelly.”
The joke was on her, now I wanted to make her stay longer, “Well you are a member of the Elements of Harmony, it’s not like you came across threats the could require strength, endurance, and speed.” I let my ‘Seriously’ look linger on her for a few seconds before continuing, ”All of you should at least try to get or stay physically fit for your species, just wake up early do some exercises and then clean up. Most of you do have jobs but you don’t have to do anything until later in the day.”
Some of them were about to protest but then I said, ”Now we’ll just be doing laps at 1.1 times normal gravity and if you vocalize any complaints I will increase it by another increment of 0.1. We will take breaks when I say so.” I then floated down to the track and we all took positions. I wanted to show them that I wouldn’t put them through anything I wouldn’t do to myself so I made sure to not levitate myself during the laps and actually run.
We were only a few yards out when Rarity muttered, “Why do we have to be out this early?”
”Because it’s the coolest part of the day, so it’s either this or before sunset… Also we’re now at 1.2 G’s” I explained without even stopping. The rest of them groaned, to which I instantly responsed, ”1.3”
Once she finished her first lap, Twilight asked in an exasperated tone, “Can we take a break?”
”After the next lap, and we’re now at 1.4.”
At our first rest, Rainbow Dash and I stopped first, she yelled at me, “We shouldn’t be taking a break, let’s keep going.”
”It’s just a quick break for water, and you just brought it up to 1.5 once we start again.” I responded.
Once all the ponies had grabbed a drink and weren’t panting so hard, I sighed before telling them, ”And we’re changing direction, so your workout is a bit more even.”
The rest of the time was about the same, but the complaints were much less frequent. Of course Rarity made sure that I increased the gravity to 1.8 times normal by the end. The only two that didn’t complain were Applejack and Fluttershy, though Fluttershy didn’t because she was too afraid to. Not Rainbow, Applejack, or even Pinkie still had the energy to do much more. I decreased the gravity down to .9 times for them for the rest of their day, and gave them all a warm smile before saying, ”Go clean up, eat a big breakfast and get on with your day.”
Might as well check up with Berry Punch before the lesson with Twilight. As they walked away I teleported to Berry Punch’s home and politely knocked. After a few seconds the door opened to reveal the light pink earth pony.
“Oh, hello Medulla! I wasn’t expecting you today.” The brewer ponies stated.
”I just came to an update on my orchard… And to give you my request for the berries.” I saidm rubbing the back of my head.
“Please come in then.” she held the door open for me and I ducked through.
”I already gave you the recipes that you can use, and I’ll give you one berry of each kind to start out with.” I began placing the berries on a coffee table listing their names as I did so.
She looked at them all nodding her head slightly, “So which ones do you want.”
”You can grow all of them, I could use any and all of them but especially Oran, Enigma, and Sitrus berries. Oh and just give me all the Leppa berries they could be highly addictive and cause magical overload.” I said, pointing to the ones I mentioned to make sure she remembered what they were.
“And I get to keep everything else?”
”Yeah, I’ll even help you experiment with the mixtures. Really the amount you could produce will greatly exceed my needs, just a small portion of everything is all I need but Leppa because they could be dangerous so it’d be best to just let me keep them.”
“I should have a full order for you in a few days. Unless you have something else to do you could tell me a bit more about each berry.”
“Alright,” I said, and began moving the berries into different groups. As I sorted the berries into groups based on their effects, I began to tell her what each group did, starting with the group that included the Mago Berry. ”This group heals, but can cause delirium if the individual healed doesn’t like the flavor, I would suggest using these to accent a drink instead of being the main ingredient.“ Pointing to the others, ”This group will reduce certain types of damage. These will increase certain attributes. These increase completely different attributes, they are stupidly rare but do nothing else. These ones cure certain conditions like burns, paralysis, and being poisoned. And Oran and Sitrus berries will heal minor damage, and Leppa regenerates magic or stamina but can be addictive for ponies.” I also made sure to implant the specific information on each berry in her mind.
She blinked a few times processing the new information, and then Berry Punch responded, “Thanks, I’ll do what I can.”
You’re welcome, and that’s all I can ask. I said before teleporting to the library.
It was still early in the day and Twilight had just finished breakfast, so now was a good time to get the lesson in. Of course my sudden appearance startled her, she was even more startled when we appeared in a blink in Ghastly Gorge.
”I want to get this lesson through so I can clear out my cave and a path to it.” I stated in a somewhat bored tone.
“Okay, but I don’t want you to cut everypony out of your life, everypony need friends.” Twilight said.
I then summoned in one hand a regular Fire Blast and in the other an equally sized Umber Nova. ”Which will do more initial damage?” I asked.
“They both seem to have the same amount of power so I’m not certain, Umber Nova frightens me the most so I’ll go with it.”
I launched them to hit adjacent patches of rock, the crater the Fire Blast left was noticeably larger than the other. “In terms of initial damage Fire Blast is more powerful for any given size, even though Umber Nova is a fusion of Fire Blast and Shadow Ball. This is because Shadow Ball has a lower density than Fire Blast so Umber Nova’s density is diluted. Umber Nova is more dangerous because of it’s secondary effect breaking down matter and using my connection to the Void to send it there through me.”
“Alright, I think I understand what you’re saying, if I can find a way to condense my magical energy while casting a spell it can do more.” She said, partially lost in thought at the concept.
”Exactly, we got a smart one here.” I said and we were now back in the library. ”It’s truly been a pleasure Twilight but I think it be for the best if I don’t live in a population center.” With that I teleported to the mouth of my old cave.
As I arrived at my cave, I sensed that something was sleeping deep within my den. I floated to the back, only to find an adolescent Ursa Minor on the cusp of becoming an Ursa Major sound asleep.
”Wake up you sack of celestial excrement.” I shouted in its mind.
Its eyes fluttered open as it stretched itself awake, “Who you?” It asked in its language, or what could barely be considered one.
”I’m the owner of this cave, so you have two choices; leave or be evicted.” I stated just looking around the cave with a jaded expression.
“I Ursa Major, no can beat Ursa Major!” It roared, before uselessly swiping in my direction.
My response, ”Sorry but you’re wrong on both accounts.” followed by blasting it with Thunder until it started running out of my cave, I made sure to shoot a few more Thunders at its backside before yelling after it, “And STAY OUT!”
Author's Note
Another chapter down, and a big round of applause to my editor Runic_Soul , he's great to work with and helped me decide on this title.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 15 When in Canterlot...
The next day, I was awoken just before my usual time by an overwhelming sense of malice and a pounding sound coming from the entrance. I hadn’t even reached the entrance when I saw the face of an angry Ursa Major, almost covering the hole and glaring at me. ”Oh shit, you’re Mama Ursa, aren’t you.”
“Yes!” She literally growled, showing several canines that were each bigger than me in the process.
I paused, something seemed very familiar about both her mind and voice.
”Kontio?” I asked, and the celestial being paused at this.
“Only one non-Ursa creature has ever called me that,” She said, and looked at me with a bit more curiosity before asking, “Mewtwo?”
”I finally decided on a name, Medulla. I always found it weird to refer to myself by my species even if I’m the only of my kind. You weren’t more than a cub the last time I saw you.” I almost sang.
“Good friend, I must ask why you attacked my son and cast him from the cave of his choosing?” Kontio asked.
”What is he, in his fifth century?” She nodded in response, ”Not much growing room here, he’d have to move within the next three centuries. This cave could only comfortably hold a seventy foot long creature, and we both know that your species grows about ten feet per century capping off after one millennium...” I scratched my chin trying to think of a way to save face with Kontio, ”I guess I could room with him for that long, it’s not like I’ll be using this place for more than shelter right now. This will be on the condition he lets me teach him on how to actually speak full sentences. By the way how have you and Otso been?”
“These are agreeable terms. And we have been fine, the little green one you asked us to watch after has stirred much less now. Beorn should learn to make such arrangements on his own, one day he may have to come to an agreement with a dragon for liveable space.” She said, moving her head out of the way so I could see that the Ursa Minor, well okay not really a Minor or a Major... I’ll go with Mediocre, that I kicked out yesterday.
”Okay, let’s set up some ground rules...” And I spent the next three hours explaining that I would mostly be using the cave as shelter while I meditated for three hours every day or so, and otherwise he would have free reign of the den, except when I had visitors then he would have to not eat them. I also explained that most nights I was there, I would teach him everything I could in his dreams.
”Alright, now that that’s been settled, I’m going to head over to Canterlot for a bit to see what going on in the world.” He grinned, not seeming to understand what I was talking about except that I wouldn’t be here, and I just teleported away. Might as well stop by for a visit in her dreams. I thought to myself. I focused on her mind while standing on the roof of her tower.
When I entered I was overcome by a feeling of dread and sorrow. After a second, a very small blob of purple mist and Nightmare Moon appeared in front of me. Nightmare Moon turned to the purple blob and commanded, “That is enough for now, Tantabus.” She then slowly transformed back into normal Luna, before asking me, “Why have you come here?”
“Well, you’ve dropped in on my dreams uninvited so I thought I’d return the favor. So what the hell is a Tantabus, and why does it look like a blob of nightmare energy?” I responded.
She sighed sitting down tired, “It is a nightmare construct that I made to punish myself for what I did as Nightmare Moon and to ensure I would never return to that state.”
I gave her a questioning stare before telling her, “I never took you for the self-flagellating type. I just say this, your idea of punishing yourself is to have nightmares of becoming Nightmare Moon, you should be smart enough to figure out why I think this is a bad idea.”
She just huffed, “I have chosen this and you cannot dissuade me, and you must tell no one of this.”
I just threw my hands up in surrender, “Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut, but if this gets out of hand I get to say ‘I told you so.’ Now I’m just going to let you get back to your self-imposed routine of mental torture, and I’m going to troll Tia while you do that. If you want, you can join in.”With that said, I left her mind and soon arrived in Celestia’s room.
As I arrived in Celestia’s bedroom, I focused on the polymorph spell still attached to me. I decided to take the shape of a unicorn stallion, with golden fur, a white mane, and silver eyes. I had trouble deciding on a cutie mark, but I eventually decided upon a golden telescope. I climbed into Celestia’s bed, took a suggestive pose, and began to give her the subconscious command to return to her bed chambers as soon a possible. After about an half-hour of waiting she opened the door seeming oddly tired. She stared at me not sure how to respond, I flung the sheets off in response while staying in my pose. She averted her gaze for a second before she realised my apparent lack of genitalia, she was then even more confused.
I just started laughing. “Oh that was good..” I said before slowly letting myself morph back into my true form.
“When did you acquire a transformation spell?” She asked closing the door more not seeming the least bit embarrassed now.
”It was a few days ago, in another universe. Apparently their Starswirl never expected to have a creature with no reproductive organs go through the Mirror Portal, because the spell isn’t smart or powerful enough to create entire organ systems just adapt what’s there to appear more like that of that of a species on the other side. So in any other form I just have a really wierd flat area down there.” I said point to my crotch area.
“That seems odd, but very interesting. So you only encouraged me to come here to try and make me blush.” She said incredulously.
”I just wanted to hang out.” I smiled, ”I heard there was going to be a party here in a couple of days.”
Celestia seemed to start at the comment, before commenting, “I just remembered, Rarity will be arriving in an hour.”
”Well, don’t let me keep you up, I’m just going to go for a stroll in my pony form.” I said while transforming into the unicorn stallion I was earlier, and teleported to the entrance of the city. I just meandered around buying ridiculous amounts of food using Payday to create money. After I saw Rarity at a cafe I thought it would be fun to stalk her for the remainder of her stay, then I realised that that would be a horribly creepy idea and to just stay away for now. I spent the next few days like this avoiding Rarity and buying copious amounts of food because my metabolism was far too inefficient in anything other than my normal form.
On the last night, I decided to tell Celestia my plan for the party, she of course refused to listen after the words ‘shit faced drunk’ passed my lips, so to speak. She then put a sleep spell on me to stop me from ‘wasting my good material before the Grand Galloping Gala’. I had to agree that I was going to big for a small garden party, even though it was some of the big names. Even though I was put to sleep, that really didn’t stop me from having some fun, I decided to make the nobles more gullible to lies just for the night to see what would happen. After that, I simply teleported myself to my den, my work done for the night.
Author's Note
Another chapter done, and another round of thanks to my editor Runic_Soul.
Edit: Almost for got, Medulla has only seen through season 4 and the first movie.
Misunderstood and Mutated
“Okay Beorn,” I said before clapping my hands together, “Time to work on the most basic sentence structure; ‘Subject-Verb-Object’”
The Minor Ursa looked around confused as whatever he had been dreaming about before became the stereotypical classroom scenario. The next three hours were hell, mostly for me, when trying to explain what really was basic knowledge, but I couldn’t fault him for that shortcoming. After all, he wasn’t taught this at a decent age of two hundred, so it was going to be slow to get him up to speed.
The next week fell into the simple routine of gravity training with Rainbow Dash, picking up berries from Berry Punch, getting no closer to catching up with Rayquaza, and teaching Beorn how to speak properly.
I woke up almost immediately after the night’s lesson was over, but Beorn the oversized teenager equivalent was going to sleep for a few more hours. While staring out the mouth of the cave for a few minutes to clear my head I remembered something important that almost slipped my mind, It’s Spike’s Birthday. I had no idea if I could make it to his party, so I came up with a plan to give him his present, whichever one he chose.
3rd Person POV
Spike had a wonderful day in Icecream Land. First he had eaten gallons of every flavor of ice cream, then he he swam in Rootbeerfloat Lake, and now to cap off a great day he would build an ice-cream pony; kind of like a snowpony but made of ice cream.
When Spike had finished, it looked almost exactly like Rarity. But not seconds after he had stepped back to admire his work, the ice-cream pony began to change shape. The color became dark purple and pink, it stood up on its hind legs and began to turn more and more into that guy Medulla that had stayed with Twilight and him only a few days ago. And he said, “Ah, ice cream dream, you know what’s important kid.”
The young drake just stood there not sure how to respond, and the mutant just patted him on the head. Medulla levitated Spike up to his eye level before saying, “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it to your birthday party today, though you really should call it a hatching day, so I’m giving you your present early.” At this, two boxes popped into existence; one wrapped in red paper, the other in blue. “You get to pick one, you can’t get both.”
The drake looked incredulously at the gifts, before asking, “This isn’t like that time Twilight made me choose between two books for my present, is it?”
“I would never get you a novel without knowing your preference, which I do it just hasn’t come into existence yet. I would have bought you a comic book, but haven’t gone into town for shopping in a while, and I would have just given them to you without choosing between anything.” Medulla declared confidently. “No, I am letting you choose between two relics that I found before the rise of Nightmare Moon. One is a claw of an ancient dragon and will imbue you with some of his strength, the other is charcoal made from a branch of a magical tree and will strengthen you fire. You’ll just have to choose to find out which one’s which.“
The young dragon thought deeply for a moment, then he pointed to the red package and said with conviction, “I’ll take the red present!”
Medulla smiled, “Here you go, you chose the Dragon Claw.” The box popped open revealing a razor sharp claw attached to a necklace, “You’ll wake you with this around your neck.” Medulla then began to melt like ice cream in summer heat as he left Spike’s dreams.
Medulla’s POV
After intruding on Spike’s dreams and leaving him with his present, I decided to the same with an old friend. It didn’t take very long to find the largest tree in the Everfree, levitation and all that. This tree was much deeper in the forest then even most sane individuals ever traveled. If I had to guess the species of tree this was, I’d probably say mangrove. The trunk was massive pillar of entangled ancient vines, the canopy well over nine hundred feet wide and tall, making it the quintessential “Power of Nature” tree. And considering the creator and oldest resident of the tree, I’d say that calling it that would be very accurate.
I slowly worked my way through the labyrinthine tunnels between the roots that made natural paths to the heart of this tree. The tree seemed to radiate a calming aura, because most of the creatures here were very lethargic and predators wouldn’t even so much as look at sleeping prey. All in all, it seemed to be some kind of natural paradise, if it weren’t for the fact that I could sense that this was a defense mechanism for the nature spirit I was looking for. There was a hint of malice in the air that most could miss.
I continued forward through the living woodwork, the sunlight becoming more sparse as I approached the heart of this monolithic tree. Eventually, I was completely surrounded in darkness, and for a few dozen feet I had to use Miracle Eye to know which way I was going, but it wasn’t long before a soft green glow became visible and I knew I was close.
I came to most likely the largest chamber in the tree, a thirty foot sphere of open space only obstructed by an hourglass shaped structure, and in the middle was the “oh so cute” green time traveling nature spirit, Celebi. Even though most would call him cute, he would call them compost; he still had enough power and skill knock me around a fair bit before I spammed my fire attacks. So to me, this was a somewhat ominous image with the sickly green glow emanating from Celebi, and the almost overwhelming external desire to just fall asleep here forever.
With a shudder I wormed my way into the almost millennium long dream of this powerful being.
Almost immediately Celebi cleared his mind leaving us in a white void. “What do you want Mewtwo?” he asked, his venomous tone of voice undermined by its pitch.
“I go by Medulla now,” I stated trying to how much I disliked having to come all the way out here, just to make sure I had a secure stable connection. “I just wanted to make sure you were aware of a few things, before-”
“Before I wake up,” he said almost screeching as he cut me off, “I’m pretty sure we already had this conversation, oh wait that’s just me being aware of me at all points of my time stream.”
I said with feigned sorrow, “I like to be courteous about this stuff, just because this was a possibility doesn’t mean you or I should disregard its relevance on either of our lives.” I then shifted to general sarcastic tone, “Oh, and are you aware of how many times across all of the us’s I’ve call you a callous asshole?”
Then he said in one breath, “Including that one, somewhere around thirty seven and a fourth, when you average it, because you know nigh infinity and all that you linear-minded man-made-legendary.”
We both stared at each other with dark scowls for a few seconds, before we broke into peals of laughter. Celebi was the first to recover, before asking, “Why do we always have to go through this?”
I was just able to hold my breath before telling him, “Because we may be friends, but I still find your philosophy lacking nuance and kindness.”
“Time and nature seem cruel only because others feel entitled. They don’t act, they move forward. That is all they can do. I take after that a bit, but you are capable of true cruelty it’s just that you only bring it out when you feel like it.” He said all this while poking me in the chest almost as punctuation.
“So I’m going to take it you already know what I was going to tell you.” I said trying to change the subject.
Celebi stared flatly at me as he said, “Yes…” his seemed to lose focus as his gaze drifted. He then looked back to me and said, “You know that town on the edge of my forest-”
“Well I wouldn’t really call it yours...” I interrupted.
Now he looked a bit angry, “My Forest, there’s a lot of panic and worry coming from there, and I think there’s a dragon there.”
“What?! That wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow!” I almost yelled.
“Remember what happened last time you connected to my mind like this, you ended up missing an entire week.” Celebi said.
“Shit… Oh before I go can I get a genetic sample from you for another friend, he’s a shapeshifter from another world?” I asked.
“Sure, just snap off a twig, this entire tree is made from me.” He said as I let him eject me from his mind.
Now with a much better understanding of where I was relative to outside the tree and Ponyville, I teleported, bagged a small twig from the tree, and quickly returned to town. What I saw was the expected chaos, but something felt off about Spike’s mind, and I mean more than just out of control greed. Something had messed with his inhibitions, and what ever did it made did a crappy job hiding their work. I knew I was the only one that recognised the true problem and could do anything to fix it. So I got straight to work infiltrating his mind, but the strangest thing happened. Instead of contacting Spike and fixing the problem in his head, I saw only darkness for a few moments that was quickly broken by three light; one yellow, one blue, and one red. The red one moved closer and from it a voice declared, “You now know where we are. Come find us!” And an image of a pristine lake, surrounded by mountains and immense greenery flashed before my eyes along with the knowledge of where the lake was. Then I was ejected and physically sent flying.
My only question that I mentally shouted was, “HOW THE HELL DID THEY KNOW?!?!” I then looked down to everypony currently in Ponyville looking up at me, apparently Spike had returned to normal not long ago.
Pinkie yelled back at me, “ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SOME NEW FRIENDS?!”
”Twilight, I’ll meet you in the library to explain.” I told her before I disappeared from the sky in flash of light.
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you enjoy what's coming up next.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 17 The Old Me, and The New Guy
As the mane six and Spike met me in the library. All of them with one prevalent question; Why had I yelled like that?... Well, except for Pinkie who seemed to be thinking about five different thing at once, the only relevant one was, “I wonder who Brain is going to tell us about.”
”To answer your questions,” I said, “I was yelling because Spike’s greed seems to have been accelerated, by the creatures I’m going to tell you about.” I said while floating around lazily.
“But what does that have ta do with them knowin’ somethin’?” Applejack asked.
“Very astute,“ I said, ”This is going to be a doozy so you may want to sit down.” They all sat down in preparation for this story time. ”See back when I first arrived in Equestria, I was very different person. In fact the first five years I had almost zero moral restraints. I did everything in my power to stay free; true mind control, maiming, psychic torture, and even cold blooded murder.” They all showed different levels of shock, Fluttershy’s face almost broke my heart, but I continued, ”What I saw when I went into Spike’s mind reminded me of one of my most common tactics, I would screw with a member of the guards and make them act erratically. Then at the first sign of any further psychic manipulations, such as Luna’s dream walking, a recorded psychic message would be implanted in the intruder’s mind. This would usually be used as a distraction to send them on a wild goose chase.” They all shared looks, trying to figure out how to collectively respond. ”Spike had a message left for me by the Spirits of Existence, Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf. From what Luna has told me and a bit of guesswork, they were the first Arceus sent to this world to make a cult that would summon him here, that plan failed for some reason, and now they’re calling me out.”
“But couldn’t it be a trap?” asked Rainbow Dash, giving me a rare look at her military thinking.
I rubbed my head as I thought of how to respond, ”More than likely, I can probably hold off on finding them. Individually I could crush them, but together their psychic abilities surpass mine. I need to be careful and plan this out, they will be more than patient with me if their history is any indication.”
Any further questions were cut short as an explosion was heard outside the library, followed by several screams. I teleported to the town square to find a Genesect blasting holes into every building he saw.
”Can’t this town go five minutes without something blowing up?!” I angrily asked.
Immediately the cyborg pokemon turned around as I mentally heard a cacophony of ones and zeros, “01010100 01100001 01110010 01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01000001 01100011 01110001 01110101 01101001 01110010 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01000110 01101001 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01001101 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01000011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01101110 00101110”
Not only was I blasted with a fire infused Techno Blast, but the string of numbers gave me quite the headache. I tumbled through eventually stopping after smashing through a few trees on the border of the Everfree. As I lifted myself up I found something sticking out of one of the trunks that wasn’t a massive splinter, but instead what looked like a metal sculpture that could fit in my palm, with a blue gem in the ‘head’ and the sculpture looking vaguely like a letter of some kind. I picked it up mostly out of curiosity, and I heard a voice proclaim, “If you need help with a psychotic god, robot gone rogue, or just want to spar, feel free to call upon Omega, the God of Destruction!”
I sighed as I saw Genesect charging towards me and reach out through the statue, ”I’m not sure about the psychotic part, but I could use your help Omega.” As Genesect was almost on top of me, a flash of blue descended down and I heard a vicious clang of metal striking metal.
The cyborg Pokemon was brought to a halt as it steadily tried to charge at me, but the man in front of me held it in place, the man clad in a red vest, white shorts, and an oddly colored red-and-gold set of boots, gloves, and helmet. “Not exactly sure who the hell summoned me,” The man growled as he continued to grapple with Genesect, before a chuckle came out and he continued to say, “But you certainly seem like a challenge!”
“01001111 01100010 01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01000110 01101001 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01000110 01101100 01100001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01000011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01101110 00101110” Genesect stated before the cannon on its back began to glow, and the man threw Genesect to the side before the attack was fired, and a stream of energy tore through several stalls.
”I’m the one that summoned you.” I said telepathically, but the man seemed to ignore me as he drew his gun from a holster and flicked, making the gun become straight and a triangular blade of energy come out with a hiss.
“Now’s as good a time as any to try out my new EX Skill,” The man commented to himself, before he swept his saber down in an arc and cried out “Zan’eidan!” At this proclamation, a giant blade-shaped wave shot out and slammed into Genesect, leaving a large gash in its side and making the Legendary Pokemon screech in pain.
I rubbed my head as my hands ignited with the power of Fire Punch, and told him telepathically, ”Okay, that’s kind of the spirit but try to avoid hitting anything around him, if you had been just slightly off, you would have leveled Sugarcube Corner.”
This last statement seemed to draw the man’s attention, but that thought was quickly quashed as he drew a second gun and switched it into its blade form, then said aloud with a vicious grin, “So I have to fight two Legendaries?! It must be either my lucky day, or I’m about to get my ass handed to me.”
I moved back slightly, Great. First creature I find that I can’t communicate easily with, and he seems to be about as violent as I was when I first came to Equestria. I then focused my telepathic connection to him to point of almost screaming, ”BACK OFF! I’m the one that called you here.” This time the message seemed to get through, as the man stumbled back before looking at me with a wary eye.
“So you’re the one who summoned me?” He said, and I nodded before he frowned. “Give me a second,” He said, and his eyes seemed to flicker off for a few seconds before turning back on and he told me, “Alright, I think I’ll be able to hear you now.”
I sighed again and turned back to Genesect as he tried to raise himself off the ground, ”I have no idea why I couldn’t establish a proper link, I do it subconsciously and it’s never required that much effort. And this guy is giving me only binary.” I finished by pointing a finger at the bug and launching a Fire Blast, knocking it to the ground again.
“Have you ever done it on someone whose mind is inorganic?” He asked, and I shook my head.
”Not many of those around here. None that I actually know of.”
“Well, there’s your problem.” The man said as he pointed at himself and said, “Ever since I was… transformed,” He paused for a few seconds, as if deep in thought, before continuing, “my mind has been nothing but coding for me, leaving me with many a mental difference. Hell, the only reason I’m picking you up is that your telepathy seems to be detectable on the same frequencies as a radio. As for him...” At this, he pointed at Genesect, and paused for a few seconds before asking, “Just to check, but didn’t Team Plasma mess with him when they made him Bug/Steel?”
”That would make sense, but he was sent by Arceus. Aparently I’ve really pissed that particular god-like being off.”
“Heh, join the club.” He said, before frowning at Genesect. “However,” The man said after a few seconds, “If I recall correctly, Team Plasma had modified Genesect for the sole purpose of combat, and restricted him of anything else. As such…” He paused for a few seconds, before finally saying aloud, “I suspect that Genesect has only one mindset: That of a war machine.”
”If you believe the anime and movies, they made five.” I said.
Not a second later, Genesect cut in again saying,“01010000 01110010 01101001 01101101 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01010011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101111 00100000 01000100 01100001 01101101 01100001 01100111 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01010010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01010000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010 00101110”
”That is REALLY giving me a headache,” I yelled, teleporting over to it and charging up another Fire Blast, only to be cut short as it grabbed me by the throat.
“Don’t charge in headfirst, greenhorn!” The man said as he slashed clean through Genesect’s arm, the Pokemon letting out another screech as I fell to the ground and the man jumped on its back. “Now, let’s see if my theory is right!” He shouted, sheathing his blade before slamming his open palm on Genesect’s cannon. This made Genesect let out a piercing scream as its cannon and the man’s arm glowed with vivid blue lines for a few seconds before grabbing him with its remaining arm and throwing him off, sending the man through Sugarcube Corner in the process.
I charged up another Fire Blast, this time twice the normal size and shouted at the man, ”I’m not a greenhorn!” As the star of fire hit Genesect’s torso from point-blank, blackening and melting some of the metal and Genesect screeched in horror again, ”It’s the stream of Binary coming from this thing that’s giving me a migraine!”
“Meh, I’ll take the excuse this time,” The man said as he jumped through Sugarcube’s broken wall and looked at Genesect, “But I think we can both agree that teleporting to where it can easily grab you was a rookie mistake.”
I sighed, holding the mangled Genesect in my telekinetic grasp, and said, ”Anyway, he’s not in much shape to fight anymore. Every instinct I have tells me to end him, but I really just want to eject him from the universe, less mess.”
“That is true,” The man said as he drew his pistol, “But I think that we best put him out of his misery before doing so.” Before I could say anything, he pointed his pistol at Genesect, and said aloud, “Techno Blast.” With this said, he pulled the trigger and a stream of violet energy tore through the air, easily ripping through Genesect’s head and killing the legendary Pokemon instantly.
I looked down at what little remained, and used Will-O-Wisp to destroy the remains, ”I think that was the first time I participated in a death in over a thousand years.”
“You get used to it,” The man said, then tilted his head as the sounds of puking began to fill the air and smirked, “Though I think it’s best you get the civies used to it. After all, if this is the vanguard, then they better get ready to see blood and bodies fly when the main force gets here.”
I shook my head, ”I don’t plan on letting it get to that. This isn’t just an invasion we’re talking about, Arceus seems to be breaking some kind of rule of the multiverse and want’s to override what’s already here so he can’t risk sending a full invasion just yet. I’m just the biggest obstacle at the moment.” It was then that I noticed who had vomited, both Fluttershy and Rarity who were now being attended to by Twilight.
She gave me a look that screamed How could you bring this here. As the man turned to see who had vomited, though, he came to a stop upon seeing the three, and his sneer quickly became a mix between a grimace and a snarl.
“I’d recommend you send me back now,” The man said, his voice and arm shaking with anger, “before I do something that will gravely make you regret summoning me.”
I knew what he meant, during my first five years just the mention of the princesses would make me act that way. ”Fine, our contract is complete, but remember that that type of rage can only hurt yourself, no matter how many you maim or kill, it can only end in your suffering.”
“I know that the main populace isn’t responsible for that,” The man snarled, his eyes seeming to appear a bright red as he remembered whatever caused this hatred, “But still… I can’t help but feel anger around them, especially if they are the ‘pilots’ of Celestia’s WMD.”
I waved goodbye as I gave him one last tip, ”They’re their own individuals, if you don’t keep them as your enemies they won’t fire on you.”
The man stiffened at this, and darkly chuckled before telling me, “As long as they ally themselves with him or those two , there’s no way that they aren’t my enemies. Especially not after what they did.” However, before he could say anything more, he disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving me standing next to a pile of ash that used to be alive and a town with some decent property damage.
Author's Note
Two chapters in one day? What is this madness?
Thanks to Runic_Soul for doing this crossover and being a great editor. The other story is "Your Human And You: Destruction of Chains " check it out when you can.
And yes on this end that binary translates to what this Genesect is actually saying, it is acsii so if you don't want to do it by hand just google "ascii binary to text"
Misunderstood and Mutated
I floated through the streets of Canterlot as the early night dragged on. I had spent the last few hours just wandering after the play the mane six put on for Hearth’s Warming Eve. Mostly thinking about the implications the Windigos raised. The snowstorm for the evening was also causing some worry, it just felt wrong. I was looking for what was causing me to feel so uneasy.
I started searching for a guard to talk to. Interestingly, I found Storm Bolt, despite his silver coat making him almost camouflaged.
I floated up to him and asked, ”Can you tell me why we’re having this snowstorm right now?”
He chuckled, “Every year the weather team does this ‘unscheduled’ blizzard as a prank, they see it as a way of driving ponies into their houses and the arms of their loved ones.”
I looked around suspiciously, before saying, ”One thing about weather-team made weather is that I always get an emphatic impression from it. Given your explanation, I should be getting mirth and maybe a bit of longing, but this… I’m not getting anything… or worse.”
He shuddered at this revelation, and asked, “Now that you mention it, this storm does feel off. Should we search for something in particular?”
I looked around gravely before responding, “If you do, make sure that whoever finds something like me should not engage, no matter what; don’t fight it, just contact me… Even though I have no rank, and really this can’t be more than a suggestion.”
He smiled, “Like I ever really cared about rank, I’ll take your suggestion into account.” He then flew off to the castle to do whatever he was planning.
Elsewhere
Pinkie was walking through the castle courtyard, thinking of different types of parties she could throw here and what setups to use when she nearly tripped over a very thick, but small plastic that almost looked like a gray floppy disc.
“I wonder what this is...” she said as she picked up the object.
Instantly she heard, "For help, say F13."
After a few minutes of fruitless searching I heard yelling coming from the sky as a red and pink blur shot through the ski and and started doing tricks. I pulled Ice Punch, Aura Sphere, Psycho Cut, and Fire Blast to the front of my mind. I realised that it was Pinkie riding on a shiny Genesect, and the Genesect looked less than happy about the passenger. He started climbing higher into the sky and I chased after knowing that Pinkie might not be able to hold on for much longer.
I was only a several yards away when she finally fell off and I caught her in my telekinesis and let my subconscious take over letting her down slowly. The Genesect turned around just in time for me to slam it in the face with with a Ice Punch.
“01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00111111 00100001” It responded angrily.
I replied, “What the hell, you would have killed her you asswhole?!”
It turned around slowly after the shock of my attack, “01001111 01101000 00101100 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00111111 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100001”
“Gaah,” I said in pained, “What is with the binary? Are you upset that I destroyed your lackie, and asked Arceus to send you to kill me?”
It fired off a Dark Pulse as its opening move, and it watched me like it was trying to gauge my response. I just fired a Aura Sphere in response, negating the the dark energy. It retaliated with Blizzard, seeming to aim much more easily than it would make sense. I just charged straight through the blast with blades of Psycho Cut emanating from my arms as I slashed at it. It was obviously unprepared for close range combat in its folded up flight mode, and as such, I easily knocked it out of the sky. It hit the ground with a loud clatter, before returning to its normal mode.
Elsewhere again
Pinkie approached one of the guards on duty, and told him, “Sir, I need to use your shield as a sled.”
“What?” was all he could say.
“Fine, if you won't give it, then I’ll take my business elsewhere.” she said as she approached the barracks and prying the oaken door off its hinges and walking away.
I floated down to meet it, and told the shiny Genesect, “I’m getting real tired of this, so now I’m going to end this!” Flames erupted from my hand, as I called upon Fire Blast, the heat melting the snow and scorched the ground even from my current height.
The Genesect retaliated with a burst of powerful water coming from the cannon on its back that quenched my flames near-instantly. It then blasted me with a Hyper Beam, sending me through the wall of a nearby building.
I called upon Fire Blast again, powering the attack far beyond normal as I floated out of the building and I mentally yelled, “I won't let Arceus endanger the ponies here anymore, I’ll kill you!”
“01000110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01000001 01110010 01100011 01100101 01110101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01010000 01110010 01100001 01101001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101001 01111000 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01110101 01100011 01101011 01100101 01110010 00100001” It launched itself into the air, arms crossed and ready to slash as it charged me with incredible speed, that was only increasing.
The heat coming from my hand only increased as the patch of grass underneath me blackened, I yelled as charged forward, “Stop it with that god damned binary!” In the blink of an eye, we both meet ready to deliver killing blows.
“WAAAAIT!” Before I could end it, Pinkie had somehow wedged herself between the two of us, as a door sailed away on the right side of my vision, crashing to the ground and splintering.
I was the first to react, “What the hell Pinkie, do you realised how many ways you could have died just now?”
“Umm, I can think of about 9001 off the top of my head…”
“01000100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01110011 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 11100010 10000000 10100110 11100010 10000000 10011101” It seemed to ask.
I looked to Pinkie and asked, “Pinkie what is that thing saying? All I get is a headache and a ton of ones and zeros going very fast.”
“Well, he said something about ‘buck Arceus’ and then something about a Helix… either that, or something about bananas.” she said smiling.
I audibly sighed then asked again, “Just now what did he say? I need the exact words.”
“Right now? he said ‘did she just...’ I think he got my joke. before that, well, ‘Buck Arceus, Praise the Helix.’ except more vulgar.”
I closed his eyes for a few seconds, focusing on the last string of numbers and the words they might have corresponded to, I opened my eyes and looked Genesect in the visor, “Sorry about that, I was getting weird feedback from you, it gave me a massive headache and I understood jack all of what you said. Hopefully I created a proper translation now, so say something.”
“English motherfucker, do you hear it?” He said making a reference to the opening of Pulp Fiction.
I nodded, “Yep, it’s coming through loud and clear.”
“Maybe next time, you’ll use your ears instead of you head.”
“Uhhh, my legs are getting tired...” Pinkie said her legs visible wobbling.
I floated back a few inches and before Pinkie hit the ground, she was caught in my telekinesis. “I’m Medulla by the way.” I introduced myself as I held out my hand.
“Jerry.” He told me, holding out his claw and we shook hands. “What’s with the cold weather, anyway? Thought Canterlot would be sunny.”
I looked with a concerned expression, before telling him, “It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve, but you are right this storm is all wrong. I usually get empathic impressions from the weather, sadness, joy, longing, but this- this I’m getting nothing.”
“Emptiness?” He asked.
I shuddered, “Exactly...”
“Now, I’m assuming since you said stuff about Arceus’s lackies, you’ve been dealing with other pokemon?”
I laughed coldly, “I don’t have a full roster, but I can guess who based on what’s going on. I just can’t seem to find him, I thought I found the intruder once I found you.”
“Do I look like an Ice type to you?”
Now I laughed warmly, “I just knew that something was here, I only originally thought it was Kyurem.” Just then, a roar echoed through the city and the two of us turned towards the roar.
“You were saying?”
I smiled darkly and told Jerry, “Let’s throwdown,” Then I bolted towards the sound.
As we approached, the shadow of the Boundary Pokemon became clear, and golf-ball-sized lumps of hail started to fall, being a real annoyance. Soon after, a chilling wave of air washed over the town, covering everything in ice. I shook off the ice easily before Jerry caught up, “What’s the plan?” he asked.
I smiled back at him before responding, “Beat the shit out of him until he surrenders, dies, or is ejected.” I was then blindsided and knocked to the ground by a shadow launched out of the flurry of snow.
“You okay?” Jerry asked.
I shook my head, trying to clear my vision of the stars, “I’ve had worse. But not by much.” I levitated back up and rocketed forward again.
“Found him!” Jerry exclaimed, firing a dazzling blast of silver into the shadows which elicited a roar of pain.
I fired off a new combo of Fire Blast and Aura Sphere I had yet to name, the blast connected with the dragon but it didn’t doing as much damage as it should have. In response, Kyurem just blasted me with a Signal Beam sending me higher into the sky. Before Kyurem could launch another attack, Jerry delivered an ExtremeSpeed boosted Blaze Kick to the side of its head, causing its attack to veer off course, missing me.
I then got a really stupid idea that could work, “Can you keep him distracted while I try something… something that could be suicidally stupid?”
“What, use Selfdestruct?” he responded.
I swapped Psycho Cut for Metronome, and said “No, Metronome… which could result in that, but not what I’m hoping.”
“Okay!” He fired off Charge Beams and Zap Cannons eventually paralyzing it, as I began the arduous task of waving my finger in front of my face to cause a type of self-hypnosis.
“Okay, first try, aaaannnnd,” I appeared in front of Kyurem and used my tail swept Kyurem’s legs causing him to fall to the ground. “Low Sweep” Once I was back in my somewhat safe location, Jerry hammered Kyurem with another Zap cannon, its muscles seized up as paralysis took hold again.
“And number two...” I started flopping around like a fish out of water, and I groaned in embarrassment of getting Splash of all moves. “Oh no, this is embarrassing.” As I tried a third time, I felt an energy that was familiar to something from a previous fight.
“Oh shit, MOVE!” Jerry yelled as I noticed something glinting high in the sky.
“One last shot before I just go for something practical.” Then a light of incredible brilliance emanated from me, it was blinding and cold, nothing like the light from the sun. I could feel the wrath of an immortal pouring through me, “LIGHT OF RUIN!!!” I fired it from both hands one in the direction of the meteor obliterating, and the other crushing Kyurem into the ground tearing into its ice-like form but before it could do more damage a green shield enveloped the ice dragon’s form dissipating the remaining light.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!? Goddamn Protect.” Jerry said, sharing my irritation of the attack failing to damage Kyurem.
“Okay, now I’m pissed! That move has likely never been legally used and it didn’t end this.” My aura started flaring and becoming darker. “I need one more distraction, just do some damage while I charge a finisher.”
“Okay, how long you need?”
“Hopefully not five minutes, I’ll start yelling when it’s ready.” I said chuckling.
“...Seriously?” he said flatly.
I switched in Psystrike and Earthquake “Hey, this will be the first time I’ve tried this, I’m working off of theory for this combo.” I said floating higher into the sky, a ball of red and brown energy forming between his upheld hands.
“You are serious. Fine.” He said starting a relentless assault the damaged dragon. The next few minutes, I’m not entirely sure how long became a haze as all my focus was pouring as much energy for Psystrike, Earthquake, and Fire Blast into as small an area as possible.
Eventually I yelled “Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!” and mentally yelled the name of this destructive blast, “MEGIDDO!!!,” Before I hurled the semi-truck-sized ball of power down onto Kyurem’s form.
“HOOOOLY SHIIIIT!” Jerry dove out of the way and raise a green shield just incase.
The following explosion shook Canterlot Mountain, and shattering all the glass in the city only dust remained where Kyurem was. And after the dust settled, I passed out. When I awoke I was being help by Jerry and I said, “I’m going to make sure not to charge that up that much again.”
“Jesus, and he was only UU tier!” He said, shocked at how much it took to take out Kyurem.
I smiled, and told him, “Tiers mean nothing here, the wider the legendary that have domains the farther they spreads their control, the weaker they are in combat. Kyurem only just arrived, so he’d be near the top of his power.”
“Uh, if he looked like that, he wasn't at the peak of his power. Unless you mean in that form.”
“Yes, for that form.” I said as I floated to my normal position. “I guess you need to go home now.”
He sighed, then commented in reply, “Yeah, back to running from the entire equine population.”
I just nodded with sympathy, and told Jerry, “I know what that’s like, I would suggest creating decoys or distraction to send them on the wrong trail. But for now, our contract is complete.” And Jerry the Genesect disappeared immediately.
Not a second later, Pinkie appeared to my left, and asked she asked somewhat scared as she stared at the crater, “So, Brain did you really kill that guy?”
I rubbed my neck and drank an ether before answering, “I’m not going to lie to you, I wish I had but something teleported him away before enough damage was done.”
She appeared at the pile of ash and asked while pointing at it, “Then what’s this?”
I walked over to the dust, “It’s what ever was used to teleport Kyurem, I don’t think that it got out of the way in time.”
And to end this escapade as I floated away, Pinkie proceed to ask me a plethora of other question, most of which I avoided answering.
Somewhere Halfway Across the Multiverse
“Damn, that hurt!” the large one exclaimed.
“I supposed that would.” the small one said, not really caring about his own injuries.
“If I see that Medulla again, I’m going to tear out his skull and wear it as a crown.” The large one roared.
“Stop your blubbering, it’s not like these injuries are permanent.” the small one rebutted as he continued walking to the structure in the distance.
Author's Note
This crossover was with rainbowPOOTIS 's A Drive to Survive . Hope you enjoyed.
And before you all freak out, I'm going to pace myself better crossovers. There won't be any crossovers for at least one more chapter.
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 19 The Three Ancients Awaken
The next day, I was awoken in my cave to a sight I honestly never would have expected; Cresselia about to poke me on the nose. ”What do you need?” I asked.
“Sky Pillar has stopped moving. It is now by the Hyperborean Mountains. I have also located posible resting places for the other two. My main concern is that Rayquaza appeared to slowly beginning to awake.” Cresselia said with a hint of concern.
“Then the other two won't be far behind.” I said, rubbing my face before telling her, “I need to get the welcoming parties ready, and the meeting place prepared.”
“Should I inform the Elements, or will you?” she asked.
”I’ll make sure everything is in place. You just make sure they don’t wake up before I get to them.” I said as I floated to the entrance of my cave.
I lazily floated towards town, barely noticing the pack of timber wolves I swatted away. I waited outside Fluttershy’s cottage as the sun lazily rose from its slumber. Eventually Fluttershy exited her cottage and was characteristically startled by me.
“Sorry Medulla I wasn’t expecting you to be here. How can I help you?” she asked.
”Well I need you and the others to help me with something, but I’d rather not explain myself more than once because this will be very time sensitive. I also need to speak with all of the Element Bearers about what’s going to happen because this concerns every living thing on this planet.” I said before motioning for her to follow me.
We made our way to Rainbow Dash’s house, Fluttershy had barely repressing the urge to ask more question. Once underneath the house I activated Gravity and yelled at Rainbow Dash specifically, “Wake up Rainbow, or you’re going to have long fall this year.”
“Waaaaaaahhh!” she yelled as she fell, flaring her wings just avoiding hitting the ground. “What you do that for?!” she demanded now safely on the ground.
”Go get Applejack, and bring her to Twilight’s, I have something I need to discuss with all of you.” I said and waited for her to fly away.
She didn’t do so, and instead she just stared at me before she asked, “Should I get Pinkie and Rarity too?”
”Pinkie is taking care of Rarity, Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense kicked in and she’s bringing Rarity to the meeting.” I sighed and walked away, and she zoomed off.
It was only a few minutes until everyone was gathered at the Library, and they were all staring at me expectantly. ”I’m about to awaken probably the three oldest residence of this planet. I’m going to need Fluttershy and Rainbow for the first one, and Pinkie and Applejack for the second, and none of you will be needed for the third.”
“Who are you talking about?” Twilight asked.
“I’ll get to that in a second cause this is where you and Rarity come in. If everything goes right the three of them will be having a summit outside Manehatten harbor in two days at dawn. You need to make sure the no ships will be trying leave or enter the harbor, because those ships will likely be torn to pieces even by accident. The guests of honour are green sky serpent with almost total control over the weather,” Rainbow Dash balked at that but I ignored her and continued, “a giant red mole... badger thing with control over the earth likely including subterranean lava flows possibly giving the power to tidally lock a planet, not that that matter for this planet could just be power over the sun,” Applejack seemed to confused as if trying to remember a long forgotten fairytale, ”And last but not least a blue fish… whale that has power over the seas and rain.” They all seemed confused about that one. ”Yeah, I chose a bay because it’s essentially as close to neutral ground as these guys can have.”
The first one to recover from their shock was Rainbow Dash her only response, “This has to be some elaborate prank! A giant green sky snake with perfect weather control, ask any pegasi that became part of the weather team what their favorite myth is and they’ll say it’s Rayquaza.”
”Oh good! You somehow managed to not screw up his name after ten thousand years, my original species can barely handle one hundred for keeping general pronunciations the same” I said utterly ignoring her points about it being a myth.
“Still not saying you’re not taking pony myths and doing one big prank.” Rainbow said suspiciously.
“Ah remember an old bedtime story about that red badger thin’ ya talked about, but Ah was so young, ah couldn’ tell ya thin’ more than that.” Applejack said mostly caught up in her own memory.
”I’d rather not get into a whole discussion about how the creatures we’re talking about have been asleep for over ten thousand years, and that’s more than enough time for an entire race to rise, fall and then go extinct. We’re short on time, so I need Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to come with me for the first visit.” I explained before teleporting us three to the general area of Sky Pillar.
This was obviously the largest cloud structure they had seen, it made Cloudsdale look like a foal’s sand castle. I now had a better understanding of where Rayquaza was, and teleported us to him. Again, they were in awe of the twenty foot long green snake, they hardly even breathed trying to stay hidden from the sleeping behemoth. To me, it was just another very large dragon, but then again, I’m taller than any pony they ever knew by a significant margin.
Fluttershy whispered more quietly than usual, “So what do we do now?”
”It’s simple, I wake the sleeping dragon.” I said with a smirk.
Rainbow let out a minute scream as she whispered, “What?”
My left hand was covered in a flurry of snow, and I launched an incredibly weak stream of Blizzard to hopefully wake him up. Part of his body iced over a bit and he stirred slightly. Both Rainbow and Flutters squirmed and hid behind me. After thirty seconds of the continuous micro-Blizzard nothing seemed to happen. I eventually turned around looking at my two companions and sighed.
”Looks like this bum isn’t waking up the easy way.” I said, but I noticed that they seemed to be backing away slowly as two skinny green arms wrapped around me and tugged me into a cuddle with the green wyrm.
I just sat there in Rayquaza’s unconscious embrace ,like the teddy bear I had become and contemplated how I got to this point in my life.
The girls started to giggle at the absurdity of this scene. Fluttershy cooed, “They actually look kind of adorable.”
”I’m disappointed, and I must warn you that making a psychic of my power upset is truly unwise. My pranks are on par with Discord, so tread wisely.” I said as some dribble fell on my head from Rayquaza, who had apparently started sucking one of its claws.
This was the final straw for the two, as Rainbow Dash burst out laughing as loud as she could. Then they sky dragon’s eyes shot open.
”Who dares to intrude on my slumber?” He almost roared.
I raised my hand right into his face, and then said, ”That would be me! I brought them along as both insurance and proof.”
“Insurance and proof!” Rainbow Dash demanded.
”Insurance to stop any unnecessary escalation, and proof of what I’m going to tell Rayquaza.” I clarified.
”The hell is a Mewtwo doing here?” He asked finally letting me go.
”That is a long and complicated story involving at least three different sections of the multiverse, and not why I’m here.” I said, now looking him in the eye.
”I will listen to what you have to say.” He said, not interested in what I had to say at all.
”You’ve been asleep for over ten thousand years, correct?” I asked, he nodded and I continued, ”And you taught pegasi like these how to control the weather before your rest?” He nodded again at this, ”And you rested because you thought that they would spread over the planet and bring order to the dangerous weather?” This time the nod was more confused as if that was the only thing that could happen, ”Well, they have gathered on exactly one continent and the weather everywhere else goes unchecked and endangering the other species. It seems your retirement plan has backfired.”
He was shocked, and turned to the two pegasi with me before he asked, ”Is this true?”
They both muted affirmatively, even Rainbow Dash’s ego shrinking under the critical gaze of this living myth.
”Damn,” he sighed, ”I thought it would be a nice twenty thousand, but I best get to work.”
He was about to leave when I stopped him with a psychic barrier and said as he scowled at me, “Not just yet, you’re the first of the three to be awoken and I’m setting up a conference between the three of you at this location.” I sent him both the relative coordinates and images.
”Fine, but if this blows up in your face, I’ll laugh so hard.” He said moving, Sky Pillar away from us and leaving us standing in the air.
I moaned, and said aloud, “I hope the other two will be different from this one.” With that said, I teleported back to Twilight’s library and said, ”Your turn,” pointing at Pinkie and Applejack as I said this.
A few seconds later, we found ourselves in the middle of a desolate rocky plane.
Applejack looked around confused at the location, and asked me, “Why are we in the Badlands?”
”Because this is where Groudon sleeps, just keep an eye out because he could wake up at any moment.” I said.
“How will we know when he wakes up, will there be a big alarm clock or confetti?” Pinkie asked happily.
”The sun will become even hotter in this area, and possibly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions,” I explained. As if on cue, the ground began to shake and cracks began to form, the fissure spreading from a point not far from where we appeared. Covered in lava and chunks of earth falling of the rising form of the giant red mole thing. It was truly awe inspiring and terrifying… or at least it was until a pink blob appeared on its back and a yell was heard, “YEHAW!!”
Applejack facehoofed next to me. It took Groudon a few seconds to notice the pony that he was now giving a piggyback ride to. When he finally noticed her, though, the Groudon did something unexpected and said in a low fatherly voice, “Little one, why are you riding on my back?”
“Cause it’s fun!” she said as he gently moved about feigning an attempt to toss her off, as she yell like a child on a rollercoaster.
"I hate to interrupt, but we came here to tell you that vacation is over and to call you to a meeting with Rayquaza and Kyogre, at a bay." I said, giving him everything about the meeting place telepathically.
"I'd rather not be out in the water but Kyogre can't even get onto land so shallow water is the best we can go for." He responded somewhat bored, then he asked,”I suppose this is more important than you’re letting on, considering the unnatural seismic events I’ve been feeling.”
I nodded and he burrowed back underground, leaving Pinkie behind as he did so.
“What you do that for?” Pinkie complained.
”I need to get the last one, before they start making a fuss.” I said, before teleporting them back and teleporting to the middle of the ocean.
I began a new sweep of the local minds. But I didn’t need to find Kyogre because she found me. A massive storm front rolled in the waves were massive and the rain was nearly impenetrable. Eventually Kyogre emerged from the deep, glaring at me as she did so.
”Why have you awoken us?” She asked, her voice dripping with venom.
”Because things are changing; the pretense was that you three need to get back to work, but there’s a bit more too it.” I said and I gave her the knowledge of where the meeting would be.
”This better be important, because I was having a really good dream.” She huffed.
”Your last dream was over five thousand years ago, and you weren’t ever going to have one again unless you woke up.” I stated flatly.
”The point still stand, over ten millennia of sleep and I regret waking up.” She said.
”I’ll see you there then?” I asked.
She just nodded and dove back into the surf, and with the legendary Pokemon gone, the storm receded. I was left with the feeling that the three of these ancient pokemon were a bit too willing to come to this meeting. I returned to the library and sighed in relief and flopped onto the ground.
When I reappeared, I startled everyone in the library and caused Twilight to spill ink over a letter she was writing.
”Invites have been sent and all the guests have RSVP'd, so all that’s left now is to make sure the location is ready.” I said
“It’s barely been half an hour, and you're already done?” Twilight asked.
”When I’m dealing with something this important I like to make sure that everything is in place as quickly as possible.” I said flatly.
Twilight quickly brought out a new piece of parchment and remade the apparently ruined letter. She had Spike send the letter to Celestia. With the letter sent Twilight decided that now would be a good time to make small talk, or at least what she thought of as small talk.
“So I’ve been reading over the notes I made while you were here, and I have a few more questions.” She said as she pulled out new notepad.
”Fine, I’ll answer some questions while we wait,” I said and continued to myself, Just don’t try expect me to directly answer them all.
“When you spoke of your psychic abilities you mentioned a potential danger to others when connecting to their minds, I was wondering what kind of danger, what you can do to prevent the danger, and did you learn of it?” She asked not seeming to notice how multi-faceted these questions really were.
”To the first part the dangers include; brain damage, insanity, going into a comatose state, or death. The second part is a bit more complex. I don’t have much I can do to directly decrease the possibility of these problems, but the factors that contribute to include how aware they are of my presence in their mind, how deep the connection is, if the connection is only one way, and how hard I’m pushing. And the last part is the only part that goes into an area of my life I truly regret.” I sighed before continuing, ”As I’ve said before my first five years in Equestria were a nightmare for anypony I met. I have murdered before and each name and face I remember; one of which was a captain of the guard for a small city, I mercilessly tore any information I found relevant from his mind.” I shuddered at the memory of his dying screams, before telling her, “He was one of a few that was entirely aware of my presence in his mind, he tried to fight me off but I was too powerful for him. I destroyed his brain stem without ever touching him, his heart stopped instantly but he knew pain and horror few can even imagine.”
The girls just stared at me as they finally understood why I was hunted for over one hundred years and turned to stone. I may have laked Discord’s raw reality warping power, but my use of my powers was much more lethal.
”I guess Celestia didn’t tell you where I was imprisoned. I was buried under the main barracks and encased in stone. Celestia feared my escape more than Discord’s. He was out in the open where he could see as time passed and life went on, I got to look at a dirt wall for a millennium. And in all honestly, I believe I deserved every second of it… well except for Discord being an unbearable asshole the entire time. And I plan to atone for these crimes by protecting every creature on this planet to the best of my ability.” After I had finished that rant I could feel the tension in the air decrease slightly, but there was still an awkward silence.
Luckily, Spike broke the remaining tension by belching up a letter. Twilight quickly read the letter, after she finished she smile and jotted a quick response and Spike sent the letter.
“Good news, Celestia will ensure that the harbor is closed down and all currently inbound ships are diverted.” Twilight said likely boiling down the entire correspondence between her and Celestia.
”Good, we can go Manehatten the night before.” I said floating away.
Rarity squealed at the prospect of going to Manehatten, but I interrupted her histrionics and said, ”I doubt anything will be open the entire time we’re there. After all three incredibly powerful ancient beings are going to have a meeting out in the middle of the bay, I’m pretty sure that will attract quite a lot of attention.”
When the day of the meeting arrived, the normally bustling town was almost still in anticipation to see these incredible mythical creatures. Even a massive herd of hippocampi waited just out to sea as the awaited the arrival of the creature they viewed as almost a deity.
The bay itself was so calm that the sky was reflected perfectly. Just as the sun had finished it’s hurdle of the horizon, the light from it became so intense that none could even look eastward. Steam began to roll of the bay as the air grew hotter and hotter. Eventually a red-ish form came into view as it walked parallel to the shore line. A sandbar formed under Groudon’s feet as he walked towards my location floating above the water. Once he was next to me we simply shared a nod. The earth ponies cheered as they saw this living testament to their long forgotten history.
Not seconds latter cloud cover rolled in, blotting out the entire sky, and rain drenched the city. Thunderclaps could be heard from several directions at once. The sea roiled and the sky became black as midnight in mere seconds. This was a storm the likes of which few get to see and live to tell of. The hippocampi began to winnie and shout, but the storm was simply too loud for them to be heard. In one great blast of spray, Kyogre burst from the surf, water rolling off her fishlike form as she stared warily at Groudon and myself.
As quickly as the storm appeared, it subsided. The air became eerily still. The sea was like a sheet of glass. It was so quiet I could hear the awed gasps of half of the ponies watching, as Rayquaza broke through the cloud cover. The clouds began to dissipate slowly as the twenty foot sky snake joined our small group.
”I called the three of you here to ask something of each of you.” I said, trying to show them their due respect.
”You want us to take up our jobs again.” Rayquaza said dully.
”I have no reason to continue my job, the hippocampi have successfully taken control over my domain, unlike these two idiots.” Kyogre said hotly
”Well that’s only half the reason I called you, as you can probably sense, Arceus has been sending over lackies to aid in overwriting the world for some reason. I can’t be everywhere at once, so I’m asking if you could help me keep an eye out for intruders.” I said sheepishly.
”I get it! You want us to join your team.” Groudon declared.
”Not entirely, I just want you to help protect the creatures of this world. I could care less about teams. I can almost sense something stirring, this world is about to change quite a bit and I want to ensure that it happens as smoothly as possible.” I said shivering with fervor.
They all shared a few looks, before Rayquaza responded, ”We will help protect the creatures of this world from any external threats we find, but Kyogre has outright refused to continue to tend the seas since her proffered race actually did as expected.”
I chuckled a little and said,”That’s fine.”
With that we parted ways, but as I began to float over the land, the world began to blur. A yellow ball of light appeared in front of me and an impassive voice spoke to me saying, “Why have you not heeded our call? My siblings grow anxious, we will await your arrival at our lake in one hour.”
”That’s just great...” I ‘muttered’ as the mane six trotted towards me.
Author's Note
Another fun chapter done. What could possibly happen next?
For those of you who will ask a hippocampus( the singular of hippocampi) is essentially a mythological fish/horse hybrid, and I prefer that term to "Sea Ponies".
Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 1 So long and thanks for all the EXP!
[Shining Armor’s POV]
“I hate being useless!” I shouted as I pounded myhoof on the desk, leaving a small impression in the wood.
My two lieutenants guarding the door shared looks, the silent conversation was very obvious, they argued over who would console me first.
The one to the right, Storm Bolt, a silver pegasus with electric-blue eyes, spoke, “I don’t enjoys this any more than you. I’d love to be out there kicking Discord to the curb, but Celestia’s order was clear, no pony was to interfere with the Bearers or him.”
The other Flame Razor, a burgundy unicorn with ash gray eyes, then chimed in, “Besides they’re the only ones that even stand a chance against that chaos dem-”
“But that includes Twily, and if I can’t even protect or help her then what kind of brother am I?!” Shining Armor interjected.
They both shot nervous glances at each other, and wisely agreed to shut up.
The silence was almost unnerving. Thunder crashed in the distance and a variety of unnatural sounds from the surrounding area could be heard. Then came an uncanny voice that seemed to emanate from all around, “Well, well, young Shining wishes for power to protect. Do you remember my voice ?” The lieutenants didn’t seem to hear the anything.
“Did you hear that?” Shining asked aloud.
“Nothing we haven’t for the last ten minutes. Why?.” Flame Razor responded.
“Just a sec ago there was a voice.”
“Not that I heard.” Retorted Bolt with a worried look to Razor.
“They can’t hear me. I’m speaking directly to your mind only, so you only need to think a response. I'll ask one more time, do you remember me?” the voice chimed again more clearly.
“Must be hearing things, I’m just wound up over all of this.” Shining responded to calm his lieutenants.I think so, but it’s like trying to remember an old dream , Shining thought.
“Not great, but good enough. I sparred with you in many of your dreams. Now, if you want to be able to protect your loved ones again come to the main barracks, alone .”
Shining Armor apprehensively rose from his desk and started walk out of the office. “Just gona check on the patrols, no need to follow.”
“Sir, I’m going with you to make sure you’re not going to try and get yourself involved in this whole Discord business.” Flame Razor interjected.
"I promise I wont try to involve myself, and if I do you can be the captain of the guard when Celestia fires me. Now I’m ordering you, stay here!”
Almost all of guards were out on duty, since the spirit of chaos itself broke free. The guards he passed would quickly saluted him then continue with their jobs after he would salute back or nod. The marble corridors seemed to echo with every step. The walk to the barracks was largely predictable but something was off, aside from the sky acting irregularly under the influence of Discord, why was he following this voice he barely recognized.
"Because protecting those you care about is so important to you that you would risk almost anything for them. I assure you that I didn't lie about sparring with you in your dreams, I was helping you reach your true potential as quickly as possible, like I've done with every pony that became Captain of the Guard for about the last millennium ." The voice declared with astonishing confidence.
That's an awesome claim, but I can't just take your word on that ya’ know : Shining rebutted.
"True, ask Stone Sentinel about me when this is all over. I implied that I would give you power to protect, and I will, once you've arrived I'll teach you two powerful warding spells that no unicorn has ever learned in exchange for something quite small. "The voice retorted.
It wasn’t long before he arrived at the main barracks. The dimly lit room was packed with metal frame bunk beds, the floor was a series of stone slabs, and the walls and ceiling were granite supported with steel struts. Luckily it was completely empty. "Great, you're almost here, pull up the slab that sounds like a drum when you stomp on it in the north-west corner, and you’ll know what to do from there ."
I just thought, what are you and what do you need from me in return for these spells? : Shining questioned.
“‘What I am?’ you might call me a spirit confined to one physical location, but you can make your own judgment on what I am once you come down, ‘What I want?’ is a little magic energy to sustain me for another century or so. ”
Shining Armor walked to the north-west corner, as all the memories of his time as an initiate in the royal guard flooded his mind, and the brutality of the first weeks. The slab was right up against the corner of the building where no one would have any good reason to stand. Lifting the stone magically without breaking it was a bit of a challenge. Once removed, a dusty stairway was uncovered. Each step seemed to be shaped directly from bedrock, it was impossibly smooth. The stairs went down fifty feet and opened into a pitch black room. The darkness was unnaturally oppressive, like the light was being forced from the room. Shining lit his horn to push away the darkness, he was able to get a general idea of the size of the room, but he still couldn’t make out the back wall very well. The room was rather small, not including the height of the room it was only about the size of Blueblood’s bathtub (which for some reason could easily hold three fully grown minotaurs, Dear Celestia he’s spoiled.)
“Dear God, his tub is actually that big, DAMN!! It may as well be an extra large party sized hot tub! If cleaning that monstrosity is a punishment, then that could explain why so many new gaurdsponies have nightmares of falling into a giant bathtub and not being able to escape. It’s a punishment, right? ” the voice said now come from directly in front of him.
Yes, and if it’s been too long since it was last cleaned it can be very horrific. Shining responded.
He walked slowly forward to find where the voice seemed to be coming from. A statue began to emerge from the darkness. It was a circular pedestal holding up a strange looking creature. The head appeared almost cat-like. The part of the body that was upright had two odd appendages coming from just below it’s neck and resting on it’s lower appendages, it was somewhat muscular. These upper limbs ended in claws that instead of being tipped with talons had three of some kind of bulbous orbs. It’s lower body was almost disproportionately larger than the rest of it, what he assumed to be it’s flank was much wider than any other part of it, the lower limbs were relatively thin and ended in elongated claws without talons. It was in a posture similar to how he’d seen some dragons and most minotaurs sit, and its tail was looped over and behind its head. The closer he approached the statue the more he felt that such a creature simply should not exist.
“Hey, calm down this is just a piece of artwork to anchor my spirit to this plane, and because I can’t be sustained by the aether itself so every so often I have to ask somepony for a little magic energy to sustain me. In return, if they need encouragement, I reward them with knowledge of a spell they might need. ” The voice responded quickly.
“Why don’t the princesses just feed you regularly? If it’s safe to assume they’re the ones who put you hear.” Shining questioned aloud.
“They’re busy with the Discord situation, and yes they did. And before you ask, they hid me here so that I could easily train and evaluate the guards in their dreams without causing too many problems, or at least that’s what I’ve chosen to do. ” Replied the voice.
“Do you have a name?” Shining wondered.
There was a short pause before the voice responded, “You know what, It’s been more than a thousand years and yet I never chose a moniker… How about Medulla? That sound like a cool name to you? ”
Shining pondered the name for a second, “It’s okay.”
“Great now just pour a little of raw magic into this statue, it will help sustain me and then I can teach you the spells, deal? Also we may want to hurry I can sense that Twilight is upset and distressed about something, one of her friends has just gone, so is Discord, and panic is spreading because Discord just pumped a massive load of chaos magic into the world. ” Medulla’s voice held such incredible urgency that Shining felt he had little choice if he wanted to help.
His horn began to glow a little brighter as a stream of energy flowed from him to the statue. Then something seemed to snap and everything went wrong, the flow increased beyond what he intended and he couldn’t stop it. The stone began to crumble away in thin flecks, revealing a pink creature underneath the encasement. As the last piece of stone fell away the flow of magic cut off. Before Shining armor could cast any defensive spells or attack the creature, the creature snapped the bulbous orbs on its claws then a wave of electricity radiated from that point hitting him and he couldn’t do anything.
[Medulla’s POV]
I slowly levitated myself off the platform so I could stretch my back a little and reach my full height. In this body I was about six feet seven inches, not counting the buffer I gave myself for floating because who needs to walk anyway. I almost hit my head on the ceiling during the stretch, and had to bend my head just slightly while on still touching the ground. Shining struggled against his own unresponsive body as lighting arced from nerve-ending to nerve-ending and along his horn.
“First thing, these ," wiggling my fingers, "are called fingers and they are part of what is called a hand, talk to a minotaur about them because hands are the BEST. ” I ‘said’ without moving my mouth, and shot him an annoyed look. “Do you have any idea how tiring it is to hear a pony describe anatomy they have no direct reference for? Really they should at least ask what it is when they’re not sure it’s just rude otherwise. Second, ” Pointing to my feet, “these are called feet. ”
I moved a little to the left and continued after readying Shiny’s mind quickly, “Really? calling me a liar. While I understand why you think that, if you look back at everything I said and interpret it all metaphorically the only real lie was saying I needed the magic energy to survive, and that could be seen as a half truth if you consider freedom as a necessity of life. Well that and claiming I've done this before. ”
After another quick reading of Shining’s mind I responded with as much sarcasm as a thought can convey, “WELL I NEVER!!! That sort of language is most unbecoming of one courting a princess! I‘ll still teach you the spells, although the word ‘spell’ may be a bit inaccurate when I use them, but for you spell may actually be a good word for it. Here! ” And with that I touched a finger to his horn and focused on implanting the two moves I had intended on giving him.
“The first one I call Safeguard, any spell meant to alter but not harm is completely negated for a duration, you may be able to adjust some of the parameters for your needs. The second I call Magic Coat, it reflects any alteration spell back on the caster, I know you’ll find a way to make it even better. ” I informed him.
“You really have no faith in your mentor. And even though you may not believe me, I swear that should I cause direct harm to any you love, that I will gladly let you personally throw me into the heart of a volcano, or any such punishment you see fit. ” I declare staring straight at him, but it didn’t calm him as much as I would have liked but it would be enough assurance for now.
I turned away from him because of his last thought, “Well I’m escaping now because 'now' was the best time, there will be almost no collateral damage. And I’ll admit however distasteful I find this kind of manipulation, I did use you, because you were so desperate and vulnerable. As to why, I need to investigate some anomalies in the mental landscape I’ve noticed, because no other entity seems to even realize they’re here .”
“Tell Tia that… that she had me all wrong and we need to talk this through like adults, and that I am truly sorry for all those thing, especially for that town… b-because I didn’t mean to... ” I thought as solemnly as I could as I looked him right in the eye.
“Finally some free advice for you. ” I said in a more cheerful tone, “That idea you’ve had rolling around in your mind for the past month or so, why are you hesitating? If she cares about you half as much as you care about her, then you have nothing to worry about at all. And that would likely be an understatement, she is almost a literal embodiment of love, and you’ve been together for how long? If you can’t trust me about this that’s fine, but really the ‘logic’ of this situation is staring you right in the face and you don’t see it yet. ” Giving him a smirk, as I let some joviality enter my thoughts.
“But alas I must say goodbye for now, hopefully the next time we meet it will be on more even conversational ground. You should recover from that Thunder Wave soon. And thanks for all the training we did, because even teacher gain some experience while teaching. ” I thought to him.
I snapped my fingers again and after a few seconds hole in reality large enough for me to walk through formed. I moved through the portal quickly so that what came next wouldn’t be seen by anyone. Once I was on the other side, the wormhole collapsed into nothing behind me and I was floating in a flower covered field on the slopes of a mountain near Canterlot, the city was now just a splash of white on the cliffs. My vision began to blur and I doubled over as I felt bile climbing my throat. I dry-heaved all over a patch of daisies.
Sorry daisies... Why can’t I actually have Teleport? Gravity was not meant to be used like that at all . I groaned to myself.
This place is way to open, I need a place to meditate and eat in private . I thought as a floated lazily towards one of the many crystal cave entrances.
Author's Note
And there's the first chapter, hope you enjoyed. What do you think? Any criticism that comes with a suggestion on what didn't work and how to fix it in the future is welcome.
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Misunderstood and Mutated
Ch. 5 Eat, drink, and give explanations for tomorrow I sleep
[Medulla's POV]
The parade was nice, I'm it's not often you have a celebration of any kind thrown in your honor. But it was obviously slapped together quickly. It was mostly the same marching band just doing different songs. "You know, Ridge, why don't we move this celebration to the pub. We both know this isn't your best work. I haven't had any good booze in a long time, and I can wait for the Princesses there. " I told him, with a knowing smile.
"How did you-?" The Mayor started to protest.
I interrupted him, "I communicate through thought, you'll have to try pretty hard to block surface thoughts from me. "
[One Hour Later]
Ridge slumped over the table after his tenth drink, "H-How are you still.." He paused for a second to swallow, "stillll upff?"
Sipping my winning round I told him, "It takes significantly more alcohol than that to effect me, or at least noticeably effect me.... SO WHO'S NEXT? " I raised my arms in defiance, and levitated Ridge to the corner and placed him on his side.
The largest stallion in town, Long Haul, he was off-white, with a dark brown main, his Cutie Mark was a wooden cart carrying stone. He smirked at me and he slammed down twenty bits, he thought I was on my last leg. "Bar keep! Make this one the house special please. "
The bar pony brought out a barrel labeled, "Bubbling Crude" there was also a "Warning: Extremely Flammable!" Stamp on it. She was about to pour it into shot glasses when I interrupted her, "Not to be rude, but would it be alright if we use the ail mugs. " I gave her a mischievous smile.
Everpony, that I hadn't drunk under the table yet, let out the classic "oooohh".
My arms on the table, staring straight into his eyes, I levitated my drink to my mouth and drank half of it contemplatively, "Not bad, interesting flavor and very strong. My compliments to the brewer. " I downed the rest almost instantly and without any dribble.
Haul, obviously took this as a challenge and tried to drink the entire mug in one gulp, the last tenth of the mug splash him in the face. He smiled like he just had an overwhelming success. I ignored this, because he was going to be embarrassed enough without me being a jerk to him. We turned our mugs over, and the bar pony poured our second drinks. Long Haul was already showing signs of cracking. After we downed our second drinks, he started giggling like little filly, it was cute. He began to poking me in the chest, "You know... if you were a po-pony, you'd be kinda purdy." He then began smiling like he just saw the most beautiful mare imaginable.
The third round was poured and I said to him, "See you on the other side! " We toasted and threw back our head guzzling down the drink. As Long Haul finished the he fell back and would have hit his head on the floor, if I hadn't been prepare to catch him, I placed him somewhere out of the way and on his side. I drank my fourth round securing the win. " Alright now I'm feel a bit tipsy, I should stop now. " There was a uproar of laughter. Turning the the owner I said, "Oh, since about a quarter of the town's legal drinking population is utterly plastered and almost unconscious, and you're out about... a tenth your stock just from my drinking contests. I feel that is should give you my winnings plus a gift. "
At that moment Celestia and a rather tired looking Luna walked into the tavern. Seeing twenty-three passed-out ponies, and me standing in the same room may not have been the best way for them to see me again. They flared their horns ready to blast me to pieces. Even though I was only slightly buzzed by this point I knew exactly how to defuse the situation, "Hay you two, want a drink. " I made sure I had the dopiest grin possible, "It's on me! "
As intended they were very confused. I looked back to the tavern owner, "As I was saying before, a gift. " With a flourish, I presented a Large Nugget, about the size of a grapefruit. She had obviously never seen that much gold in her life. I knocked on it to show her that it was in fact not hollow. “This is fairly raw gold, so find a reputable blacksmith to refine it for you. ”
Turning back to the pony princesses, "Tia, Lulu, you still haven't answered my question, do you want a drink or not? "
They were still staring at the chunk of gold, as was every other pony still conscious in the room. I snapped my fingers to get their attention, it may have worked to well on the princesses because they flinched. "Drinks or no? "
Celestia spoke up, "What happened here?"
"Well, you know how situations like this get. You get enough beings drunk and packed into a tight space during a celebration, it either devolves into a brawl then a riot, or a series of increasingly ridiculous drinking contests. So I made sure it was the latter. " I made sure my thoughts held as little emotion as possible.
Luna looked around the room, "How art- are you still conscious?"
I chuckled a bit at that one, "My brain functions much faster than almost anything, so the amount of alcohol needed to alter my cognition to a noticeable degree far exceeds that of normal beings. This body on the other hand would likely start dieing immediately if I drank a single ounce more. Thus my offer 'Would you like a drink?’ still stands even though I won't have any. "
Celestia finally answered, "No thank you Medulla, we’ve came here to take you to Canterlot."
"I see no reason to go back there yet, but I did promise an explanation provided you would listen. " I smiled wryly and floated towards the door. “You should know I hate sitting in one place when having conversations I prefer to walk- well float, movement always seems to stimulate me best. If you know what I mean.” I wink at Celestia as I said that last part, making her blush. As I floated past I used my tail to slap her flank playfully.
I couldn’t hold it any longer, “AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!” laughter: one of the few ways I could still actually vocalize. Celestia was very confused, and Luna was enraged.
“You think assaulting a princess is HUMOROUS?!” Luna roared.
“Sorry, its just when I’m tipsy like this I get a little less… cautious. ” I was still chuckling a bit.
Celestia finally spoke up, “Why would you toy with somepony like that, and .. for lack of a better word, assault them?”
“Let me explain something to you about this body. It is utterly genderless, and has no method of reproduction. Unless something copies me completely, I am and will be the only of my kind. I don't have any sexual feelings anymore, so I get some amusement out of arousing other and experiencing those feelings through them. " I said somewhat more lightheartedly than they would have expected, then my tone shifted to a more serious one. "Even still my actions were inappropriate and unwanted, I hope that you can forgive me and we can have a healthy relationship here on out. ” .
“How were you born then? And you’ve said ‘this body’ as if it is something separate from you, this isn’t the first time you’ve referred to it this way either.” Luna noted.
“Keen observations, that is because I, or at least the entity I perceive myself to be, was born as a creature called a human in an entirely different universe. ” I said while looking into the sky.
“This is nonsense other universes? Do you expect us to believe this?” Luna said incredulously.
“Ask Tia about Starswirl’s Mirror. Some discoveries have occurred since our imprisonments. ” I declared.
“How did you know about that?” Celestia asked somewhat shocked.
“...I could have read your mind. But I did come from a very different universe. After buying an item from a unscrupulous vendor I was torn from my birth world and brought here. I was serious about the walk. ” I motioned for them to walk with me while I floated.
“What was your name back in your home world, unless it was Medulla?” Luna asked still not sure about me story.
“Honestly I have almost no idea. Most everything about my personal life before the day I was torn from my world is one big blur. Heck I even have an Identification card but I know the name on it isn’t mine. ” With a flick of my wrist my trainer card appeared in my hand. “Here look, at least it will give you an idea of what my species looks like. ”
I knew every centimeter of that card, Name: Gold, I knew that wasn’t right. On the card was a 3D version of the male protagonist from the gen 2 Pokemon games. They looked at me confused as if that picture being me made the most sense. “It’s not me. In the world I’m from this body and everything on that card are from a video game. One that I’ve played since childhood. The only part of my life I remember is the entertainment I had. ”
“How is that possible, you can’t even remember your family or friends?” Luna’s voice actually held a note of concern.
“My current working theory is that it has to do with the psychic trauma I experienced just before I was transported here. See the merchant I purchased the item from, was actually a malicious being that lives in the Void outside of any universe. As he pulled me from my world, I saw into his mind. An author from my birth world wrote about creatures like the merchant, one theme throughout his writing is that just looking upon the true forms these beings would drive most to gibbering insanity. The fact that for a moment I saw into one of those creatures minds and can speak coherently at all is a miracle .” There was no emotion in my voice as I said this.
Both princesses stopped in their tracks, not sure whether to believe me or how to feel. "I haven't told you all of this so that you'll pity me, but so you'll understand what I mean when I saw this: Equestria is my home now. Not counting my years in prison, I've lived on this world for 123 years! That's longer than I could have hoped to live on my world. I've seen more of this world first hand than I ever saw of the one I was born in. I feel bad for the family I felt behind, but I wouldn’t recognize them and I’m probably not the person I was on that world. I'll defend this place to my last breath. I can understand if you don't believe me, I wouldn't if I hadn't lived it. So if you'd like to stay cautious, send me to stay in Ponyville, all the Elements would be there if I were act out of line and Twilight could study me. " I knew this was the right decision.
Luna spoke, still somewhat flustered by the possible revelations about me, "I'm unsure of the wisdom of this, the fact he knows of young Twilight and where the Bearers are speaks to him possibly have a nefarious plan."
Celestia looked at me, and seemed to see something she didn't before, she looked to Luna before saying, "I'll allow it, and before you try to argue, Luna. Medulla, by your own admission, saved this town. I also have faith that Twilight can handle him." She looked back to me, "Will you need transportation?"
"It be for the best, my fastest form of travel take a lot out of me, and besides there’s the fact that me appearing out of a hole in space in the middle of town will likely cause significant chaos. Being escorted by you and royal guards will likely help ease them to my presence. " Luna shot daggers at me with her stair, she only block her glare to yawn. I then gave Luna a very serious look and used a very patronization voice, "Lulu, you should get back to bed, you know how you get when you stay up this late. "
She got really angry at that and slipped into the Royal Canterlot Voice, "THOU ART NOT MY MOTHER!!!" With that she teleported away in a huff.
I couldn’t help but to snicker a little.
Celestia gave me a look that reminded me of some older sisters in some tv shows I watched, "You just kicked a hornet's nest."
"Tia, I've been doing that for years. " I said maybe a little too smugly.
"We'll take the carriage Luna and I arrived in." She said motioning to the other end of town. "I assume you don't need to pack."
"Got everything right up here. " I declared tapping my head."... Oh before I forget, some advice, keep an eye to the north. "
"What?" Celestia was stunned.
"Just trust me on this/ "
Maybe I was a little optimistic, but while walking to the carriage I felt like everything was going to be just fine.
[Somewhere in another universe]
Palkia awoke with a splitting headache only match by the pain in his chest. He groaned as he lifted himself up, slowly becoming aware of his surroundings, he was at the original Spear Pillar. He heard a familiar voice that filled him with rage, “The failure wakens!”
Palkia roared, “YOU DARE SPEAK OF ME AS SU-”
“But you have failed! You let your guard down around a treat even though you KNEW YOU WERE IN A WEAKENED STATE!!! You essence was spread too thin from nearly 1000 years of dragging this world. Not only that but you let petty jealousies control you, removing that city was idiotic since it weakened you further. You lost because you were fighting on two fronts. With that Mewtwo and against the world itself for dominance. ” His masters voice echoed through the mountains
“Lord, if I were to return-” Palkia began
“You would fail again, he could use your desperation and anger to make you off balance. ”
“Master, send me to deal with this upstart.” Palkia’s rival requested.
“NO! I have already set another plan in motion. As we speak the Renegade is linking the two worlds with his, and he will draw them together from the outside. And this nuisance will be dealt will by him. ” With that the discussion was over.
[Medulla, in Ponyville]
Only fifteen seconds, I thought they were going to scatter faster. I thought as I walking next to the parked carriage.
Four of the Elements and a baby dragon walked cautiously towards me, the yellow pegasus was being dragged by her tail by the orange earth pony. “Where’s the Sixth? ” my question was answered by the sound of something speeding through the air. Out of instinct I used Gravity to ground her. She slowed, obviously straining to stay in the air, eventually she couldn’t even hover and hit the ground.
“What’d you do to me?” the rainbow mare growled, struggling to her feet.
“It’ll wear off, don’t worry. All I did was increase how strongly gravity affected you. ” I said completely nonchalantly.
“Twilight.” Celestia said looking at her student, “This is Medulla, he was the one who escaped, that I told you about. But he has decided to help out, you are too keep an eye on him, and study him if you’d like.” Twilight's eyes lite up at the thought of studying something she'd never seen before.
“I’ll be staying at your place, in the basement. But you won’t have to deal with me for a few days at least ‘cause I need to eat this Pecha Berry, ” I said as I pulled out a hot pink berry that slightly resembled a strawberry and began to devour it, “drink a literal gallon of water, and then sleep off enough alcohol to down a adult manticore. ”
“What?” the purple unicorn asked as the cheer faded from her face.
“I’ll answer your questions after my body has purged this delicious poison from it. Okay? Now please take me to your house. ” Not my best first impression, but I was starting to feel very dehydrated.
Author's Note
Sorry about how exposition heavy this chapter was. Hope you enjoyed. For those who don't know Pecha Berries cure poison.
