Chapters My story begins the day I decided to go to my friends house. It was just another saturday filled with sleeping in, watching TV and just doing nothing. Summer vacation was upon us and I couldn’t help but find that all my plans for Summer had yet to be done. I was just sitting on my couch today, I didn’t have a computer and I had beaten my games several times over.
My phone rang, and without thinking I dug in my pocket and pulled out my phone, pausing the TV before hitting the accept button. “Yeah?” I said without thinking, my voice giving away how bored I actually was despite the intensity of the show I had been watching.
“Sammy boy, wanna come over?” I heard my friend Fred’s voice say in my ear. I thought about it for a moment before I shut the TV off.
“Sure Fred, when should I come?” I replied though in truth I didn’t really want to leave, today was a special kind of lazy day.
“Well if you come over now, we can kick some butt in Fallout 4!” I stopped the thought of the new fallout very tempting.
“Sounds great mate. I’ll be over in a little bit, see you there.” With that I hung up before getting my shoes on and heading out the door.
The trip to my friends house wouldn’t take long, he was only a couple blocks away and even though I wanted to be lazy today was still a nice day so I didn’t feel like taking my bike. I was maybe halfway there when my foot got caught on something, nearly causing me to trip. Hopping a bit to regain my balance and turned and looked at what had nearly caused me great pain. I could see something shining through the thick branches of a bush, but not much else.
Moving the bushes aside my heart nearly stopped. I stared down at was was certainly a revolver, the shining metal nearly blinded me. I thought of calling the cops, and reporting it, but...something about it called to me. I had never seen a real gun, not this close up anyways and never without a glass case to separate me from it.
My hands were trembling as I reached down and picked it up. The gun was heavy and the metal cold and I couldn’t believe that I was actually touching a weapon. I opened the chamber and saw that it was loaded. I wanted to drop it right then and there. I wasn’t stupid I didn’t want a loaded gun in my hands, but try as I might I couldn’t get my fingers to open.
It was then that I looked that I noticed that the gun was a exact replica of the Mysterious Stranger’s .44 magnum and that there was a holster for the gun on top of the bush that wasn’t there a second ago. I stopped trying to drop the gun for a moment as I picked the holster up as well and after observing the holster for a few moments I decided to strap it on and see if I could holster the gun, and what did you know I could.
“So I can holster the gun but I can’t drop it. Heh, what’s next? I find the Mysterious Stranger’s clothes? Hehe like that is ever going to happen. This gun is probably just a fluke.” I thought to myself while hoping that it really was just a fluke as I continued on my way to Fred’s. Where I arrived ten minutes later and I noticed he was sitting on the front porch.
“Hey Sam, how have you been doing? Are yah ready to play?” Fred asked with a smile.
“Yea man, but listen You’ll never guess what I found on the way over?” I said with excitement as I pointed to my hip where the gun sat.
“Woah, is that thing real? Because if it is then that is awesome.” He said and I swear I saw stars appear in his eyes.
“I have no idea. Looks pretty real to me, but shooting it doesn’t seem like that great of an idea,” I said before pausing looking around. “Especially not in this neighborhood,”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But wouldn’t it be cool if it is? Also is it just me or does it look really familiar? Like really really familiar?” He asked with a very inquisitive brow raised.
“Looks a lot like the .44 of the Mysterious stranger doesn’t it?” I asked knowingly, waving my hand over my hip to emphasize my point.
I watched as a look of sudden realization came over his face, and before I knew it Fred was running inside. I followed him inside and saw the back end of him as he ran into his room. Before I could move to go with him a confused look on my face, I heard a crash in his room before he returned holding something.
“Your serious?” I asked in disbelief. He only nodded.
Fred held out a large brown leather trench coat, while in his other hand he held a Shady Hat. The trench coat looked old, and appeared to be covered in a thin layer of dirt and dust, while several rips and tears showed up along the front and back. Despite the apparent damage, the coat and hat were in an alright condition.
“Yes I am serious. I just remembered that a few days ago a woman gave these to me and said to give them to someone and that I would know who it is when the time came. And I guess that time is now, so what do you say put them on and lets see how you look.” Fred said while handing me the clothes and as I put them on I began to feel sick and right before I fell unconscious I could have sworn that Fred’s body flickered in and out between Miss Fortune and himself. And then all I saw was darkness and I heard the Stranger’s leaving theme.
Meeting the Locals and Old Friends
“Ugh my head.” I thought, my hand going to my head trying to relieve the pain. “That’s the last time I accept a friend's clothes” Slowly getting up I began to take in my surroundings. I found myself in a sort of forest. It was dark and a bit hard to see. “What the hell happened?” I said aloud before I heard screaming to my right. Before I knew what I was doing. I was running towards the sound.
As I was running something I couldn’t explain at the time happened. It was so strange but I could feel my body...blinking out of existence before returning a moment later in a completely different spot. I didn’t even realize it had happened. It was only later when I had calmed down that I really took in details of what had happened that it set in. When I had blinked back into existence I saw something strange before me.
Before me were four humans dressed in what appeared to be golden plated armor, which held a resemblance to roman armor, only with less leather and more metal. The fact that they were humans was wasn't what was causing him to stand and stare like an idiot, rather it was the fact that two of them had a pair of wings while the other two had long horns protruding from their foreheads.
The armor plated oddities were not alone though. Snarling and taking swipes at them was a creature of pure mythology. The scorpion tail of a manticore lashed out at a human with wings, who barely had time to dodge, before his wings flapped and pushed him forward to strike at the creature with a sword.
“What the bloody hell?” I said to myself. I didn’t notice my hand going to the revolver. I hadn’t even noticed that I had taken aim. I only noticed its presence when it went off with a bang, a second later one of the legs on the manticore’s legs exploded in a shower of blood and muscle.
The two humans with the horns took notice of the manticore’s crippled limb, and took advantage of the situation. The horns glowed a bright blue before bolts of lightning shot forth and hit the manticore head. The creature's head quickly exploded in a stream of blood and gore as fragments of it’s skull went flying. The humans all nodded before they turned and saw me still holding the revolver, the barrel still smoking.
“You there halt!” one of the more beat up horned one’s called raising a hand. “Sheathe thy weapon and put thy hands in the air,” he commanded as his buddies began to close in on me their weapons aimed at my chest and head.
“No,” I said simply which made them tense a bit, the tightened grip on their weapons were clear as day. “You were lucky I showed up, it’s best not to take that for granted. Had I not shown up, you’d have died,” I said letting the words sink in, watching as the tension in the air relaxed a bit.
“Who are you?” one of them asked me. I opened my mouth to reply but nothing came out. My name escaped me and any suitable replacement name just felt...off
“I’m just a stranger,” I said dejectedly. It was a truth as I could feel I was different now. I was a stranger to everyone, even to myself
With that I felt a kind of tug. Turning around I felt myself blink out of existence yet again. I didn’t reappear in any normal sense of the word. Where I was it was like I was in a large room that I could roam in, and the world around me looked like that of the one I had left, but it was different. it was like...like I was looking at the world through beer goggles. The world seemed to move slower and blurred at the lines but I didn’t get the nauseating feeling that someone would normally get.
“Hell of a place isn't it?” I heard from behind me. Turning, my hand going for the gun. I spotted Fred there, a large grin on his face.
“Fred, is that you? What the hell is going on” I demanded as I gave him a highly pissed look. “ First I find this damn thing on the side of the street, then you give me the Mysterious Strangers cloths, I pass out and wake up in god knows where with some weird ass looking people with horns, and now you show up out of the blue with a shit eating grin on your face like you know what’s up!” My voice had slowly begun to rise as I had gotten deeper and deeper into my rant until I was nearly screaming at him.
“Yeah it’s me man. Sorry about the whole trapping you in an entirely different universe,” he said with a sheepish smile on his face, A SMILE! As if he could smile and the whole thing would be a-okay. My displeasure must have showed because he continued to talk with more hesitation. “Fortune was insistent that you were the one she wanted. The fact that you found the gun without her help only made her want you more.”
To say I was not amused was an understatement, Fred was talking about someone who shouldn’t exist, she was a character from a video game for christ sake. “Where the hell are we? I asked plainly. I just wanted a simple answer to a simple question.
“Well we’re currently in what I guess you could call the timestream. You know that wonderful place that when inside you can go to anytime and you never age,” He said before he seemed to stop as if listening to something. “Miss fortune wants to talk with you,” he said a second later.
Before I could even ask him what the hell he was talking about, I saw the figure of Miss fortune fade into existence next to him. To say I was scared...understatement of the fucking year. “Ahh it is so good to finally meet you in person Samuel or should I say Stranger?” She said with a giggle, meanwhile I stood there confused.
“I.. uh guess it’s good to meet you to Miss. Sooo was there any particular reason you wanted to meet me or what?” I ask
“Why yes, I actually wanted to fill you in on what you can do and what your duty is now. So lets get to it, first off you are what is called a apparition only physical. So that means that while you are technically a ghost you can still interact with the physical world. And now your powers and duty. You can now appear anywhere in the world as long as where you appear is around someone who is in danger and when you get there you will instinctively drawn your gun and fire upon someone or something there. And your duty is to protect the inhabitants of this world, as well as make sure that certain events happen, which when they are supposed to I will come talk to you. And I think that’s all anything to add Fred?” Fortune asked.
“Nope I think that pretty much covers everything, so any questions Sam?” Fred asked
“Good, now than I am sorry to say this seeing as you are still so new to this, but there is an event that needs to happen right now and I need you to make sure it happens. This event being that two particular soon to be princesses need to find what is known as the Elements of Harmony. I am going to be sending you to their location and I want you to lead them to the Elements, and don’t worry about getting lost I have a gift for you.” She said to me before handing me a map of what I am guessing is the country we are currently in with the location I will be appearing in and where I need to lead the princesses to circled.
And when I looked up from the map, Fortune and Fred had vanished and I was standing behind two tall women with both horns and wings, who I am guessing are the two that I am supposed to guide. *Sigh* Well this should be fun.
Author's Note
Hey everyone, this took some time and I would appreciate it and I am going to assume AstralFlame would as well if you all gave her a round of applause and a thank you for being a wonderful Co-author/pre-reader. So yeah send her a thank you for being awesome. For without her this story would not being anything like it is now.
I get my first mission.. Yay
“Excuse me mams, are you two the Princesses?” I asked and they immediately jumped into the air and spun around, horns flaring with magic.
“Who dares approach us without warning? We should have thy head.” The blue skinned one said.
“Ohh no one just a, how you say, Mysterious Stranger? But alas that’s not what’s important. What is important is getting you to the elements as soon as possible, so let’s go.” I ordered as I began following the directions to the elements.
“And who are you to order us?” Asked the white skinned one.
“The one that’s trying to keep you alive that’s who. Now unless you want to disrupt the timestream I suggest following me, understood?” I said and after that, while they may not have believed me they were smart enough not to chance it that I was telling the truth. Although I just knew that they were gonna ask questions. And wouldn’t you know, not even ten minutes into the walk the first two questions pop up.
“What did thou mean about disrupting the timestream? And who sent thou to make sure it isn’t disrupted?” The blue skinned one asked.
“Well lets start of with the second question, are you familiar with someone named Miss Fortune?” I asked
“You know Aunt Fortune?! Oh this is wonderful news.” The two princesses said in unison
“Miss Fortune is your aunt? Wow did not see that coming, what’s next I turn out to be part of some inter-dimensional tumbleweed association?” I say before quickly looking around for any sign of a tumbleweed and find none. “Whew no tumbleweed in sight, that’s a relief. Now lets get going to what I believe to be a cave, now onwards.” I say with a flourish of my coat with my finger pointed towards the sun, only for every sound to immediately stop and a after a minute of silence a slow moving tumbleweed shows up, stops, turns to where I get the feeling it is looking at me, shakes to the left and right, and takes a few more minutes for it to leave. “I think I just signed up for a tumbleweed association, and did that tumbleweed have a Fedora in it?” I say with a sigh as the two princesses burst into laughter at the scene in front of them.
“Sister I do believe that Aunt Fortune has indeed chosen a suitable protector of the time-stream, doth thou think so?” Asked the blue skinned one.
“Indeed sister, and I have realized we never introduced ourselves. Let us fix that, I am Princess Celestia.” Said the white skinned one
“And I am Princess Luna, and we haven’t gotten your name yet either.” Said the blue skinned one
“That’s because I only give my name to those I consider friends. So for now you can call me Stranger.” I said and that was the end of any conversation for a few hours until we finally arrived at a cave that had the guards I ran into earlier along with a few of their other pals around the entrance fending off what looked like wooden wolves and one or two more of those manticores. *Sigh* “Why couldn’t this be an easy first job? Lets get this over with.” I said before pulling out my magnum and firing all six bullets into the heads of 4 of the wolves and the last two into the back legs of one of the manticores, crippling it and giving the guards a real fighting chance which they took and after about 30 minutes they managed to finally kill the Manticores. And after a couple more minutes they took notice of me and the princesses and one of the guards who I assume is the leader came running up to us and began to give the princesses his report.
“Princesses, we have defended this cave just as you have ordered and up until this man here gave his assistance everything has been normal. As of right now everything is as you left it, and the tree in the caves is as it was.” The guard stallion said.
“That is good to know good guard. Now stand aside and let us pass, for it is time that we wield the tree’s power to defeat the evil Discord.” Luna said before we three continued on into the cave and after a few minutes we arrived at a tree that was covered in what looked to be crystal. And it was somehow still alive.
“We thank thee for thine help but you are no longer needed, if thou would like an escort to a safe place do not be afraid to ask and we shall have our guards escort you.” Celestia said to me as they were getting six gems from the tree.
“No, I may have done what I was told to but I will not leave you and your guard alone in this matter. For now you are stuck with me.” I said to them and began to follow them out of the cave and back into the woods.
Author's Note
Hey everypony... Now before you get onto the part where you all become a mob and start chasing me down the street, let me apologies for the long wait. Also can you tell me which story the Tumbleweed Association is a reference to? Also if you didn't get it, the hat is my token and I am now open for crossovers.
Meeting Gods and New People
After about three hours after we left the tree’s cave, we had arrived at a throne in the middle of an open clearing with a strange being sitting upon it and as I was observing the creature, Celestia called out to it.
“Discord, your terrorizing of my ponies has gone on long enough. Now submit to your punishment.” Celestia yelled, charging up her horn with solar magic and flaring out her wings while all Discord dd was laugh and in a mocking tone begin to speak to all of us.
“My my my and here I thought today was going to be boring, but here I see that you have gone and brought me not two new play things but three and one of them isn’t even a native to this dimension.” He finished pointing at me.
*Sigh* “Not even five minutes and your voice is annoying me. Let’s get this over with.” I said before whipping out my gun and firing at him, but all the he did was dodge them.
“Now now, there is no reason for that. Let’s just sit down and DIE.” He said with a snap of his paw and the Princesses and me were trapped in stone up to the top of our stomachs. And while I couldn’t move anything below them, my arms were still functioning and I still had my gun out, although empty I could reach my pocket with my spare ammo. So I did and when I grabbed a bullet, I heard a message in my head.
“I am Vash the Stampede. I am a hunter of peace. If you fight to defend peace and the lives of others then I will be more than willing to help. Just call on me and together we will create… LOVE AND PEACE!”
“Eh not the weirdest thing that has happened recently so why not. Vash the Stampede, I call upon you in my time of need... Some help would be appreciated.” I called out and after a couple of seconds a portal appeared and out dropped a man clad in a red coat with spiky blond hair and round glasses.
“Ugh, first time I’ve fallen on my face when I’ve gotten called,”The man commented as he stood up to reveal how tall he was. “So, who’s calling on me this time?” He asked, looking around and noticing Discord. “Oh, hi Discord. Is this a point in time before or after you get turned to stone?” He asked, smiling weakly at the mismatched creature.
“Ahem, would you kindly help us instead of talking to that jerk? I mean take a look around you mate.” I call out to him, and for some reason feeling strangely annoyed. The man turned around and his eyes widened when he saw Celestia and Luna.
“Well, first time seeing an Equestria like this, but it certainly is pretty interesting,” he said with a smile as he walked over to us knelt down and examined us. “Yeesh, don’t know what I can do about you being in stone.”
“Well, here’s an idea. Kill that jerk and maybe his magic will expire or something. Than again it might also make this permanent. You know what don’t kill him, just beat him into submission.” I said to him.
“Glad you changed that from killing,” Vash laughed as he drew his own revolver. “Even though I carry this gun I’ve vowed to never kill. But don’t you have the Elements of Harmony with you, Celestia, Luna?”
“... Sister, why did we not use them? It would have made everything simpler.” Asked Luna who was looking very confused.
“I may have forgot about them after Discord stoned us.” Celestia replied sheepishly.
“Wow, just wow,” Vash sighed as he reached into his duster and slipped a strange necklace around his neck. “Was not expecting you to be so forgetful in this universe, Tia. Oh well, I’ll distract Discord, you two see if you can make the elements work.” He then pointed his gun at Discord and fired at one of his legs.
“Okay sister, lets do this.” Celestia said before grabbing her three elements and began pouring her magic into them while Luna did the same, in an attempt to activate them which took ten minutes to happen. Where the magic stored in the elements poured out of them and were directed at Discord who was being distracted by Vash and was summarily stoned while at the same time releasing me and the princesses from our partial stoning.
“Whew,” Vash huffed and leaned against Discord. “Was not expecting to have to fight Discord a second time.”
“Second time? Did Miss Fortune drag you here as well?” I asked feeling both confused and annoyed at the thought that what happened to me happened to others as well. “Because I mean really, the fact that this happened at all is annoying and highly unusual.”
“Miss Fortune?” Vash asked with a tilt of his head. “You mean the sexy pirate lady from LoL? She’s your displacer?”
“No but good guess. I meant Miss Fortune from Fallout you know the female equivalent to The Mysterious Stranger? Wait, have you played Fallout?”
“Yeah, just couldn’t remember the name for all the perks,” Vash said with a roll of his eyes. “Trust me, I put plenty of hours in Fallout 3 and caused many mutants to explode using the Lincoln rifle.”
“Well in that case, I commend you,” I said before feeling the map the Fortune gave me earlier begin to vibrate for some reason and have a message from her on it. “It seems Fortune wants to talk to you, so if you would kindly stand still we will enter the timestream.”
“If that’s what she wants,” Vash smiled. “I’ve never been able to ignore the wishes of a lady. Especially lovely ones,” he chuckled.
“That’s good, just mind the fall this time.” I told him before another portal opened under him and I jumped in after him.
“Ow,” Vash said in a muffled tone as he landed face first onto the floor.
“Oh, so this is the one who helped my friend? Well it is nice to meet you.” A familiar female voice called out.
“A pleasure to meet you as well,” Vash smiled as he peeled himself off the floor. “Well, meet may not be the right word all things considered,” he finished, looking around the room.
“Fortune, would you please come out and meet the one who you said you wanted to. It is considered rude not to talk to guests.” I called out and a couple of seconds later she was standing behind Vash hugging him tightly.
“Well, wasn’t expecting this,” Vash smiled as he noticed the woman hugging him. “But you won’t hear any complaints from me.”
“I would hope not. It is very rare that I ever actually touch someone other then my host, but I think it’s time we got down to business. Don’t you think?” She asked
“I suppose,” Vash nodded. “So, why did you want to talk to me? Is it so I can give him ‘the talk’,” Vash said, indicating me.
“Well, maybe another time. But I would greatly appreciate it if you were to explain his situation to him, besides the token part. Oh that reminds me, here is his token.” She said before handing him a hat that looked like a replica of mine.
“Milady,” Vash grinned as he slipped the hat on and tipped it at her before turning to me. “Alright, let’s start with the basics. You obviously picked up an item or items and before you knew it were in the magical land of Equestria, correct?”
“That is correct, I grabbed my gun here and was given the clothes.”
“Yup, I bought my revolver from a guy that looked like the Merchant from Resident Evil 4. But you and I aren’t the only ones in a situation like this. There’s a countless number of us out there and we call ourselves, Displaced,” he explained.
“So if I am picking up what you are putting down, there are others that are in the same situation as us called the Displaced? Huh, you might have just taken the number one spot on my weird events list.”
“Oh, that’s going to change pretty quickly,” Vash laughed. “As soon as I learned all this, things got weird for me fast. I’ve even been turned into a woman before. And that’s not even as weird as things get for me.”
“That is slightly frightening, but I think I will worry about that later. So is that all or did you want to talk about anything else? Maybe about a certain lady I have seen you looking at?”
“I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” Vash chuckled and scratched his cheek. “I haven’t been looking at anyone. Certainly not anyone dressed like a Vegas showgirl.”
“Good, than i don’t have to defend anyone's honor. So... hows life?” I ask beginning to feel awkward.
“Crazy,” Vash chuckled again. “I’ve been dealing with some of that weirdness I mentioned earlier, along with building a village to help bring peace between ponies and changelings.”
“Changelings? What are those?”
“An insectoid race of shapeshifters that feed off of love,” Vash explained. “In the past they would kidnap ponies and take the place of them so they could feed on their loved ones. But with this village, we’re hoping to put an end to that nasty business.”
“Huh, sounds interesting. Maybe I will meet one some day.” I said before Fortune speaks up.
“Samuel, I think it is time that we let Vash here get back to his own universe don’t you think.” She said.
“Alright, if that’s what you think,” Vash said with an arched brow. “If you want me out of your hair, all you gotta say is, “Vash, our contract is complete,” and then I’ll be on my way home.”
“Well than, I guess this is it for now. Vash, our contract is complete. If you ever need help give me a call.” I said to him moments before he stepped through the portal.
Author's Note
I feel this was an awesome chapter and I have to thank the greatThunderclap for letting em crossover with his story The Reluctant Gunman, which you should go check out. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a great night everyone.